Has anyone worked as a fund/portfolio accountant? If so, what should I expect as far as workload, advancement oppertunities, etc. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys!
I do that now. Personally, I think it’s horrible…but I’ve also been doing this for like three and a half years. You do cash/position reconciliations and put together month end work papers. Ultimately it depends what you want to do. If you want to be controller and deal with accounting, then it’s a great place to start and advance. Even however if you don’t want to be a controller and want to move over to the business side, I still think it’s a good start. It allows you to learn about different products, and the treatment of those products, but I think your ability to learn new things in the position plateaus after about 2-3 years.
So, if I wanted to eventually be a fund manager or a portfolio analyst, this would not be a good position for me? Thanks for the advice. 
fund accounting was my first job out of college for a large custodian. For an entry level position in boston the job pays low 30s with a small 0-5% bonus. its a pretty boring job and anyone with half a brain and good work ethic will do fine and get promoted. career paths… fund accounting -> BOM for life fund accounting -> try to break into Asset management arm of custodian fund accounting -> operations for asset manager -> try to break into portfolio management group
Cool, thanks for the advice guys.
BiPolarBoyBoston Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > anyone with half a brain and good work ethic will do fine and > get promoted. Good point.
ouch, 3 and a half years? should of jump ship a year into the job, thats what most people did. no excuse to pass atleast a single leve of the cfa by this time. big reg flag to future employeers.
I’m @ L2, retaking this year unfortunately… but the only reason I haven’t left yet is because the job market has been sh!t. I’ve been trying for an ops position, but no one’s has been hiring for them unless you have several yrs of ops behind you. Trust me… I wish I wasn’t still here. I’m studying for the GMAT now, so if I can’t make a move, I’ll have a backup. Edit: I’m also making substantially more than what you have mentioned (both base & bonus). My pay is about parallel to what you’d make at a fund.
guessing your not the standard fund accountant at BoNY, State Street, JPMorgan, or Northern if your firm has an asset management arm i suggest you try to look for a performance measurement or similar entry level roles there but if your already 25-26yrs old i think your best bet would be a fulltime top 10 MBA (i’ve seen it happen)
I’m at a top hedge fund admin in NYC area. So regardless, I’d have to leave the firm eventually.
Arrive 6:30-6:45. Begin daily download for Advent. 7:30: Finish loading all the daily files, prior day trades, dividends, etc. 8:00: Begin portfolio reconciling! The main drag, this takes about 3-5 hours where I go through 100s of accounts checking on cash balance inconsistencies, failed trades, double booked transactions, etc. The main objective of my job is to be preventive maintenance for trade errors. YTD I’ve had none. 11:00-1:00: Finish reconciling and eat lunch. 1:00: Load prices for securities and fixed income. 2:00: Account maintenance: Open new accounts as needed, update benchmarks, change managers, close, update, etc. 4ish: Go home for the day. 6:00: Arrive home, crack a Nattie, and post, “BO+CFA = FO?” on AF. At anytime during the day phone calls, emails, faxes will interrupt me with clients demanding their balance, unrealized gains/losses, sending reallocation forms, withdrawals, wires, etc. Not a terrible interruption; overall its a pretty quiet job.
Wow, didn’t expect this many replies. Thanks to everyone who responded. QuantJock_MBA: Thanks for such an in-depth overview of what a fund accountant does on the day-to-day! I have the interview with State Street this Wednesday. Should I expect an excel or access test? Wish me luck!
Any of you guys work as an Operations Analyst in the hedge fund aministration field? I work in this position, and the other side is the Fund Accountants (in my location) Trades, positions and cash reconciliations are the main three things for the daily deliverables… booking dividends, spots et cetera also… I’m still new to the job, and from what I gather it will take a good year to be familiar with the position… I’d love to become a senior after maybe a year and a half (if all goes well), but I agree with the CAPPED potential… I only entered this role to gain relevant finance experience in hopes to move into different roles in the future… after all, experience is king nowadays (education is a necessity, but experience gets you ahead) I like the job so far… pay is nowhere near what I would like especially after completing a Masters degree (but from a noname school)… anyway, let’s hope the future brings good opportunities once I pass the CFA exams and have a couple years experience under the belt!!
MrAndMatt Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Wow, didn’t expect this many replies. Thanks to > everyone who responded. > > QuantJock_MBA: Thanks for such an in-depth > overview of what a fund accountant does on the > day-to-day! > > I have the interview with State Street this > Wednesday. Should I expect an excel or access > test? > > Wish me luck! Good luck man. I worked with SS BO quite a bit in my role since they were our custodian. I would not expect any sort of test, but I really don’t know SS hiring practice. I don’t want to discourage you, but I really did not enjoy my job so when I was laid off, I pursued B school. While you are being interviewed, make sure the job is a good fit for you given your goals and aspirations. I should have done that as I had two offers at the time and feel I took the wrong one since it paid $4k more than the other. Let us know how it goes.
Quick update for those who care. My interview with State Street went well and I should hear back from HR next week. The two managers seemed to like me well enough and I had them laughing at some of my great “Tell me a time when…” stories. I’ll let you know when I hear something!
Congrats on the interviews. It’s still a horrible job market out there
2nd Update State Street HR rep called, said she received great feedback from the two managers who interviewed me. She did not offer me the position, but said she would get back to me as soon as she knew the dates for their next training sessions… Should I assume I am getting the position?
That’s confusing. You should ask her directly if you were given the position. And if she says yes, make sure it’s in writing
I don’t know anyone that COULDN’T get a job as a fund accountant at State Street. They would have a 100 head count hiring class every month because turnover was so bad, like 60-70% of the people would quit within the first year. Fund accounting @ State Street is absolutely the bottom of the barrel in the finance industry in Boston and I know because I worked in practically the same job for 1.5yrs at a competitor. And the people, omg the people, 10% of the workers didn’t have the mental capacity to do the job (include some bosses) aka these folks have problem with 6th grade math, 60% of the people just don’t care and are lazy/unmotivated/content, 20% are hard workers but content to go to 2nd and 3rd tier PT MBA programs and get promoted within the office, 10% are pretty smart and hard working… my floor had about ~150 people and of those 150 about 10-15 people would take level 1 of the CFA and in my 1.5yrs there only one person passed level 1.
BiPolar, I have been doing portfolio accounting for 3 years at a competitor and I am going to take level 2 in June 2011. I have been trying to leave for like 4-5 months but the job market is so bad… What did you transition into?