Financial Advisor

Central Investment Advisors (CIA) is responsible for providing non-deposit investment products to the holding company customer base throughout the entire company footprint.  CIA employs approximately 38 financial advisors and approximately 15 Sales Assistants throughout the program.  This group provides brokerage and advisory services to nearly 20,000 clients with assets under management totaling $4 billion.  Products and services available to clients include, but are not limited to individual stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, fixed and variable annuities, insurance and advisory accounts.  

Position Summary:

CIA Financial Advisors provide investment advice, portfolio analysis and trade execution for CIA clients.  The advisor is expected to recommend investment plans and instruments which are appropriate for the client based on each particular client’s objectives, time horizon and risk tolerances.  This may include the use of a wide variety of investment vehicles including, but not limited to individual stocks, mutual funds, bonds, advisory services, fixed and variable annuities, or combinations of all of these used in an advisory account.  Advisors may also recommend models within an advisory account with these models being managed by outside, professional money management companies.  The Financial Advisor must periodically meet with their clients to reevaluate the client’s situation and determine if any changes should be made regarding their investment portfolios. For instances of advisory accounts Financial Advisors are required to have reviews with clients no less than on an annual basis.  In addition to the sales aspects of this position, the Financial Advisor is expected to hold the best interest of the client as their number one priority.  This could include the cross-selling of bank products in lieu of a non-deposit investment product.

Financial Advisors are expected to actively participate in the company’s referral program.  Advisors are   expected to follow-up on all referrals made to them through the company’s program and to promptly qualify any referral once an appointment is held.  Referrals may come from the bank’s Retail Department or other departments within the bank.  The bank’s expectation of prompt follow-up and qualification by CIA ensures that the referring bank employee receives any referral incentives they are entitled to in a timely manner.  (Referral incentives are paid only on qualified referrals, which requires a face-to-face meeting or phone appointment). 

It is expected that the Financial Advisor will maintain relationships outside the bank through community service organizations or charities to assist in building a networking group and to assist in the gathering of assets and growing their business.  In addition to networking through organizations Financial Advisors are encouraged to develop a network with local attorneys and CPAs where these professionals may make referrals to the advisor or that the advisor may refer clients back to when one of these groups’ services are needed. 

Each Financial Advisor is expected to maintain a level of expertise in the financial markets and economic conditions through independent study and networking with fellow Central Investment Advisor Financial Advisors.   To aid the Financial Advisors in their recommendations they have at their disposal a wide variety of research tools. 

Wealth Vision, Morningstar Workstation and Client Goals – Financial Planning

Argus – Equity Research

Advisory World – Advisory portfolio proposal software

Financial Advisors are expected to follow the Central Investment Advisor Policy as well as all rules of the broker dealer as detailed in the LPL Financial Compliance Manual.  This includes the required completion of annual continuing education requirements of LPL.  These requirements include Anti-Money Laundering, Annual Compliance Questionnaire and the Annual Compliance Meeting.  The Financial Advisor is also required to complete the required Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Continuing Education every two years.  Failure to complete any of these within the requested timeframe can result in suspension, fines or termination. 

The Financial Advisor is responsible for the books and records of the clients they maintain relationships with and for the registered branch office in which they conduct business.  Client information is documented through the account application process when establishing the account or via updating the account information when periodic reviews are conducted with the client through the broker dealer technology platform.    The account opening, maintenance and retention is done through the broker dealer’s technology platform known as Clientworks. 

The Financial Advisor is also required to maintain a set of branch office files by FINRA.  These files include, but are not limited to Incoming Correspondence, Outgoing Correspondence, Written Complaints, Verbal Complaints, Good Til Cancelled Orders, Insurance Contract Delivery Receipts, etc.  All of these files are maintained via the broker dealer on-line platform known as Clientworks.

The Financial Advisor is required to document all client contact and communications within Central Investment Advisor preferred contact management system, Redtail.  Redtail is used as the primary “tracking” mechanism for all client communications and meetings/appointments.  The Advisor is required to maintain notes regarding contact with each client to ensure that clients’ requests and activities are documented in a timely and accurate manner.  The usage of notes is required as they may assist the Advisor, the broker dealer or Central Investment Advisors management if a complaint should be registered by a client.  The Advisor will have the ability to assign tasks to anyone assisting them with their client base via Redtail and will be able to view the status of those tasks at any point in time. 

The Advisor will be responsible for ensuring that monthly management reports are created as assigned by Central Investment Advisor Management for each assigned Advisor or branch office.  This may include tracking the number of appointments held by each Advisor during the month, the number of new accounts opened by Advisor, the number of accounts transferred out/in by the Advisor, and the number of referrals made/received.  The number of management reports may grow in the future and the Advisor will be responsible for making sure new reports are completed.   Each Advisor will participate in an annual planning meeting with CIA Management.  This meeting will cover a variety of topics including, but not limited to current year’s revenue standings, upcoming year’s budgeted revenue, expected expenses for the upcoming year, plans for special events or areas of focus for new business for the upcoming year.   The advisor is also required to attend periodic meetings that program management hosts for the entire program.  These meetings will be held in various locations throughout the company’s footprint. 

This position requires a significant level of technical expertise in that the Financial Advisor is required to utilize several different software programs for various aspects of their duties.  These include, but are not limited to the following: 

• Clientworks – trading, books & records & client reporting platform offered through national LPL Financial
• Redtail – contact management system offered through Redtail Technologies Inc.
• Albridge – reporting/product consolidation system offered through Albridge Solutions
• Argus Research – Independent equity research service offered through Argus Research Group
• Financial Planning - WealthVision, MoneyGuide Pro, Client Goals or another financial planning tool approved by the CIA Program Manager

Each Financial Advisor will be involved from an “assistance” perspective with regard to clients banking relationships.  The Advisor may give basic banking assistance to clients about brokerage funding account balances.  They may accept requests for money movement from a brokerage funding account to another bank account, follow-up with clients on insufficient items derived from a brokerage transaction and request the issuance of bank checks for sale proceeds or dividend/interest payments from brokerage funding accounts to be mailed to clients.  The Financial Advisor may not process money movement requests, accept checks for deposits to bank accounts, address changes for bank accounts, and may not have access to maintenance or establish any type of account residing on the banking system.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide investment advice, portfolio analysis and trade execution for clients
• Recommend investment plans and instruments based on client’s objectives, time horizon and risk tolerances.
• Periodically meet with clients to reevaluate client situation and adjust if necessary.
• Maintain client interests as the number one priority.
• Cross sell bank products if appropriate.
• Utilize a wide variety of investment vehicles including advisory services.
• Maintain relationships outside the bank to assist in gathering assets.
• Network with local professionals and be involved in the community.
• Participate in the company’s referral program
• Maintain a level of expertise in financial markets and economic conditions
• Independent study
• Network with fellow Central Investment Advisor Financial Advisor
• Utilize research tools provided by broker dealer
• Ensure compliance with Central Investment Advisor Policy as well as broker dealer compliance manual
• Complete annual continuing education requirements
• Attend anti-money laundering training
• Attend Annual Compliance Meeting
• Complete Annual Compliance Questionnaire
• Complete required FINRA continuing education every 2 years
• Failure of above listed requirements can result in suspension, fines or termination
• Maintain books and records for all clients in the registered branch office
• Perform periodic review with client to update information
• Respond to inquiries made by LPL during new account document checks and trade surveillance via Clientworks.
• Maintain FINRA required files documenting activities in the office.
• Utilize contact management system, Redtail
• Establish new contacts/clients & maintain existing contacts
• Document all client contact and communications
• Keep notes regarding contacts with clients – useful if complaints are brought by client
• Assign tasks to support people
• Update and maintain required management reports (analytical duties)
• Ensure completion of monthly checklist & submission to Direct Supervisory Principal
• Communicate with program management on annual business plan and update on progress periodically
• Other duties and responsibilities
• Required attendance at quarterly sales meetings
• Establish relationship with bank branch for continued referral source
• Other duties as assigned

Bachelor’s Degree in a Business discipline

3 - 5 years Brokerage experience preferred

Series 7, Series 63 & 65 or 66 Licenses required. 

Life and Health insurance licenses

Certified Financial Planner designation highly recommended

Strong desire to succeed in a highly competitive industry

Exceptional listening skills

Exceptional customer-service attitude with strong client relation skills

Ability to communicate effectively with individuals or groups

Strong PC skills

Self-starter – initiative to begin projects independently

Effective oral & written communication skills