Client Service Associate

Shepherd Financial Partners, LLC; Winchester (MA); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Retirement plan

Paid time off

Licensing support

Job summary

Shepherd Financial Partners, LLC in Winchester, MA, is seeking a Client Service Associate to support client teams, prepare advisor meetings, and manage follow-ups. You will become the familiar point of contact for assigned client families and ensure smooth service delivery.

The role emphasizes organization, written communication, and the ability to coordinate with advisors, operations, and external professionals while maintaining data integrity and client satisfaction.

Qualifications

• Two or more years in financial services, wealth management, or a detail-intensive client-facing environment.
• Strong written communication—clear client and colleague correspondence.
• Demonstrated organizational discipline; reliably track open items and follow through.
• Comfort with technology; quick to learn new platforms; strong Microsoft Office skills.
• Discretion and sound judgment with confidential financial and family information.
• Service instinct; enjoy making things easier for others.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.

Responsibilities

• Prepare meeting materials and agendas; ensure advisor readiness and complete meeting packages.
• Capture and track action items from meetings; coordinate across client team, operations, and outside professionals.
• Serve as a responsive point of contact for assigned families; anticipate recurring needs.
• Process service requests with accurate documentation and timely acknowledgement.
• Maintain accurate client records in CRM and planning software; adhere to firm workflows.

Skills

Written communication

Organizational skills

Tech-savvy

Discretion

Customer service

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

CRM software

Financial planning software

Portfolio reporting platforms

Job description

About Shepherd Financial Partners

Shepherd Financial Partners is looking for its next team member to join our hardworking, motivated, and community-focused team of financial advisors, investment professionals, and dedicated service team members. We are committed to providing personalized financial plans to help our clients achieve their financial and personal goals. Joining Shepherd Financial Partners not only means working with brilliant seasoned and young professionals, but also learning from and being supported by all members of the team to grow and build your career. Every role plays a critical part in the success of the firm, and we champion a community where every voice and opinion is heard and valued.

The Role

As a Client Service Associate, you will be assigned to a client team and to a defined group of client families. You will prepare our advisors for every client meeting, own the follow-up that comes out of it, and serve as a familiar, responsive point of contact for the families you support. Over time, you will come to know those families — their histories, their preferences, what mattered in the last conversation — as well as anyone at the firm.

Where this role sits

Our client teams are built around a Lead Advisor, an Associate Advisor, and a Client Service Associate. The Lead Advisor owns the relationship and the advice. The Associate Advisor supports planning and analysis and is developing toward advising clients directly. The Client Service Associate ensures meetings are prepared for, commitments are captured, follow-ups are closed, and clients feel looked after between conversations.

What You Will Do

Meeting preparation

• Manage the client review calendar for your assigned families, scheduling meetings and confirming attendance well in advance
• Assemble the complete meeting package: performance reporting, planning outputs, agendas, and supporting materials
• Review prior meeting notes and open items in the CRM, and brief the advisor on what was promised last time and where it stands
• Gather required documents and information from clients ahead of the meeting so advisor time is spent on advice rather than collection
• Flag anything that needs advisor attention before the meeting — an approaching deadline, a beneficiary gap, an unusual account movement

Meeting follow-up and execution

• Capture action items during or immediately after client meetings and convert them into tracked tasks with owners and due dates
• Own follow-up to completion, coordinating across the client team, the operations team, and outside professionals
• Send timely, well-written follow-up communications summarizing what was decided and what happens next
• Track open items across your families and elevate anything at risk of going stale

Client relationship support

• Serve as a responsive, familiar point of contact for service and relationship questions from your assigned families
• Anticipate recurring needs — charitable gifting timelines, annual funding, tax-document season — and reach out before the client has to ask
• Coordinate with clients' accountants, attorneys, and other advisors as directed
• Contribute to client appreciation touchpoints and firm events

Account servicing

• Process and track service requests — distributions, contributions, beneficiary updates, address and profile changes — with same-day acknowledgement

Data integrity and process

• Maintain accurate, current, and complete client records in the firm's CRM and planning software
• Follow the firm's documented workflows consistently, and help improve them — we expect the people closest to the process to tell us how to make it better
• Support recordkeeping and documentation standards in line with firm compliance policy
• Participate in client team meetings and firm-wide planning discussions
• Build working knowledge of financial planning and investment concepts sufficient to prepare well and communicate clearly

What This Role Is Not

• Not a business development role. You will not be asked to prospect, sell, or carry production targets.
• Not an operations processing role. Our Client Operations Specialists own firm-wide processing workflows. You own the client's experience of those workflows. You will work with operations constantly; you are not a member of that queue.
• Not an advisory role. You will not provide investment advice or planning recommendations. You will support the advisors who do.
• Not a general administrative role. This is a client-facing seat with named relationships and defined ownership.

What Success Looks Like: Horizon & What we expect

First 60 days

You know our systems, our workflows, and the names and basic circumstances of the families on your team. You are handling routine service requests independently.

First 90 days

You are preparing complete meeting packages without prompting, and your advisor arrives at meetings fully briefed. Follow-up items are tracked and closing on schedule.

First year

Clients know you by name and reach out to you directly. You anticipate recurring needs before they are raised. Your advisor has measurably more time for client conversations and business development. You have identified at least one process the firm should change, and made the case for it.

What We Are Looking For

Required

• Two or more years in financial services, wealth management, professional services, or a comparably detail-intensive client-facing environment
• Strong written communication — a meaningful share of this role is writing clearly to clients and to colleagues
• Demonstrated organizational discipline: you track open items reliably and things do not fall through
• Comfort with technology and a willingness to learn new platforms quickly; strong Microsoft Office skills
• Discretion and sound judgment in handling confidential financial and family information
• A service instinct — you find satisfaction in making things easier for other people
• Bachelor's degree, or equivalent professional experience

Preferred

• Experience supporting high-net-worth clients, ideally at an independent RIA
• Familiarity with CRM, financial planning, and portfolio reporting platforms
• Working knowledge of account types, transfers, retirement distributions, and beneficiary mechanics
• SIE, Series 65, or progress toward a financial planning or investment industry credential (CFP, CPWA, CIMA, CEPA etc)

Who tends to do well here

People who are curious about the work rather than only competent at it. People who would rather ask a question than guess. People who take pride in a client saying "they always get back to me." Our culture is collaborative and deliberately low-ego; we are a small enough firm that how someone works matters as much as what they know.

Licensing and Professional Development

No securities license is required to begin in this role. We will support and fund credentialing for candidates who want it — the Securities Industry Essentials exam, the Series 65, and coursework toward the CFP® or similar certification are all paths we sponsor. We invest in our people's professional development as a stated firm value, and we would rather grow the next generation of this firm internally than hire it.

This role has two forward paths, and we consider both of them successes.

• Deepening in client service. Client Service Associate to Senior Client Service Associate to Client Relationship Manager — a career track for people who want to build lasting client relationships and mastery of our service experience without moving into an advisory seat.
• The advisory track. Client Service Associate to Associate Advisor and onward through our advisor development program. Time in this seat is the best preparation we can offer: you will already know our process, our clients, and our culture.

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary: $60,000 – $90,000, commensurate with experience and credentials
• Discretionary annual incentive: target of 10% of base
• Health, dental, and vision coverage
• Retirement plan with employer contribution
• Paid time off and firm holidays
• Funded licensing, credentialing, and continuing education