Assistant Portfolio Manager

Talcott Financial Group is an international life insurance group and the industry’s trusted partner for comprehensive risk solutions. Talcott creatively designs and expertly delivers responsive solutions that transfer risk and manage capital in a way that supports the strategic needs of insurers today and into the future. 

Talcott Financial Group has a proven track record of well-executed transactions, and the enterprise benefits from its strong financial position with over $127 billion in assets under management, its investment-grade financial strength ratings, and its partnership with Sixth Street, a leading global investment firm.

Talcott Financial Group’s two core business platforms include: U.S. based Talcott Resolution and Bermuda and Cayman based Talcott Re.

This position will report into the Head of Derivatives & Hedging in Investment Management (IM). The IM team is composed of CFA charter holders, Actuaries, and other investment professionals and is tasked with, among other things:

• Establishing the Enterprise Strategic Asset Allocation
• Tactical decision making with respect to asset class allocations vs targets
• Day-to-day portfolio management and decision-making
• Managing Talcott’s derivatives and hedging portfolios.
• Asset-liability management
• Liquidity management
• Underwriting and selection of third-party asset managers
• Support for asset modeling across the enterprise

Responsibilities of Position:

Talcott’s Derivatives & Hedging team is a small group within the broader IM organization that is tasked with the management of derivatives and hedging portfolios across the Talcott Financial Group.  The team is involved with the complete lifecycle of derivatives product management including idea generation, modeling, documentation, strategy maintenance and overseeing trade execution.  This mandate gives the team substantial opportunities for creativity in running the programs and the ability to directly influence the financial and risk profiles of Talcott Financial Group.  As Talcott Financial Group has grown in a variety of areas, the Derivatives & Hedging team is looking to add a key individual that will allow for the group’s continued success in value creation for the company.  A major focus for this role will be hedge strategy design, modelling, and implementation for Talcott’s newly launched retail products (primarily, fixed indexed annuities).  Candidates will need to be strong communicators in addition to having strong quantitative skills, given the need to coordinate with a broad set of stakeholders in the overall new business initiative.  The role will also be a key support for other responsibilities within the Derivatives & Hedging team, including hedge design for the variable annuity business; hedging activities in the general account including FX, interest rates, and credit; and contributing to idea generation and risk identification for financial market risk in new business opportunities. 

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or higher
• 6-10 years of experience in a relevant financial services industry role, with experience in Life & Annuity insurance/reinsurance industry preferred.  Specific knowledge of Variable Annuities, Fixed Index Annuities and RILAs is considered a plus.
• Near FSA or completed ASA desirable, strong interest in investments or pursuing investments (e.g., CFA charter holder or working towards CFA credential)
• Experience with derivative products (emphasis on equities and interest rates), with a strong understanding of market consistent/risk neutral and no-arbitrage pricing theory.  Knowledge of FX and Credit markets a plus but not required.
• Familiarity with the use of derivatives in hedging contexts, preferably hedging insurance linked products.  Desire to become derivatives and hedging subject matter expert and firmwide resource on all related topics to Talcott’s non-investment areas.
• Knowledge of derivative regulations and legal considerations, willingness to participate in non-technical aspects of derivative portfolio management (documentation, etc).
• Strong background in using Python, VBA or other similarly accessible coding languages for use in linking to front office applications.  Familiarity with Bloomberg a plus.
• Ability to think creatively about how to solve problems, including navigating ambiguity
• Strong attention to detail and well organized; ability to prioritize, multi-task and work independently under deadlines
• Strong communicator: ability to communicate effectively cross functionally within the enterprise as well as with third parties
• Quick learner and able to drive continuous improvement beyond own scope of responsibility; able to constructively challenge status quo

Behaviors:

• Think like an Owner
• Bias for Action
• Student of the Business
• Act with Integrity
• Team Player