Client Relationship Manager

HUB International•Pasadena, CA

46d•$124,000 - $155,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Client Relationship Manager is responsible for the day-to-day service and management of a book of employer-sponsored retirement plans, including 401(k) and 403(b) plans. The position serves as the primary point of contact for plan sponsors and coordinates all work involving the recordkeeper, third-party administrator, plan auditor, payroll provider, and HUB's internal investment and financial planning teams. The Client Relationship Manager interacts regularly with CFOs, HR Directors, controllers, business owners, and retirement plan committees, and also serves as a resource to plan participants. The position is service- and retention-focused rather than production-focused, though the Client Relationship Manager is expected to identify plan design, compliance, and financial wellness opportunities within the assigned book and bring them to the client for consideration. This is a hands-on role on a small team, and the Client Relationship Manager operates with a high degree of autonomy and ownership as part of a collaborative practice. This includes managing their own calendar, scheduling client and vendor meetings, answering and returning calls, submitting expense reports, and coordinating client gifting within firm guidelines. The position does not assume dedicated administrative or support staff. The expectation is that this person identifies what needs to be done and acts on it, and brings a recommended course of action rather than only flagging the problem. Beyond the assigned book, the Client Relationship Manager is expected to contribute to the strength and efficiency of the overall practice.

Requirements

Minimum five years of experience working with 401(k) and other qualified retirement plans at an advisory firm, recordkeeper, or third-party administrator.
Series 65 (or Series 66 with Series 7) held at hire, or the ability to obtain within 90 days of start date.
Working knowledge of ERISA and qualified plan administration, including eligibility and entry provisions, match and profit sharing formulas, safe harbor designs, nondiscrimination and top-heavy testing, controlled groups, distributions and force-outs, plan documents and amendments, the annual compliance calendar, and audit requirements.
Direct experience with at least one major recordkeeping platform and the ability to work across multiple platforms (Fidelity, Empower, Transamerica, Principal, ADP, Ascensus, T. Rowe Price, Voya, John Hancock, Vestwell, Paychex).
Demonstrated project management and follow-through skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent client deliverables and vendor dependencies independently.
Experience presenting to both management-level audiences and employee groups, in person and virtually.
Strong written communication skills, including the ability to summarize vendor correspondence and technical plan matters in plain language for client decision-making.

Nice To Haves

CPFA, QKA, QKC, CRPS, C(k)P, or CFP designation.
Experience supporting plans in the $5 million to $100 million asset range with 50 to 1,000 participants.
Experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 or a comparable CRM.
Conversational Spanish.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

Manage the onboarding process for new advisory clients, including Broker of Record (BOR) paperwork, advisory and consulting agreements, 408(b)(2) disclosures, vendor authorization and system access forms, and adoption of the Investment Policy Statement.
Develop and manage the onboarding project plan, coordinate vendor deliverables and deadlines, and provide status updates to the client.
Establish the ongoing service calendar for each relationship, including committee meeting cadence, compliance milestones, and the participant education schedule.
Coordinate the rollout of HUB's financial wellness and financial coaching program (FinPath by HUB), including implementation planning, sponsor and employee communications, ongoing promotion, and engagement reporting.
Support new business proposals and RFP responses for prospective retirement plan clients, including plan data compilation, vendor comparison, and preparation of client-facing materials, as directed.
Serve as the primary point of contact for the plan sponsor on all matters relating to the retirement plan.
Review inbound correspondence from recordkeepers, TPAs, auditors, and other plan vendors; determine required action; resolve items directly with the vendor; and involve the client only where a sponsor decision or signature is required.
Escalate and track unresolved service issues with recordkeeper and TPA service teams through resolution.
Coordinate quarterly and annual investment review and plan committee meetings with HUB's investment team, including scheduling, agenda preparation, materials, logistics, meeting minutes, and follow-up item tracking.
Maintain the client fiduciary file, including meeting minutes, Investment Policy Statement, fee benchmarking documentation, plan documents, participant notices, and vendor disclosures.
Own the integrity of all client and plan records in Microsoft Dynamics 365 for the assigned book, including contact information, fee schedules, service agreement terms, compliance deadlines, and activity history. Records should be current, complete, and usable by any team member at any time.
Serve as the team's primary relationship contact for assigned recordkeepers and TPAs, independent of any specific client event or service issue.
Attend and represent the team in recordkeeper and TPA relationship meetings, quarterly business reviews, and platform update briefings.
Maintain a current directory of vendor contacts across service, relationship management, and escalation, and keep team-level platform access and credentialing current.
Maintain a working knowledge of qualified plan design sufficient to discuss design alternatives with clients and to identify circumstances in which a design change should be considered — for example, a plan consistently failing or narrowly passing nondiscrimination testing, resulting in corrective refunds to highly compensated employees.
Work with the plan's TPA to obtain census-based cost projections for proposed design changes, such as a safe harbor match, an increase or restructuring of the employer match, or the addition of a profit sharing or new comparability allocation, and present the results to the client.
Manage the plan amendment process from identification through implementation: coordinate drafting with the recordkeeper or TPA, review amendment language against the client's stated intent, obtain client execution, and confirm that the recordkeeper and TPA have implemented the change in the plan document and in their administrative systems.
Manage required restatements and amendments, including the SECURE 2.0 restatement cycle, through client review, sign-off, and execution.
Prepare and coordinate distribution of related participant notices, including safe harbor, QDIA, automatic enrollment and escalation, blackout, summary of material modifications, and annual fee disclosure notices, and document timely delivery.
Support the annual compliance cycle, including census collection, coordination of the ADP/ACP and top-heavy testing with the TPA, communication regarding corrective distributions, contribution limit monitoring, and coordination of the Form 5500 filing and plan audit, including signature and filing deadlines.
Manage plan hygiene projects, including terminated participant and force-out processing, missing participant searches, uncashed check resolution, participant count and audit threshold monitoring, and ERISA/plan expense account balance monitoring.
Coordinate resolution of payroll and HRIS integration issues (360 and 180 file feeds) with the recordkeeper and the client's payroll team.
Manage the implementation of investment lineup changes recommended by HUB's investment team, including fund replacements, share class changes, mapping decisions, and re-enrollments.
Prepare and route required documentation and obtain all necessary client signatures.
Coordinate timing with the recordkeeper and issue required blackout and change notices to participants.
Confirm following implementation that changes processed correctly at both the fund and participant account level.
Document each change and its supporting rationale and approvals in the fiduciary file.
Serve as the point person for all recordkeeping conversions, participating in all calls and meetings from kickoff through post-conversion validation.
Manage the conversion project plan and coordinate deliverables from both the incoming and outgoing providers, including data gathering and validation, plan document and payroll setup, loan and beneficiary data, trust and asset transfer timing, blackout notices, and termination notice to the prior provider.
Coordinate participant education and enrollment meetings and conduct those meetings, typically virtually and in some cases jointly with the recordkeeper.
Develop and execute the employee communication plan supporting the conversion.
Validate participant balances, deferral elections, loans, and investment mapping following conversion and close out open items.
Serve as the primary point of contact for participant questions regarding plan provisions and administration for most clients, including all plans with fewer than approximately 500 employees. Typical subjects include eligibility, enrollment, deferral and Roth elections, employer match, vesting, loans, distributions, rollovers, and beneficiary designations.
Conduct recurring participant education and enrollment sessions and support financial wellness campaigns and coaching program engagement.
Identify participants whose circumstances warrant referral to HUB's Senior Financial Planner for wealth management or advanced financial planning support, including equity compensation, retirement income planning, tax and estate matters, and consolidation of outside assets, and make the referral.
Limit participant discussions to plan-level education and administration; individualized investment, tax, and financial planning advice is referred to the appropriate licensed HUB professional.
Generate quarterly invoices for all plans in the assigned book in accordance with each plan's advisory fee agreement.
Confirm timely payment by the recordkeeper or plan sponsor following each billing cycle, and follow up on and resolve outstanding items without escalation.
Maintain current fee schedules and billing terms for all assigned plans in the CRM, and flag and resolve any discrepancies between the fee agreement, the invoice, and the amount collected.
Identify gaps in practice operations, service delivery, or compliance readiness and lead projects to address them, from scoping and planning through implementation, without ongoing direction. Examples include standard onboarding checklists, a book-wide SECURE 2.0 restatement tracker, and compliance calendar templates used across all clients.