Jennifer L. Cunningham, CAMS

Jennifer L. Cunningham is a Bates Group Managing Director and an accomplished and seasoned financial services industry professional with over of 20 years of experience in broker-dealer branch office compliance management, risk and supervision, operations, sales support, Human Resources, and customer communications. Her experience encompasses more than a decade as a compliance manager, where among other things, she provided ongoing monitoring and compliance support activities for broker-dealer customer accounts and certain activities of registered and non-registered employees, to ensure adherence to the firms’ policies, processes, and procedures. Ms. Cunningham’s key areas of expertise include customer complaints, branch office audits, managing various aspects of financial advisor heightened supervision plans, Human Resources (e.g., sourcing, interviewing, hiring, etc.), providing fact witness testimony, and attending mediations and FINRA arbitrations in the capacity of branch office corporate representative.

Prior to joining Bates Group, Ms. Cunningham served as a Managing Director at another consulting firm, where she assisted that firm’s overall business development efforts with a focus on diversity and inclusion.  Drawing upon her former branch office compliance manager and sales support background, she provided expertise in support of broker-dealer litigation and customer complaint matters, as well as providing filing assistance for FINRA New Member Applications. Ms. Cunningham also served as lead project manager for specialized regulatory and compliance consulting retentions.

Ms. Cunningham has held various broker-dealer management positions during her career. At UBS Financial Services, Inc. (UBS), headquartered in Weehawken, NJ, she was a Director, Senior Client Communications Manager, where she worked in the Chief Marketing Office, and assisted in-house counsel, along with various other departments (e.g., banking, mutual funds, retirements, capital markets) with drafting and executing UBS’s customer communications. Ms. Cunningham also worked with in-house and outside counsel on firm-wide customer settlement communications. While at UBS, Ms. Cunningham was also a Director, Complex Administrative Manager for UBS’s Park Avenue branch office in New York City, where she supervised the branch office compliance and operations teams and the branch office sales support team. Ms. Cunningham was responsible for human resources activities, including, sourcing candidates, interviewing, hiring, monitoring financial advisor operational/ administrative support, and annual performance reviews.

Prior to joining UBS in 2013, she was a Vice President, Administrative Manager for the Merrill Lynch Fifth Avenue flagship office in New York City, where she was responsible for many supervisory duties, including, but not limited to: performing various daily compliance, supervisory and suitability reviews of the firms’ customer accounts, reporting and assisting in-house counsel and compliance with responding to customer complaints, assisting back-office compliance with implementing and ensuring heightened supervision plans were adhered to, working with affected advisors, in-house and outside counsel on FINRA arbitration matters, including acting in the capacity of corporate representative on behalf of the branch office by attending various mediations and FINRA Arbitrations.

Ms. Cunningham began her financial services career in the early 1990’s in Wilmington, DE. She became a FINRA licensed Sales Assistant in 1997 and moved to New York City in 2006.