A relationship feels effortless when someone has already handled the things that would otherwise have become problems. That is my job.
As Relationship Manager at Finivi, I support our advisors and the clients they serve. Accounts opened and transferred. Documentation prepared and tracked. Service requests resolved. Records kept complete and current in the long stretches between meetings.
I have held registered sales assistant and relationship management roles since 2004. I found this seat by process of elimination, and I have never once wanted a different one.
My Story
Charlton, Massachusetts is a small town, and ours was a competitive house. Two younger brothers, three sets of cleats by the door, and not one of us willing to concede a game of anything. My parents never had to push us. We pushed each other.
The instinct carried further than the direction did. I went to Westfield State College without a clear sense of what I was aiming at, which is a difficult thing to sit with when you have spent your whole life keeping score. Then in 2002 an investment firm in Agawam offered to train me as a financial advisor, and I took it. I passed my life insurance and Series 6 exams and sat down in a sales role.
It didn’t take long to realize I had found the right industry, but not the right role. So I went looking for one that was a better fit.
I found a registered sales assistant position at a local bank, earned my Series 7 there, and finally landed in the part of this business I had been circling the whole time. I have worked in this type of role since 2004.
Professional Background
An advisor sits across from a client and makes a recommendation. I handle everything that has to be true for that recommendation to hold; the account opened correctly, the transfer completed, the paperwork accurate, and the record current.
Clients rarely see any of it, and that is rather the point. I have spent more than twenty years learning where the details hide and how to catch them before they surface as a problem for someone else.
What surprised me is how much of this role turns out to be about relationships rather than process. I speak with the same clients for years. I know what they are moving through, what they worry about, and what they would rather not have to ask twice. That is the part I would not trade.
Personal Pursuits
Most weekends, I am at a softball field. My two daughters play competitive travel and school ball, which means our family calendar is built around a schedule someone else sets. I do not mind it. There is a particular satisfaction in watching from the fence line, given that I would once have been the one keeping score.
When the calendar allows, my husband and I take the girls wherever we can get to. The rest of the time you will find me outdoors, usually on a trail.
