Financial Planning Analyst

The Financial Planning Analyst will work virtually and closely with advisor teams across the country. This role is designed to:

The Company:

Merit is a fast growing, pioneering financial services firm that invests heavily in the growth and development of team members. Merit seeks to establish, educate, and help individuals reach their financial goals as they transition into and experience retirement. With an unswerving commitment to excellence and reliability, Merit provides objective financial advice and believes in establishing long-lasting relationships. By offering an array of services, clients can receive tailored solutions that promote growth and help them achieve financial goals.

Merit believes in addressing the retirement challenges in America by helping clients reach financial freedom and confidence to the working population and retirees alike. This focus on comprehensive financial wellness enables us to deliver the ultimate client experience.

Headquartered in Alpharetta, GA, with 39 locations across the country, Merit balances tactical advice with innovative strategy. Our 250 hardworking employees are leaders rooted in humility and we are poised to grow. Merit is a multi-generational firm with a foundation built around servant leadership and total team leadership. We have been recognized as a “Best Places to Work” by InvestmentNews and have made the fastest growing companies list in both INC 5000 and Georgia’s Fastest 40. As we expand and work to bring our relationship-driven approach to the financial industry, we are looking for the right individuals to join our team.

Position:

 The Financial Planning Analyst will work virtually and closely with advisor teams across the country. This role is designed to:

• Support senior financial planners in creating initial financial plans and making updates to existing plans.
• Develop planning skills by learning how to generate specific planning recommendations that can be implemented by local advisor teams.
• Contribute to firm growth through supporting the transition of advisors onto Merit financial planning platforms.

  Responsibilities:  

• Assist senior financial planners with generate specific planning recommendations and next steps that advisors and clients can use while designing financial plans or evaluating the plans designed by Merit Paraplanning Associates. 
• Assist senior financial planners with provide advanced planning support in areas such as retirement income planning, tax planning, estate planning, insurance planning, and education planning for advisors who are working to illustrate planning techniques to clients. 
• Projects will include the transition support of client data from alternative planning tech tools to the Merit eMoney license. 
• Assist with financial planning content creation for Merit website and social media. 
• Assist with financial planning content support for prospecting campaigns 
• Collaboration with the Financial Planning leadership to constantly improve planning workflows, tech tool engagement, and communication with advisors and their clients. 
• Planning research as required by Financial Planning leadership. 
• Assist Financial Planning leadership with the instruction of advisors in the field of the “Merit Way” of financial planning both virtually and in person. 
• Support of Merit advisors who need tech tool assistance such as making or amending connections, sharing client profiles with supporting staff, or amending advisor ownership of clients within the tools. 
• Ability to thrive in a high-growth company and scale processes to align with business needs in a fast-paced, evolving environment. 
• Some responsibilities may vary depending on area of experience and specialization. 

*Please note the job responsibilities may vary, grow and change.  

Salary + Benefits:

• Competitive, based on experience
• Medical Insurance
• Dental/Vision Insurance
• Life & Personal Accident Insurance 
• Short-term Disability Insurance
• Long-term Disability Insurance
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Health Savings Account (HSA) or Dependent Care FSA
• 401(k) Plan with company matching
• Paid Time Off (PTO) and paid holidays 

Best Places To Work for Financial Advisors 2018-2024: Best Places to Work for Financial Advisors 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 – Recognized firms were required to be a registered investment advisor (RIA) that has been in business at least one year and having a minimum of 15 full-time/part-time employees. The assessment consisted of a questionnaire on benefits and policies completed by human resources staff along with an engagement & satisfaction survey completed by a minimum of 40% of staff. 50 firms were selected for this award from an undisclosed list of submissions. There was no charge to be included in this award listing.

Georgia Fast 40 2019 and 2022: The Georgia Fast 40 for 2019 and 2022 was awarded by the Atlanta Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth. To be eligible companies must be for profit and headquartered in Georgia and the most recent year-end revenues ranging from $15 million to $500 million and have three years of verifiable revenue and employment growth.

Inc 5000 2019, 2020 & 2021: The Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index, which consists of more than 5000 companies, represents virtually all of the capitalization of the entire U.S. stock market

REQUIREMENTS

Qualifications:  

• Bachelor’s degree in financial planning, finance, accounting, business, economics or related field is required. 
• 0-2+ years of experience working within a wealth management & financial planning firm 
• CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional or candidate preferred. 
• Experience with eMoney, MoneyGuide, RightCapital or other financial planning tools a plus. 
• Experience with Holistiplan, Wealth.com or other supplemental planning tools a plus
• Experience with Salesforce or other CRM tools a plus.
• Investment industry experience is encouraged including SIE, Series 7, and Series 66 licenses. Ability to earn such licenses encouraged.