Vice President - Retirement Research, Investment Research Group

Job Description

The Vice President, Retirement Research, will serve as the Ameriprise Investment Research subject matter expert on retirement income topics and their intersection with financial planning solutions and overall wealth management strategy and product solutions. This includes retirement income generation approaches, asset "location" strategies, long-term retirement asset allocation models, capital market assumptions, and investment drawdown and "decumulation" strategies.

Responsibilities

• Providing support for the ongoing vision and development of Ameriprise retirement income and financial planning-related tools and software that financial advisors use with their clients. Examples could include working with internal operations teams, desks or directly with financial advisors as a subject matter expert to understand issues they face in individual retirement planning cases and identifying ways to address their concerns.

• Partnering with internal Ameriprise teams (financial advice and planning, wealth strategies, retail retirement solutions, marketing, corporate communications) and business units (such as Columbia Threadneedle Investments and RiverSource Insurance & Annuities) to serve financial advisors and clients, especially those with unique retirement income cases and needs.

• Creating/publishing research white papers, articles, and other content for financial advisors and clients regarding retirement income topics such as social security decisions, portfolio construction, use of annuities and guaranteed income sources, portfolio withdrawal considerations, among other topics, which tie back to our over-arching financial planning and Global Asset Allocation Committee philosophy.

• Play a key role providing thought leadership, including advising the Ameriprise Global Asset Allocation Committee and other Investment Research Group strategists, on topics such as retirement, retirement income, and retirement spending, to help formulate and maintain long-term strategic asset allocation models.

• Includes additional management responsibilities, such as direct people leadership of small team, strategic planning, and serving an integral role on the Investment Research Group leadership team.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Finance, Accounting, Investments or other relevant focus areas
• 15+ years of relevant research experience, with a minimum of 10 years of experience focused on retirement research and strategic analysis
• Strong communication skills - both written and verbal
• Strong quantitative skills with the ability to combine investment knowledge and technical expertise to produce effective results
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities; ability to adapt to changing priorities
• Experience with analytical software to analyze investments (examples: Excel, Access, FactSet, Morningstar Direct)
• Experience managing professional relationships with third party institutions and vendors
• Ability to work effectively as a part of a team
• Strong network of connections and relationships across the Industry
• Self-motivated; ability and willingness to seek out work and the drive to accomplish goals
• Ability to conduct business analysis and requirements gathering
• Attention to detail, logical/critical thinking and analysis skills
• Active Series 7 or the ability to obtain within 120 days

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced Degree
• Advanced certifications such as CFA, CAIA, CFP, RICP, CIMA
• Prior experience with people leadership
• Direct or exposure to portfolio management tactics and strategies
• Expertise in asset allocation, manager combinations and portfolio structuring
• Active Series 24 (or the willingness to obtain)