Amanda Kolath
Castle Pines,US
Summary
Senior financial services professional with 20+ years of experience across investment operations, retirement services, and financial product administration within insurance and wealth management organizations. Extensive expertise supporting investment products, fund lineup changes, regulatory initiatives, and financial reporting across annuity and retirement platforms. Advanced Excel user skilled in developing performance reporting, analytics dashboards, and operational reporting tools. Proven ability to coordinate complex initiatives across accounting, compliance, product, and technology teams while ensuring investment product accuracy and operational efficiency.
Overview
25
25
years of professional experience
Work History
Project Manager - Business Readiness
Empower
03.2025 - Current
- Lead operational readiness and implementation support for financial planning tools, retirement income products, and tax services across enterprise advisory and investment platforms.
- Develop Excel-based dashboards and analytics reporting tools to monitor project metrics, operational performance, and service level commitments.
- Coordinate with product, compliance, operations, marketing, and technology teams to deliver investment platform updates and financial product enhancements.
- Manage issue and defect tracking for platform migrations and operational initiatives, identifying trends and coordinating resolution with technology teams.
- Designed and implemented a standardized Business Readiness framework, reducing redundant planning steps and improving project transparency across teams.
- Produce operational documentation, procedures, and training resources supporting product launches and regulatory updates.
- Mentor analysts and global team members on reporting tools, operational workflows, and issue management processes.
Associate Consultant - Business Management
Empower
10.2023 - 03.2025
- Supported enterprise investment and retirement product initiatives through project coordination, operational analysis, and stakeholder reporting.
- Built Excel-based tracking tools to monitor system updates, product changes, and operational risk items across investment platforms.
- Completed 24,000+ system validations and initiated over 18,000 configuration updates during account migrations to ensure investment data accuracy and operational continuity.
- Coordinated with advisory teams, compliance partners, and technology teams to implement financial product updates and operational changes.
- Developed operational resources including FAQs, product matrices, documentation, and training materials supporting advisors and service teams.
Lead Business Systems Analyst
Protective Life
03.2022 - 09.2023
- Served as project lead for multiple enterprise and industry initiatives including SECURE Act 1 & 2 regulatory updates, RMD LEM rate changes, W4P tax reporting updates, and implementation of GIACT services.
- Led operational initiatives supporting variable annuity fund lineup changes, regulatory updates, and investment product implementations across platforms.
- Coordinated the transition from a Protective legacy system to State Street for delivery of daily unit pricing, improving pricing accuracy and operational efficiency for investment products.
- Acted as a liaison between analysts and key stakeholders including corporate accounting, tax, separate accounts, compliance teams, and valuation groups.
- Partnered with project managers and operational teams to support investment reporting initiatives and product enhancements.
- Recognized as a subject matter expert on Great-West legacy products and Protective annuity platforms, supporting both internal teams and external partners.
- Mentored analysts and business users on system processes and operational workflows.
Senior Business Systems Analyst
Protective Life
03.2020 - 03.2022
- Led multiple initiatives during the move of the Great-West/Empower variable annuity block to Protective Life including transitioning regulatory document management from Broadridge to Toppan Merrill, establishing a fund performance and fund fact sheet generation with Morningstar, compliance reporting requirements, and modifying all tax reporting and valuations extracts to meet Protective's needs.
- Built and maintained conversion project plans for the business analyst team for dry run and conversion exercises ensuring all data validation and manual transaction tasks were completed on schedule for 2 system conversions into our payout annuity module.
- Became the control owner for the quarterly reconciliation of the Great-West variable annuity subaccounts.
- Constructed business requirement documents and test plans and implemented system modifications to address system defects, complex death benefit calculations, RMD calculations and table changes, valuations and tax extracts, implement partner report requests, and month system releases with the system vendor DXC.
Business Analyst
Great-West Life
07.2016 - 03.2020
- Managed investment fund change projects across variable annuity products, coordinating with legal, compliance, partner relationship teams, and fund companies.
- Maintained investment option configurations, business rules, and reporting structures within the annuity administration system.
- Led testing and implementation of investment product updates and regulatory changes.
- Created project plans and coordinated cross-functional teams to ensure timely implementation of fund updates.
Senior Retirement Operations Specialist
Great-West Life
08.2014 - 07.2016
Retirement Operations Senior Phone Rep
Great-West Life
03.2012 - 07.2014
Financial Consultant
TIAA
05.2007 - 11.2010
Executive Assistant
First Investors Corporation
06.2001 - 05.2007
Education
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) - Business Management/Economics
Elmira College
Elmira, NY, US06-2001
Skills
- Research and Analysis
- Report Writing
- Business Processes and Procedures
- Cross-Functional Stakeholder Coordination
- Operational Process Improvement
- Internal and External Communications
- Report Preparation
- Documentation & Training Development
- Data Consolidation
- Database Management System Software
- Advanced Microsoft Excel
- Project Management
Timeline
Project Manager - Business Readiness
Empower
03.2025 - Current
Associate Consultant - Business Management
Empower
10.2023 - 03.2025
Lead Business Systems Analyst
Protective Life
03.2022 - 09.2023
Senior Business Systems Analyst
Protective Life
03.2020 - 03.2022
Business Analyst
Great-West Life
07.2016 - 03.2020
Senior Retirement Operations Specialist
Great-West Life
08.2014 - 07.2016
Retirement Operations Senior Phone Rep
Great-West Life
03.2012 - 07.2014
Financial Consultant
TIAA
05.2007 - 11.2010
Executive Assistant
First Investors Corporation
06.2001 - 05.2007
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) - Business Management/Economics
Elmira College