Sr Investment Associate

Summary of Responsibilities:
Develops, documents and maintains specialized processing and client requirements associated with Fort Washington's 3 main business lines - Institutional, Private Client, and Private Equity. Provides technical guidance and leadership for the Account Administrators on daily issues for all FWIA accounts. In conjunction with operations managers, oversees all client account maintenance, including establishment of new accounts, transaction processing, security setup, bank reconciliations, security valuation and various client reports. Position also oversees processing of all capital calls, distributions and valuations for each Fort Washington Capital Partner (FWCP) Fund, the Funds each of those funds invest in, and the underlying investments for the Private Equity business line. Pursues with limited direction the research, analysis and appropriate recommendation for proper accounting treatment of complex new types of portfolio securities and accounting/operational issues. Works with some supervision and is responsible for making a minimal range of decisions, escalating to manager when appropriate and updating manager on a regular basis.
Position Responsibilities:
Institutional product line functions:
- Provides technical guidance and leadership for the Account Administrators on a daily basis for all Institutional functions, which includes:
- Processes purchases and sales of fixed income and equity securities via Bloomberg trading to PAM accounting software for approximately 150 accounts totaling $23 billion.
- Researches, analyzes and recommends proper accounting treatment of complex transactions such as dollar rolls, repurchase agreements, auction rate preferred securities and derivative instruments.
- Handles daily processing requirements for the short-term desk, including Securities Lending processing, IHB transaction processing and complicated yield calculations.
- Verifies maturities, interest, dividends and paydown transactions on PAM are accurate and timely.
- Reconciles client transaction and holding data with approximately 20 custodians daily and/or monthly, and resolves any issues or discrepancies that arise in a timely manner.
- Performs setup of all newly acquired securities on PAM, including complex securities such as auction rate preferred securities, dollar rolls, mortgage-backed securities and preferred stocks.
- Performs daily and monthly valuation of 3,000 securities.
- Communicates to Portfolio Managers any issues encountered within their accounts, makes appropriate recommendations and resolves any problems that arise.
- Processes corporate action transactions for all Institutional client accounts.
- Establishes new client accounts on PAM.
- Reconciles holdings on PAM with those on Bloomberg trading, and resolves any differences.
- Ensures timely settlement of transactions within client accounts.
- Performs lead role in processing all derivative transactions, including working with the Portfolio to gain a conceptual understanding of the trade prior to execution, booking the trade into the accounting system, settling the trade, ongoing valuation of the security and ongoing margin movements.
- Assists the Performance department by performing recurring functions, including daily performance and monthly/quarterly report requests.
- Acts as primary FWIA Ops contact for ad hoc inquiries for data and/or reports from Portfolio Managers, marketing, client services and Analysts.
- Acts as primary FWIA Ops liaison with departments outside FWIA on Western & Southern accounts (125 accounts totaling $20 billion) and transactions, including Investment Accounting, Treasury, IFS Accounting, and Compensation & Benefits.
- Leads the implementation of process improvement initiatives.
- Generates and analyzes various audit-type reports to detect errors and omissions. Work with Ops Manager to resolve issues.
- Develops and documents detailed processes and procedures for FWIA Operations as needed.
- Performs special projects as directed by Ops Manager.
Private Client product line functions:
- Provides technical guidance and leadership for the Account Administrators on a daily basis for all Private Client functions, which include:
- Processes purchases and sales of fixed income and equity securities via MOXY front-end trading system to Axys accounting software for 170 accounts totaling $151 Million.
- Verifies maturities, interest, dividends and paydown transactions on Axys are accurate and timely.
- Reconciles client transaction and holding data with approximately 10 custodians daily and/or monthly, and resolves any issues or discrepancies that arise in a timely manner.
- Performs setup of all newly acquired securities on Axys.
- Performs daily and monthly valuation for 675 securities.
- Ensures timely settlement of all trades for Private Client accounts.
- Prepares monthly/quarterly client appraisals, billing and assets under management for all Private Client accounts.
- Processes corporate action transactions for all Private Client client accounts.
- Becomes primary FWIA Ops contact for ad hoc inquiries for data and/or reports from Portfolio Managers, marketing and Analysts.
- Develops and documents detailed processes and procedures for FWIA Operations as needed.
- Performs special projects as directed by Ops Manager.
Private Equity product line functions:
- Provides technical guidance and leadership for the Account Administrators on a daily basis for all Private Equity functions, which include:
- Processes all transactions relating to the 15 FWCP Funds totaling $700 million, including capital calls, valuations and distributions from investments, capital calls and distributions to investors, and direct investment transactions.
- Processes all transactions and valuations relating to the underlying investments of the Funds that FWCP invests in from their quarterly statements.
- Reconciles the carrying value and funded status of FWCP Funds between Private I and capital account statement received from investments.
- Prepares cash forecasting report for each FWCP Fund.
- Monitors and maintains electronic mailbox shared by Private Equity staff.
- Prepares quarterly reporting package distributed to Private Equity investors.
- Provides extensive ad hoc analysis for Investment Managers, Analysts and Managing Directors. Examples include analysis of refinancing options for a state investment program, analysis of performance of underlying company performance, and comparison of our performance compared to that of a public market equivalent.
- Participates in due diligence calls with underlying fund investments as requested by the business unit.
- Plays a lead role in implementation of process improvement initiatives and other projects within the department.
- Develops and documents detailed processes and procedures for FWIA Operations as needed.
- Performs special projects and other duties as directed by managers.
Selection Criteria:
- Demonstrated understanding of the processes and systems that support the investment management industry, such as Trade Order Management, Electronic Trade Processing, Market Data, Security Maintenance, Portfolio Management and Straight Through Processing.
- Current Systems in use in Fort Washington include Princeton's PAM, Advent AXYS and MOXY, Burgiss PrivateI, Eagle PACE, Bloomberg Trading, Satuit, Equitrack. Proven experience in a role of project lead on systems implementation or process improvement within the financial services industry.
- Proven success in providing technical guidance and leadership of other associates in a fast-paced environment.
- Strong attention to detail with excellent organizational skills. Cite examples of organization and time management methods used to manage or prioritize workload demands.
- Extensive experience working independently to make decisions and demontrate initiative. Experience must include identifying, defining and resolving problems, and collecting or intepreting data to establish facts and draw valid conclusions. Proven experience with innovative and creative problem resolution as it relates to Investment Management operations.
- Proven experience coordinating multiple projects/assignments simultaneously, and completing assigned tasks accurately and on a timely basis. Cite examples of project management experience in planning, executing and maintaining a project from start to finish.
- Demonstrated excellent verbal and written communication skills with ability to convey information, verbally and in writing, to internal and external customers in a clear, accurate, focused and concise manner. Demonstrated ability to document procedures and activities in a manner that is understandable to others and prepared using a prescribed format. Verbal and written communications are to conform to proper rules of punctuation, grammar, diction and style.
- Demonstrated ability to effectively interact and communicate with all levels of staff and management.
- Demonstrated experience participating in a team environment that includes sharing knowledge and resources.
- Demonstrated experience maintaining a calm and professional demeanor when handling stressful situations as a result of heavy work volume and strict deadlines.
Work Setting:
- This position works in an office setting and remains continuously in a stationary position for long periods of time while working at a desk, on a computer or with other standard office equipment, or while in meetings. Requires visual acuity to read a variety of correspondence, reports and forms and to prepare and analyze data.
Educational Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in Business Administration or commensurate experience.
Computer Skills and Knowledge of Hardware & Software Required:
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite.
- Previous experience in investment asset management, trade order management, report-writing software and data extraction software. A plus would be to have working knowledge of data warehouse concepts, performance measurement software and analytic systems.
Certifications & Licenses (i.e., Series 6 & 63, CPA, etc.):
- None required.
Position Demands:
- Extended hours required during peak workloads or special projects.
- Out-of-town travel occasionally.
Requisition ID: 2023-19098
External Company Name: Western & Southern Financial Group
Street: 300 BROADWAY