VP​/Director of Insurance Planning

Who You’ll Work With:

Bernstein's Wealth Strategies team is a multi-disciplinary group of professionals with expertise helping individuals and families navigate complex wealth planning. Our mandate is to provide actionable advice for clients as it relates to planning for lifetime spending, wealth transfer, philanthropy, and the investment implementation of these plans. We focus first on uncovering client priorities, values, and defining goals. We next help our clients achieve these goals by crafting a research based financial plan consistent with their priorities and values.

We seek an insurance professional with well-rounded expertise in personal insurance planning for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth individuals and their families, including life insurance, annuities, long-term care, health, disability, and property/casualty insurance. The individual will be based in one of our US offices and report to the Head of Bernstein's Wealth Strategies Group. The Director of Insurance Planning is a client-facing sales support role working alongside Bernstein’s Wealth Advisors to expand the Private Wealth business.

As a key domain expert supporting Bernstein's wealth planning research, the Director will frequently be called upon to provide thought leadership on insurance-related issues to clients, in audiences large and small, through individualized & group presentations, case studies, articles, and, potentially, external media.

A strong background in risk management and insurance planning is required, including experience in and knowledge of life insurance and annuity products, long-term care insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, and property/casualty insurance products. Specifically, the candidate must have experience and expertise in analyzing client insurance needs, evaluating insurance and annuity products, evaluating tax‑efficient structuring and conducting financial planning.

The Director of Insurance Planning – working in conjunction with Bernstein's Investment and Wealth Strategies Analysts and Senior Planning and Investment Professionals – will help develop customized solutions for the firm's clients. Because this position is client-facing, the individual must have outstanding presentation skills and the ability to explain complex issues and strategies to both technical and non‑technical audiences.

• Working with the firm's Financial Advisors and clients in analyzing existing and proposed insurance products and related strategies in the context of clients' tax and estate planning circumstances.
• Communicating our planning research conclusions and capabilities to clients, prospects, and professionals both sophisticated and lay.
• Establishing the Bernstein brand in the high net worth channel by engendering trust and confidence among prospective and existing clients and their professional intermediaries.
• Working closely with our Financial Advisors as a strategic partner.
• Training and educating the Financial Advisors and members of the Wealth Strategies research team on insurance products and insurance planning strategies, and any related compliance guardrails.
• Assisting in the identification and research of current issues regarding asset allocation, tax management, investment planning, and other critical private wealth topics.
• Conducting original research and publishing articles, marketing materials and a variety of client‑servicing presentations summarizing our research insights.

Strong analytical skills, thought leadership, an effective interpersonal style, excellent public‑speaking skills, a strong academic record and a history of professional success are also required. Strong mathematical skills, including familiarity with basic estate planning analytical software and Excel, are preferred.

Having the highest level of personal and professional integrity is essential. To succeed at the firm, the individual must be very bright, quantitative, intellectually sophisticated, client‑service oriented, and able to work in a team‑based culture; building strong relationships both inside and outside the firm…