Fee Billing & Advisor Compensation Manager

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors, LLC; United States; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

401(k) with generous match

Paid Time Off

Holiday Pay

Professional growth opportunities

Job summary

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors, LLC is seeking a Fee Billing & Advisor Compensation Manager to oversee advisory fee billing, advisor compensation, and related expense tracking. The role collaborates with Finance, Operations, Technology, Payroll, and advisor teams to ensure accurate, timely, and auditable processes across the billing and compensation lifecycle.

The position requires hands-on leadership, strong data integrity, and the ability to optimize controls and scalable processes in

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or related field.
• 5–8+ years of experience in advisory fee billing or advisor compensation or related functions.
• Experience with portfolio accounting, CRM, or commission processing systems.

Responsibilities

• Own monthly and quarterly advisory fee billing cycles, ensuring accurate calculations and timely processing.
• Oversee client fee schedules, tiered AUM arrangements, negotiated rates, and other billing structures.
• Validate billing inputs, review exceptions, and coordinate with custodians and internal teams for accurate debits.
• Lead advisor compensation calculations, payout grids, and revenue-sharing arrangements.
• Prepare and review compensation statements, reconciliations, and supporting schedules.
• Coordinate with Finance and Payroll to ensure accurate payment processing and accounting support.

Skills

Advanced Excel

Analytical skills

Problem solving

Communication

Attention to detail

Education

Bachelor's degree in Accounting/Finance/Business

Tools

Envestnet Tamarac

Salesforce

Job description

SUMMARY: The Fee Billing & Advisor Compensation Manager is responsible for the end-to-end oversight and execution of advisory fee billing and advisor compensation operations. This role ensures accurate and timely calculation, validation, reconciliation, and processing of client advisory fees, advisor commissions and other compensation programs.

Working closely with Finance, Operations, Technology, Payroll, and advisor teams, the Manager oversees complex billing and compensation structures, investigates discrepancies, maintains strong operational controls, and drives process improvements across the billing and compensation lifecycle. The role requires a hands-on operational leader who can independently manage recurring deadlines, resolve complex issues, improve data integrity, and develop scalable processes to support the firm's growth. This position is eligible for hybrid work out of one of the following office locations: Los Angeles, CA (Century City), Newport Beach, CA, Cleveland, OH or Tysons, VA.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Advisory Fee Billing Operations

• Own the monthly and quarterly advisory fee billing cycles, ensuring accurate calculations, timely processing, and appropriate documentation.
• Oversee client fee schedules, including tiered AUM arrangements, negotiated rates, flat fees, and other approved billing structures.
• Validate billing inputs, review exceptions, and coordinate with custodians and internal teams to facilitate accurate client account debits.
• Review complex billing scenarios involving account transitions, terminations, fee overrides, and other adjustments.
• Identify billing errors, missed revenue opportunities, and process gaps; drive timely resolution and implement preventative measures.
• Ensure billing records, reconciliations, and supporting documentation are complete and available for audit and review.

Advisor Compensation & Commission Operations

• Own the calculation, validation, and processing of advisor commissions, payout grids, referral fees, and other contractual compensation arrangements.
• Interpret and implement approved advisor compensation agreements, including revenue splits, payout thresholds, production-based incentives, and other compensation provisions.
• Reconcile billed and collected advisory revenue to applicable advisor agreements and compensation calculations.
• Oversee the allocation and processing of broker-dealer, insurance, and third-party commission revenue, ensuring accurate assignment to the appropriate advisor and representative code.
• Investigate and resolve complex compensation discrepancies, adjustments, debit balances, and advisor payout inquiries.
• Prepare and review advisor compensation statements, reconciliations, and supporting schedules.
• Coordinate with Finance and Payroll to ensure accurate payment processing, appropriate accounting support, and timely resolution of discrepancies.

Advisor Expense Tracking & Budget Reporting

• Track and report actual W2 advisor compensation expense against approved budgets and forecasts, including base salary, draws, commissions, bonuses, incentives, benefits, payroll taxes, and other related costs.
• Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual budget-to-actual reports with variance analysis, identifying drivers such as production levels, revenue mix, hiring, terminations, plan changes, and timing differences.
• Maintain forecasting models that project W2 advisor compensation expense based on billed revenue, payout grids, production thresholds, and compensation agreement terms.
• Partner with Finance and Payroll to reconcile W2 advisor expense in payroll and compensation records to the general ledger, ensuring expenses are accurately coded to the appropriate advisor, team, department, and cost center.
• Monitor W2 advisor compensation as a percentage of associated advisory and commission revenue, and flag advisors, teams, or programs that fall outside budgeted targets or approved payout parameters.
• Analyze draw and guarantee arrangements, including unearned or recoverable balances, and report on exposure and recovery status.
• Provide timely insight to Finance, Operations, and senior leadership on emerging trends, forecast risks, and potential budget overruns, with recommendations for corrective action.
• Support annual budgeting and planning by supplying compensation modeling, historical trend analysis, and the cost impact of proposed plan changes, new hires, and advisor transitions.
• Ensure that reporting methodologies, data sources, and supporting schedules are documented, consistent, and audit-ready.

Reconciliations, Controls & Risk Management

• Establish and maintain documented procedures and controls over billing calculations, compensation processing, adjustments, and reconciliations.
• Review reconciliations across billing platforms, custodial records, commission systems, CRM data, payment records, and financial reporting systems.
• Investigate recurring discrepancies, identify root causes, and implement corrective actions to prevent future errors.
• Ensure changes to fee schedules, advisor compensation terms, representative codes, and other critical data are appropriately authorized, documented, and validated.
• Monitor exceptions, manual adjustments, and processing issues, escalating significant matters to management, and ensuring timely resolution.
• Maintain audit-ready documentation and support internal and external audit requests related to billing and advisor compensation.

Systems, Process Improvement & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as a subject matter expert for advisory billing and advisor compensation systems, data flows, calculation methodologies, and operational procedures.
• Partner with Technology and Operations to troubleshoot system integration issues, validate data integrity, and improve reporting capabilities.
• Lead user acceptance testing and operational validation for system enhancements, new integrations, and changes to billing or compensation processes.
• Identify opportunities to automate recurring workflows, reduce manual intervention, strengthen controls, and improve processing efficiency.
• Develop and maintain process documentation, operating calendars, and standard procedures.
• Serve as a primary escalation point for complex billing and compensation issues, coordinating resolution across Finance, Operations, Technology, Payroll, and advisor teams.
• Provide guidance and training to team members (starting with one direct report to hire in the future) and contribute to the development of scalable processes and team capabilities.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• 5–8+ years of progressive experience in advisory fee billing, advisor compensation, commission operations, revenue operations, or related financial services functions.
• Demonstrated experience independently managing complex advisory billing or advisor compensation processes, preferably within an RIA, wealth management firm, broker-dealer, TAMP, or similar organization.
• Strong understanding of AUM-based advisory fees, billing adjustments, commission structures, revenue-sharing arrangements, payout grids, and advisor compensation agreements.
• Experience with portfolio accounting, advisory billing, CRM, or commission processing systems. Familiarity with Envestnet Tamarac, Salesforce, or comparable platforms is preferred.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including complex formulas, XLOOKUP/VLOOKUP, pivot tables, and reconciliation of large data sets.
• Demonstrated ability to investigate discrepancies, interpret complex compensation arrangements, identify root causes, and implement effective solutions.
• Strong understanding of operational controls, reconciliations, documentation, and the importance of accurate financial processing.
• Excellent organizational, analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities and recurring deadlines.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing both advisory fee billing and advisor compensation operations.
• Experience developing or improving operational controls, procedures, reporting, and automation.
• Experience supporting acquisitions, advisor transitions, compensation plan changes, or system implementations.
• Prior experience mentoring team members or supervising operational staff.

BENEFITS:

• Employee medical: With SEIA and employee contributions
• Employee dental, vision and life insurance: Fully paid by SEIA
• Dependent medical, dental and vision: Employee paid options
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Holiday Pay
• 401k with generous match and immediate full vesting
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and discounts
• Opportunity to work and grow with a collaborative and entrepreneurial team