Investment Management -- Global Relationship Manager
The financial services industry is large and complex. Global Relationship Manager is also a vague job title. To explain the role, it is important to understand the relationships.
There are 3 players in this relationship: the asset manager (me), the wealth manager, and the client.
Asset managers (like Morgan Stanley and BlackRock) develop investment products and strategies. The products are then sold to wealth managers (like Merrill Lynch and Edward Jones). The wealth managers work with the client to invest using these products.
The duty of a relationship manager is to get our investment products and strategies into the hands of the partner wealth management firm at a firm-wide level. For example, a 30-year-old client invests $10,000 into an account with Merrill Lynch. The client wants consistent returns. This Merrill Lynch advisor will look at his firm's suggested list of products for the client's priorities. My job as a Morgan Stanley relationship manager was to ensure that Morgan Stanley investment products are on that list.
Global Relationship Managers are:
Salespeople
Investment Analysts
Partners
Salespeople
Considering a relationship manager as a salesperson is the most obvious role to play. Wealth management firms often have lists of products that they recommend to their advisors. Our main duty is to make sure that the wealth managers use our products as opposed to a competitor's. This requires pitching products, due diligence meetings, and sales conferences.
Investment Analysts
Relationship managers are also investment analysts. Morgan Stanley has over 200 investment strategies. The relationship manager must understand each product category in detail. The relationship manager spends significant time in conversation with portfolio managers at partner firms and knows product specifics and market conditions. We are not specialists, but market analysts with deep knowledge of products and market expectations.
Partners
The relationship manager is the connector between the asset manager and wealth manager. All deal contracts and licensing happen through the relationship manager. All problems come back to the relationship manager. It is in our hands to ensure that the firm keeps having successful deals with partners. It is critical to build a lasting, trusting relationship between firms. Billions of dollars flow between partner firms and the asset manager, so these relationships are essential to business success.
The partnership is one of the best parts of the role. In building a trusting relationship, we truly become friends with our clients. A fun part of the role is taking clients to events. I’ve gone to baseball games and on fishing boats. Speaking to these clients every day, we get to learn about their personal lives, and it creates an enjoyable personal relationship.
Despite how successful an investment product is, the sales team drives the revenue. The relationship manager gets these products to clients through our partners. Without relationship managers, most products would never reach the client. The financial services field has a lot of moving parts. It is important to have employees that manage the moving parts. Relationship managers are an essential part of the finance space for these reasons.
Flesch Reading Ease: 50.5
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9.4
Passive Sentences: 2.6%
Kate, I like how you explained the different aspects of being a relationship manager. It is cool to learn about how your role plays an important part in getting the product to the client, and how trust plays a big part in that!
ReplyDeleteKate, this was an excellent introduction to what a relationship manager does. I honestly did not know what a relationship manager was when I started to read this essay. Regarding maintaining partnerships, it is fantastic that you can do so many cool things to befriend those you are doing business with.
ReplyDeleteKate, this was incredibly effective in teaching me about a rather "swept under the rug" position. Of course, within the industry, a relationship manager is incredibly well known, from the inside out, it is rather unclear. Some very similar individuals work in the industry that my internship was in this summer. I wonder how transferable talent is cross-industry.
ReplyDeleteThis is awesome, I have a bit of experience in wealth management and the financial industry is certainly a great learning experiences. I didn't realize how much a relationship manager did, both on the sales and investment sides of these companies.
ReplyDeleteHi Kate, building relationship I think is important part. I also work in the banking industry, and I am only a teller now, but I still try to build relationship with all the customers when they walk in. I feel like it is important way to gain trust from the customers.
ReplyDelete