Business Assurance Adviser

**Who we are**

People have always been at the heart of St. James’s Place, we value long-term relationships and we are a home for people who care about the future - financially, environmentally and socially. These core values have enabled us to become a leading FTSE 100 Wealth Management company.

**Business Assurance Adviser/Senior Business Assurance Adviser**

Employment Type: Permanent /Full Time

Location: Bristol / hybrid

We are looking to recruit a Business Assurance Adviser or Senior Business Assurance Adviser, level and grade to be determined based on experience and qualifications.

The main purpose of this role is to compliance check a range of business submitted by the Partnership, providing feedback to the Field Management Team, Business Risk Team and Partners on changes required to cases. To also provide technical support to the Partnership in relation to the correct documentation for all case types.

Approximately 10% of the checking team are Senior BAA’s and are required to demonstrate their increased technical knowledge by achieving Chartered status as a minimum, over that of the team of BAA’s who require Diploma status.

**What you’ll be doing**:

- Compliance checking a range of business submitted by the Partnership. For Senior BAA’s this will include the most complex Investment, Pension (including DB transfers) and IHT cases.
- Advising Business Risk and Field Management of any issues raised from file checking to enable feedback to the Partner.
- Delivering projects as required, e.g. Partner investigations.
- Attending regular meetings where necessary to ensure a consistent approach on all areas of Support reviewing and discuss areas where improvements/changes can be made.
- Ensuring that acceptable and consistent level of service standards are maintained.

Additionally, a Senior Business Assurance Adviser will be required to:

- Deal with query resolution, training, quality checking of trainees’ cases and project work within BA, also representing the department in projects and corporate development.
- Provide expert feedback to the Partnership and Field Management team on case content to protect the clients from any mis-selling and the Partners and SJP from any financial, regulatory or reputational damage.
- Provide training and mentoring for new members of BA where necessary and in conjunction with the training team, including QA.
- Deliver and/or be party to projects as required, including but not limited to such items as Strategy Implementation, Aptus development, and where necessary, Partner investigations.
- Deputize for management when required, including handling BA concessions, acting as a point of contact for Grade Appeals and escalations, providing support for work allocation and to operate within a highly technical niche area to provide technical expertise to the team and BA managers

**Who we’re looking for**:

- An individual with CII Level 4 Diploma (or equivalent) as a minimum.
- PC literate, including MS Excel, Word, Outlook, Teams etc.
- A full understanding of how the BA role fits in with the Field Management Team and the Partnership, the end-to-end advice model, wider financial services environment, the compliance framework and steps necessary to avoid mis-selling.
- Ability to undertake complex calculations when assessing cases related to Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, annual lifetime pensions allowances and the analysis of ceding scheme information etc.
- Ability to make suggestions for improvements to processes to contribute to continuous improvement within the BA function. There is a requirement to be able to adapt to changes in process/practice and those changes driven by Regulation.
- Strong communication and relationship building skills, ability to articulate complex feedback in a way that is understood and accepted.
- Resilience to setbacks and challenges from the field and ability to manage expectations accordingly.

**Special Requirements**

There may also be the need to be CF30 registered, and SM & CR certified with the Regulator and the requirement for occasional travel to other sites for the purposes of training/team meetings.

**Flexible Working**

We understand that employees work best in different ways, at different times and in different environments. We value all of our employees and appreciate that everyone is unique, and at one of many stages within their career. Recognising this, we have introduced a hybrid working policy to provide greater flexibility for part-time work, job-sharing, remote working, and flexibility on hours. Our people are encouraged to work in a flexible way that suits their lifestyle where it can be accommodated, so please ask the question and start a conversation

**Why work for us?**

**Our Rewards**

In addition to an attractive salary and eligibility to participate in the discretionary annual bonus opportunities, you will also receive an excellent benefits package including:

- Non-Contributor