Head of Insurance Agency Operations

Head of Insurance Agency Operations

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent working experience
• 7+ years of relevant work experience in operations in finance, fintech, insurance or insuretech
• Life Insurance and Annuity licenses or willingness to get licensed within 90 days of hire
• FINRA Series 7 license or willingness to get licensed within 180 days of hire
• Deep experience leading operations within the insurance industry (general agency, IMOs, OIDs, etc.)
• Understanding of various annuity products (i.e. MYGA, RILA, FIA, etc.)
• Experience working closely with technologists and business executives to define, develop and lead strategic roadmaps
• Proven track record in building operational flows, driving process improvement and streamlining procedures for a business line
• Experience communicating with clients, including high net worth individuals and financial advisors
• Must be able to work out of our Jersey City office at least three days per week, and outside the state of New York five days a week
• Due to the nature of this position, as part of the background check process, candidates must be able to pass a fingerprint background check to qualify as a fingerprinted person under FINRA. For roles requiring registration, additional regulatory screenings may apply, including a review of Form U5 disclosures and other relevant licensing information.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for driving and managing all insurance agency operations, including but not limited to:
• Strategically design, implement, manage and scale operational workflows and processes for all annuity transactions
• Partner closely with Flourish’s technology organization to define, enhance and maintain Flourish Annuities’ proprietary Electronic Order Entry system
• Strategically determine when/if to partner with third party vendors, lead assessment of vendors, and act as the primary operational point of contact for tools and services provided
• Partner with insurance carrier partners to deeply understand each carrier’s specific operational requirements
• Ensure our operational processes facilitate smooth transactions, ultimately delivering best-in-class processing times and NIGO rates
• Support RIAs and end-clients as needed, including: answering product and operational questions, helping to drive application completion, and supporting on-going contract servicing
• Focus on process improvement, refining processes over time to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the team
• Define all operational hiring and people needs for Flourish annuities, then hire, manage, mentor, and develop a small but growing team of Case Managers and Operations Associates
• In addition to setting the strategic direction for day to day operations, collaborate with Product, Engineering, Sales and Marketing on project-based workstreams to drive product development and enhancements
• Own management of our suitability program and oversee all manual suitability reviews for insurance applications on an as-needed basis
• Partner with legal & compliance to ensure the insurance agency and staff are consistently up to date with the overall insurance regulatory landscape in order to maintain the highest standards of regulatory compliance
• Ensure the insurance agency service model is supporting our key strategic initiatives
• Identify, track and report key Flourish Annuities metrics and performance indicators to leadership
• Stay on top of current industry trends and share insights and ideas with the broader team

Preferred Qualifications

• Interest in working in a start-up environment and/or past experience working on truly new initiatives
• Reliable, eager, ambitious, self-starter, strong attention to detail
• Team player who is driven to solve problems and meet deliverables
• Previous management experience preferred
• Existing relationships with major insurance carriers and/or RIAs
• Experience communicating with executives
• FINRA Series 24