Annuities Retention Specialist jobs in Chicago, IL

Imagine a professional innovative environment, with one of the country’s leading Catholic Membership organizations. That’s Catholic Order of Foresters (COF). Our collaborative environment, passion for service, and opportunities to serve on various internal committees positively impacting the organization’s culture and personal professional growth makes COF a great place not just to work, but to build a career. Visit https://www.catholicforester.org/ to learn more about how we serve communities around the U.S.

The Manager of Annuities is responsible for maintaining the highest level of customer service to members, producers, and internal stakeholders by managing and processing all aspects of our annuity business. The manager is a subject matter expert on annuity products, procedures, and regulations and ensures that processes and procedures are done in a manner that is effective, efficient, and compliant by regularly monitoring and making necessary changes.

Responsibilities:

• Takes complete ownership and serves as annuity subject matter expert to mentor, train, and support other team members on annuity concepts, rules, regulations, and procedures.
• Manage and train staff to ensure they complete all processes and procedures in a complete, accurate, and compliant manner.
• Process all annuity new business and inforce annuity transactions such as contributions, distributions, tax reporting, exchanges, transfers, settlements, and other contract maintenance, within departmental SLAs.
• Maintain application cycle times in line or below industry averages.
• Interact daily via phone and email with the membership, agents, internal team, and other external carriers and business partners.
• Respond to and resolve escalated requests and complaints; respond to regulatory inquiries.
• Monitor annuity operations and regularly report to management.
• Define department and company goals for personnel.
• Work collaboratively with other operations managers and Product Solutions team.
• Assist management on projects and implement changes to achieve company goals.
• Serve on various committees, as needed.
• Additional duties and responsibilities as required.

Job Requirements: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:

• Subject matter expertise of annuity products and applicable laws and regulations. Knowledge of other life insurance products.
• Superior interpersonal skills with a high level of comfort working in and navigating relationships.
• Ability to properly balance and prioritize between daily work and personnel issues.
• Ability to motivate and develop staff, lead and manage teams, and consistently maintain an atmosphere of high morale through mindful and intentional conflict resolution.
• Ability to delegate and empower others to complete tasks and support their decisions.
• Ability to hire and terminate when necessary.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Must be comfortable and able to work in a fast-paced environment with fluctuating workload; can handle prioritizing assignments and manage distractions in order to meet deadlines.
• Be able to maintain a high level of quality of work and attention to detail with sense of urgency.
• Has a flexible approach to change, constantly seeks improvements and is forward looking.
• Demonstrates a reliable, responsive, and positive work ethic with the highest degree of integrity.
• Bi-lingual in Spanish a plus.

Education/Experience:

• Bachelor’s Degree and a minimum of 3-5 years of relevant experience preferred; or a combination of education and experience.
• Customer service experience in insurance, finance, or a related business field preferred.
• LOMA and/or other industry related coursework and certifications preferred.
• Supervisory experience a plus.

Language and Math Ability:

• Excellent verbal and written communication; can handle rapid changes in conversation and difficult questions; ability to effectively communicate with managers, agents, and customers.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with ability to identify and resolve problems quickly.
• Ability to write grammatically correct correspondence and documentation.
• Ability to compute arithmetic equations, and calculate ratios, rates, and percentages.
• Ability to generate reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.

Work Environment: The work environment characteristics described are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job.

• Ability to work well with others in a fast-paced, demanding environment and maintain a high level of quality work.
• Typically, the position requires working on site to answer phone calls, conduct research, foster rapport and collaboration, as well as inspire a free flow of ideas, concepts, and creativity.

Because we care about our team members, we are pleased to offer the following benefits:

Competitive pay, Health insurance, Life insurance, Dental insurance, Vision Insurance, Short & Long Term Disability, EAP, Identity Theft/Legal insurance, 401(k), HSA, Paid vacation and holidays, Tuition Reimbursement