Manager, Onboarding & Asset Transitions

Location: Alpharetta, GA (HQ); EST or CDT time zone (required)

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 achieve greater financial freedom and confidence. This focus on comprehensive financial wellness enables us to deliver an exceptional client experience. Merit is a multi-generational firm with a foundation built around servant leadership and total team leadership. As we continue to grow and bring our relationship-driven approach to the financial industry, we are looking for the right individuals to join our team.

The Position:

The Manager, Onboarding and Asset Transition will lead the coordinated transition of client accounts, assets, data, and investment models from newly acquired organizations onto Merit’s enterprise and investment platforms. This role will serve as a central point of coordination among acquired-firm principals, Merit teams, custodians, technology partners, and outside transition vendors. The Director will focus on executing accurate, timely, and client-sensitive transitions while enabling advisors and acquired-firm teams to continue serving clients throughout the onboarding process. The role will also establish data-driven measurements to evaluate transition quality, adoption, and post-transition outcomes.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the end-to-end planning and execution of asset transitions for newly acquired organizations into Merit’s enterprise and investment systems.
• Partner with the principals, advisors, and operating teams of acquired firms to develop transition plans that preserve continuity of client service and minimize disruption.
• Conducting pre-close due diligence, working with Merit’s transition team and resolving open issues
• Serve as the primary coordinator across internal stakeholders, including Investment, Trading, Operations, Technology, Compliance, Client Service, and M&A integration teams.
• Manage outside vendors and custodial relationships engaged to support account onboarding, data conversion, asset transition, and investment model assignment; establish clear responsibilities, timelines, deliverables, and escalation paths.
• Coordinate account opening, repapering, custodian workflows, asset transfers, registration changes, restrictions, and exception resolution.
• Oversee the mapping and assignment of client accounts to Merit investment strategies and models in accordance with approved transition plans and client requirements.
• Ensure the accurate capture, validation, and transfer of critical client and account data, including systematic distributions, capital-gains buffers, cash buffers, tax-management instructions, investment restrictions, and other standing instructions.
• Develop quality-control procedures and reconciliation checkpoints to confirm that accounts, assets, models, cash needs, and client instructions have transitioned completely and accurately.
• Maintain transition dashboards, issue logs, decision records, risk assessments, and executive status reporting; escalate material risks or delays promptly.
• Use data analytics to measure the success of each acquired firm’s transition onto Merit’s investment platform, including progress, accuracy, exception trends, model adoption, operational readiness, and post-transition stabilization.
• Develop consistent key performance indicators and post-transition reviews to identify root causes, capture lessons learned, and improve future onboarding and asset-transition processes.
• Create repeatable playbooks, workflows, controls, and communication standards that improve the scalability, predictability, and client experience of future transitions.
• Provide education and support to acquired-firm principals, advisors, and staff regarding Merit’s investment platform, transition processes, and ongoing operating procedures.
• Promote a collaborative, solutions-oriented approach that balances transition speed with fiduciary, operational, compliance, and client-service considerations.

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

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

Compensation: Merit Financial Advisors offers competitive compensation based on experience, qualifications, location, and market data. Where required by applicable law, salary ranges will be provided during the hiring process.

Requirements:

• A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in wealth management, investment operations, custodial transitions, M&A integration, account onboarding, or a related financial-services function.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business, Accounting, Data Analytics, or a related field from an accredited university; equivalent relevant experience will also be considered.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex, cross-functional implementations or asset transitions involving multiple stakeholders, systems, custodians, and vendors.
• Strong understanding of registered investment advisor operations, client account structures, custodial processes, investment models, and portfolio implementation.
• Experience with data conversion, reconciliation, workflow management, dashboard reporting, and business intelligence or analytics tools.
• Exceptional project-management, organizational, and follow-through skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent transitions and competing priorities.
• Excellent interpersonal and relationship-management skills, including the ability to build trust with acquired-firm principals and communicate effectively during periods of change.
• Excellent written, presentation, and communication skills, including the ability to translate complex transition issues into clear decisions and action plans.
• Highly analytical and detail oriented, with a strong control mindset and commitment to data accuracy.
• Ability to identify risks, resolve issues, make sound decisions, and escalate appropriately in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and across diverse internal and external teams.
• Securities licenses or relevant professional designations are preferred but not required; licensing requirements will be determined based on the final scope of the role.