Shareholder Services Associate

Company Profile

Founded in 1977, GMO is a global investment manager committed to delivering superior long-term investment performance and advice to our clients. We offer strategies and solutions where we believe we are positioned to add the greatest value for our investors. These include multi-asset class, equity, fixed income, and alternative offerings.

We manage approximately $60bn for a client base that includes many of the world’s most sophisticated institutions, financial intermediaries, and private clients. Industry-wide, we are well known for our focus on valuation-based investing, willingness to take bold positions when conditions warrant, and candid and academically rigorous thought leadership. Jeremy Grantham, GMO’s Co-Founder and Long-Term Investment Strategist, is renowned as an expert in identifying speculative investment bubbles and also as a leading climate investor and advocate.

GMO is privately owned and employs over 430 people worldwide. Headquartered in Boston, GMO also maintains offices in Amsterdam, London, Singapore, and Sydney, as well as a U.S. West Coast Hub comprised of professionals located in and around the Greater San Francisco area and a Representative Office in Tokyo. Our company-wide culture emphasizes commitment to clients, intellectual curiosity, and open debate. We celebrate and respect our differences, while embracing and valuing what each of us brings to work, as we know that diverse teams in an inclusive, caring environment achieve higher engagement and better client results.

Overview

This individual will work as a part of the Boston Shareholder Services team.  The group is responsible for the review, processing and reporting of institutional and high net worth client cash flows in mutual funds, hedge funds, separately managed accounts, private partnerships, fund of funds and other complex investment products.  The individual will perform support for inquiries relating to shareholder processes from a variety of internal and external business partners, such as: transfer agents, custodian banks, reconciliation personnel, sales and relationship/consultant managers as well as investment management professionals. They will be responsible for accurately performing good order review and data entry of client financial and account maintenance transactions as well as providing prompt and accurate communication of flows to portfolio managers.  The individual will also have a service role whereby they are responsible for responding knowledgeably to client and transaction related inquiries received by email, phone or postal mail.  The successful candidate will learn how to effectively manage all daily tasks while being proactive and forward thinking when tackling any challenges the team may face.  They will also develop a strong understanding of the inner workings of the various products GMO offers to its clients as well adopting GMO’s client first mentality.

• Coordinate client cash flows for GMO mutual funds, hedge funds, asset allocation products and separately managed accounts; communicate with clients and custodial bank(s); input transactions into internal systems; report transactions to GMO transfer agent(s); and notify GMO trading teams, portfolio managers and client/consultant relationship managers of cash flow activity.
• Input internal orders from trading teams for Fund of Funds, Asset Allocation clients and accounts where GMO has discretion, and report these transactions to the client’s and/or fund’s custodian when applicable
• Respond to inquiries regarding shareholder transaction activity, such as: account market values and investment performance, audit materials, fund distributions and tax information
• Coordinate with clients, custodians and consultants as well as client/consultant relationship managers to process and communicate shareholder new account and account maintenance requests for GMO mutual funds, hedge funds and separately managed accounts; input requests into internal systems; report requests to GMO transfer agent(s)
• Monitor and maintain accurate records of shareholder transaction activity, shareholder holdings and fund shares outstanding by share class; identify discrepancies between transfer agent, GMO records and fund custodian records, and resolve these discrepancies in a timely fashion
• Perform project work as necessary for firm-wide and team initiatives
• Perform user testing on proprietary cash flow application. Recommend new features and assist with determining business requirements along with prioritization.
• Promptly inform management of client issues and additional servicing requests where appropriate

• Bachelor’s degree
• Excellent written and verbal communication capabilities
• Strong attention to detail; able to prioritize work and effectively manage multiple tasks to meet daily and periodic deadlines with a high level of accuracy
• Work well in a collaborative team setting where there are both individual and shared assignments
• Ability to exercise good judgment to think through how shareholder activity impacts the investment and operations processes; recognize when to communicate with the appropriate business teams on matters
• Self-starter who proactively seeks out information to ensure he or she understands steps required to complete the job efficiently and ensure processes are completed correctly
• Strong analytical skills are essential, including an aptitude for numbers and reconciliations

• Enthusiastic and eagerness to learn and develop a career within the investment management industry