Wealth Management Operations & Controls Manager

The Role

Primary Responsibilities

Daily Wealth Management Operations

• Own the day-to-day execution and oversight of wealth management operations, including client onboarding, account opening, trade operations, account maintenance, transfers, distributions, beneficiary changes, trust and entity accounts, and other custodial workflows.
• Maintain visibility into work queues, aging items, deadlines, service standards, and operational capacity; intervene before client commitments or control requirements are missed.
• Serve as the escalation point for incomplete, unusual, high-risk, or time-sensitive operational matters and remain involved until resolution is documented.
• Maintain a strong working relationship with Fidelity and other custodial or technology partners, ensuring that open issues are assigned, tracked, escalated, and closed.
• Coordinate across client service, advisors, investments, compliance, finance, and technology so operational responsibilities have clear owners and handoffs.
• Ensure every critical process has documented primary and backup coverage and can continue through absences, growth, or employee transitions.

Controls Quality Assurance and Risk Management

• Establish and operate a practical control framework for high-risk activities, including money movement, account opening and maintenance, trading operations, client instructions, and other transactions requiring independent review.
• Confirm appropriate segregation of duties between initiation, review, approval, and reconciliation; escalate conflicts or control gaps promptly.
• Review selected transactions, paperwork, approvals, and exception reports for completeness, accuracy, proper authorization, and evidence of supervisory review.
• Maintain exception and incident logs, investigate discrepancies, perform root-cause analysis, and ensure corrective actions are completed rather than allowing recurring workarounds.
• Partner with compliance and firm leadership on supervisory procedures, examinations, audits, fraud prevention, business continuity, and remediation efforts.
• Develop management reporting that shows operational risk, error trends, aging work, control failures, repeat exceptions, and progress on corrective actions.

Team Leadership and Accountability

• Lead, coach, and develop operations and client service professionals, setting clear expectations for quality, timeliness, ownership, documentation, and escalation.
• Assign and rebalance work based on capacity, complexity, deadlines, and risk rather than allowing work to accumulate with the strongest employees.
• Conduct regular workflow and exception reviews, give timely feedback, and address performance concerns directly.
• Build the team's understanding of why controls exist so employees can exercise judgment rather than rely only on checklists.
• Create development and cross-training plans that deepen expertise and reduce dependence on any single employee.
• Promote a culture in which employees raise risks early, ask questions, and take responsibility for resolving issues.

Process Improvement Technology and Automation

• Map current workflows, validate the correct source of truth, remove unnecessary steps, and establish clear ownership before introducing automation.
• Identify opportunities to use workflow technology, data, and AI to improve completeness, reduce manual effort, detect exceptions, and increase capacity.
• Partner with subject-matter experts to define business rules, required approvals, exception handling, testing standards, and audit evidence for automated workflows.
• Lead user acceptance testing and post-implementation monitoring so technology improves execution without weakening controls or accountability.
• Help optimize the use of Fidelity, Orion, CRM, document-management, reporting, and workflow tools; coordinate effectively with internal and external technology resources.
• Maintain current procedures and change documentation so improvements remain sustainable after implementation.

Operating Leadership

• Provide concise, fact-based reporting to senior leadership on operational performance, staffing needs, capacity, risks, and required decisions.
• Translate growth plans into staffing, workflow, technology, documentation, and control requirements.
• Help establish priorities and sequencing so the team does not take on more change than it can execute reliably.
• Take ownership of cross-functional operating initiatives and drive them through implementation, adoption, and measurable results.

What Success Looks Like

• Established reliable visibility into all material operations work, deadlines, exceptions, and capacity constraints.
• Documented ownership, review, approval, escalation, and backup coverage for critical workflows.
• Reduced incomplete paperwork, repeat errors, delayed follow-up, and avoidable escalations.
• Strengthened money-movement, trading-operations, account-opening, and paperwork controls with clear evidence of review.
• Implemented a regular operating rhythm for team workload, quality, risk, and accountability.
• Developed team members so senior leaders and high-performing employees are no longer required to compensate for unclear ownership or missed execution.
• Delivered targeted process and automation improvements that have been tested, adopted, documented, and monitored.

Qualifications

• Approximately five to eight years of relevant experience in wealth management operations, custody, banking, broker-dealer operations, public accounting, internal audit, financial controls, risk, controllership, or a similarly controlled environment.
• Demonstrated experience reviewing work for completeness and accuracy, investigating exceptions, documenting conclusions, and ensuring remediation is completed.
• Experience managing employees, workflows, deadlines, or cross-functional projects with clear accountability for results.
• Strong understanding of internal controls, segregation of duties, approval evidence, reconciliation, root-cause analysis, and operational risk.
• Strong project-management, organizational, analytical, and written communication skills.
• Comfort using data, Excel, reporting tools, workflow platforms, and technology to improve operations and management visibility.
• Ability to learn wealth management products, client structures, custodial processes, investment operations, and relevant regulatory requirements.
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Information Systems, or a related discipline.
• CPA, public accounting audit experience, internal audit or controls credentials, CFP, Series licenses, or other relevant qualifications are preferred but not required.
• Experience with Fidelity, Orion, CRM platforms, document-management systems, workflow automation, or AI-enabled process improvement is a plus.