Career Opportunities

Financial Planner Research Assistant - Contractor

Kitces.com is hiring a Research Assistant in a contract role position to assist with our series of 4 semi-annual Kitces Research studies, including supporting on survey design and programming, creation of new and updates to existing Stata routines, organizing Stata outputs to Excel, and building tables and charts for the final research report.

So, if you love to swim in a sea of (advisor) data, are excited by the idea of carefully crafting survey questions to get the exact right kind of response, look forward to taking hundreds of lines of information and put it into an organized fashion in Stata to make meaning from it, and revel in bringing data to life through the creation of tables and graphs that tell a story, then this job is for you!

Description/Responsibilities

This entirely virtually-based staff position will report to the Lead Researcher and will work directly with Research Team and Chief Financial Planning Nerd, Michael Kitces.

The Research Assistant will have the following core areas of functional responsibility:

Primary responsibilities:

• Assist with design of the Kitces Research survey instruments
• Assist with online programming of the survey, including adding new questions, updating or enhancing the set-up of pre-existing questions, and programming field validation and branching logic to expedite the survey process and maximize engagement and usable responses
• Participate in quality assurance review of online survey draft prior to study fielding
• Update existing Stata routines for current surveys, devise and add new routines where applicable, and contribute to refining pre-existing Stata routines
• Organize Stata output into Excel, and build initial tables and charts
• Assist with identifying key research findings for feature in Kitces Research report
• Hand off tables and graphs to graphic designer to be turned into final “report ready” versions
• Proof final Kitces Research report, with special focus on data references

Pending availability:

• Assist with refining how past surveys and questions are archived in Alchemer so that past work can be more efficiently leveraged in future surveys
• Enhance current research project documentation, detailing the survey set-up process as well as the data compilation process

Pending Aptitude and Availability:

• Assist with final report write-up as a contributor

Key Candidate Traits

Company Qualifications

Candidates for Kitces opportunities should be self-motivated enough to work in a virtual environment (autonomous), have an extremely strong inclination for continuous learning (self-development), an immaculate attention to detail (organized and efficient), a service mindset (seeks to collaborate and to help and support others), and an ability to work in a changing environment (adaptability).

Key domains of required expertise include:

• Proficient with Stata as it relates to data management and analysis
• Experience in online survey set-up and programming, with Alchemer experience preferred but not required
• Experience in survey design and programming
• Expert Excel skills

Education: Field of study in Financial Planning preferred but not required.

Candidates must be U.S. Citizens, and work primarily within the United States.

Compensation/Benefits:

• Salary $30 – $40/hr based on experience
• Paid subscription to student subscription of Stata. All other equipment and software tools are expected to be provided by the candidate.
• Byline as Contributor on Kitces Research Study as shown on pages 2-3 of How Financial Planners Actually Do Financial Planning Volume 2 2022

This is a 1-year contract position for August 2023 thru July 2024, to conduct the next 2 semi-annual Kitces Research studies. (Available candidates can begin in July of 2023 for initial pre-study training.) This position is guaranteed a minimum of 100 hours for each study (200 hours across 2 studies) and should not exceed a total of 300 hours for the year. Hours required will range from 3-8 hours per week.

Effective candidates will have opportunities to renew their Research Assistant with Kitces Research for subsequent years.

What it’s like working at Kitces.com

We are a team that lives by our values, our support of one another and our commitment to the community we serve. The successful candidate will share these Kitces Core Values:

• Do the Right Thing
• Advisors First
• Be the Trusted Source
• Deposit More Than We Withdraw
• No A$$holes
• Get Your Nerd On

At Kitces.com we have all but eradicated internal email. All internal communication is done via Slack, or through Asana tasks.

When on Slack calls, video is expected as we believe hearing voices and seeing faces makes for stronger communication and connections. We lean on technology tools to get things done and protect our time. An example is our use of the delayed-send on Slack messages. While anyone might have a great idea pop up at any time, we are careful to make sure messages are only sent during regular business hours to respect the work/home boundaries of our work-from-home (or work-from-anywhere) team.

As a company, we try to front-load meetings to the beginning of the week so that the end of the week can be more focused on Deep Work to maximize our personal productivity.

While, as a remote company, we tend to attract a lot of introverts, we also recognize the value in creating work relationships, so we have a social committee that creatively offers a multitude of ways for people to connect in the ways they feel most comfortable
To Apply:
Interested candidates for the Financial Planner Research Assistant should complete the initial application form. Questions can be directed to [email protected].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Associate Financial Planning Nerd

** No longer accepting submissions **

Kitces.com is hiring an Associate Financial Planning Nerd who will be responsible for writing and supporting the creation of original Nerd’s Eye View articles (and doing the associated research and analysis) on topics of interest to the financial advicer community, supporting our financial planning Resources with timely updates, supporting on the development of our speaker presentations, and providing other support as needed to the Advisor Education team in the creation of our Members Section content.

So if the idea of being able to just ‘nerd out’ on financial planning, tax strategies, and research all day long excites you, you enjoy continuously learning and sharing that learning journey with others (and figuring out the best way to teach and communicate those concepts), are excited to support industry-leading thought leaders and developing your own expertise in service to the financial advicer community, and want to join the most trusted source of quality and relevant information in the financial planning industry (as well as a team that actually lives by the values they talk about)… then this is the job for you!

Description/Responsibilities
This full-time, entirely virtually based staff position (work from anywhere, no relocation required!) will report to the Managing Editor as a member of the Editorial Team, and work directly to support Chief Financial Planning Nerd Michael Kitces.

Core responsibilities include following:

Annual Content Creation Responsibilities:
– Creation of 12 full-length articles for Nerd’s Eye View (1 every month) throughout the calendar year, including all related research and analysis, following the Kitces 3x3x3 content framework
– Support the blog creation process as need, including the development of relevant blog graphics to present key information, and supporting spreadsheet models where necessary to analyze key topics or issues
– Support the process of collecting and posting updated information for Kitces Resources
– Provide backup support to Senior Technical editor and Senior Financial Planning Nerd

Curation Responsibilities:
– Monitor industry trade and other publications for potential articles for Weekend Reading recap or social media sharing
– Support identification of prospective topics or Guest authors for Nerd’s Eye View blog posts
– Assist in reviewing Guest Post submissions to determine if appropriate to accept into the editing process

Other Responsibilities/Opportunities:
– Support in the creation of new or updated PowerPoint slide presentations based on existing articles and other site content

Future Opportunities:
– Serve as a paid Kitces Speaker for webinars or in-person conference events
– Provide consulting services as a part of Kitces Consulting

In addition to the above responsibilities, we encourage our team members to identify other growth opportunities for the platform and lead in their implementation while learning new and beneficial skills. In other words, you will own certain assigned accountabilities, but we also want you to work on projects and opportunities that YOU identify as relevant to the platform and career, and that you are passionate about. We at the Kitces team are building something together!

Key Candidate Traits
The ideal candidate should be self-motivated enough to work in a virtual environment with limited supervision (autonomous), have an extremely strong inclination for continuous learning (self-development), an immaculate attention to detail (organized and efficient), a service mindset (seeks to collaborate and to help and support others in service to the financial advicer community), and an ability to work in a changing fast-growing environment (adaptability). We are a team that lives by our values, our support of one another, and our commitment to the community we serve. The successful candidate will share these values.

Core Values
• Do the Right Thing
• Advisors First
• Be the Trusted Source
• Deposit More Than We Withdraw
• No A$$holes
• Get Your Nerd On

The candidate should also be highly adept at both written and verbal communication to educate, both within our virtual team, and to our financial advisor audience, and be capable to meeting specific content production deadlines.

Notably, the Kitces platform itself is also growing and evolving. As a result, we are looking for people who seek to be challenged to learn, grow, try new things, and will bring fresh perspectives to the team.

Candidates must be U.S. Citizens, and work within a reasonable time zone to the Eastern United States.

The successful candidate will have completed their CFP certification, and a Master’s degree or other advanced designations are desirable. Direct planning experience with clients is a positive, but not required.

Compensation/Benefits
– Base salary $50,000 – $70,000/year (depending on experience)
– Available bonus up to 12% of base salary (payable at up to 3%/quarter), determined by meeting key Members Section metrics
– $5,000 budget for additional financial planning education (i.e., post-CFP designations/certifications) or other training/skills education
– $2,000 budget for technology hardware/software or related office materials
– $3,000 conference budget
– Paid membership in Financial Planning Association, NAPFA, and/or other relevant membership associations
– 15 days of paid time off for combined vacation + sick, plus 6 national holidays
– Participation in company 401(k) plan
– Participation in company health insurance plan

To Apply:
Interested candidates for the Associate Financial Planning Nerd should complete the application form. Questions can be directed to [email protected]