The position is located at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, Retail Securities Service, Division of Customer Service. As a Legal Administrative Specialist, you will be responsible for analyzing customer requests, approving, and validating legal evidence, and communicating with the customer, or legal representative, to reconcile incomplete or conflicting information to process claims, make a payment, or complete other securities transactions.

Duties

NOTE: Based on current hiring restrictions, selectees may be subject to additional approvals prior to an offer being extended. The following are the duties of this position at the GS-11. If you are selected at a lower grade level, you will have the opportunity to learn to perform all these duties, and will receive training to help you grow in this position. - Examine electronic case files and approve the validity of legal evidence of varied and complex nature to process claims, process transactions, establish entitlement to securities and official information, and adjust incorrectly processed transactions within the perspective of relevant laws, regulations, and precedents. Legal evidence includes death certificates, fiduciary appointments, trust agreements, small estate affidavits, bonds of indemnity, decrees of distribution, letters of summary administration, court orders, final accounts, wills, and divorce and property settlements. The work is accomplished using computer applications such as customer relationship management systems, tracking systems, and payment systems to search issue and retirement records, add or remove caveats, price bonds, check payment status, maintain accounts, prepare correspondence, and process payments. - Adjudicate and authorize claims for eligibility and payment for retail securities programs without further review. Decide and take appropriate action on all issues without regard to difficulty. Some claims originate outside of the United States and come under special provisions (foreign). The employee evaluates evidence, develops all factual and legal issues, and makes the final determinations subject only to the claimant's rights to reconsideration or appeal. - Analyze customer requests and supporting evidence to ensure that securities transactions are processed in accordance with Treasury securities regulations, policies, precedents, and federal and state laws in a timely and efficient manner. The employee independently approves and authorizes detailed transactions containing legal evidence. As necessary, request additional development of specific issues and evidence or initiate and approve waivers of some facets of regulations for unique requests. At times, the employee requests advice, either written or orally, from legal staff to obtain rulings that result in transaction approval of a precedent or policy setting nature. - Assume responsibility for the integrity of the master file records of United States Savings Securities by providing the correct posting of transactions. The employee investigates, or initiates, savings bond adjustments. Savings bond adjustments involve a variety of transactions and require substantial research. Examples of savings bond adjustments include original bonds recovered after a claim is completed, mis-assemblies, issue date errors, serial number discrepancies, duplicate transactions, errors on denominations, errors during issuance, and lost paid bonds. Additionally, employee responsibility involves creating advices and collecting and transferring funds from individuals, agents, and other offices.

Requirements

Qualifications

You must meet the following requirements within 30 days of the closing date of this announcement. The experience may have been gained in either the public, private sector or volunteer service. One year of experience refers to full-time work; part-time work is considered on a prorated basis. To ensure full credit for your work experience, please indicate dates of employment by month/day/year, and indicate number of hours worked per week on your résumé. Specialized Experience: Specialized experience for the GS-9 is defined as one year of experience at the GS-7 level, or equivalent that is directly related to the position and which has equipped the candidate with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Specialized experience includes applying analytical and evaluative techniques to the identification, consideration, and resolution of issues or problems of a procedural or factual nature, in researching securities laws and regulations in order to adjudicate cases and support decisions. Examples of such experience may include: - Evaluating documents, such as death certificates, fiduciary appointments, and decrees of distribution , to determine their acceptability; OR - Preparing recommendations for leads, supervisors, etc., for processing transactions for which there is no clear precedent; OR - Adapting procedures as needed in order to process transactions; OR - Explaining decisions to investors. OR You may substitute education for specialized experience as follows: completed a master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., if related. OR You may qualify with a combination of experience and education. To combine education and experience, your total qualifying experience is calculated as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level. Then, your education is calculated as a percentage of the education required for the grade level. The two percentages are added together. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify for that grade level. Note that only graduate education in excess of the amount required for the next lower grade level can be combined with the appropriate level of experience to qualify applicants for positions at the GS-9 grade level. Specialized experience for the GS-7 is defined as one year of experience at the GS-5 level, or equivalent that is directly related to the position and which has equipped the candidate with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities to successfully perform the duties of the position. Specialized experience includes experience carrying out successive steps in fact-finding and analysis of issues necessary to apply securities laws and regulations and approve legal evidence in order to resolve related issues. Examples of such experience may include: - Examining and approving legal evidence, forms, and financial instruments or savings bonds to support transactions or claims; OR - Interacting with co-owners or attorneys in fact (power of attorney) to obtain information and resolve problems; OR - Using judgement to determine which procedures are applicable to different transactions. OR You may substitute education for specialized experience as follows: completed at least 1 full year of graduate level education (18 semester hours, 27 quarter hours or equivalent). OR You may have a bachelor's degree and meet one of the following requirements for superior academic achievement: A GPA of 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale for all completed undergraduate courses or those completed in the last 2 years of study, or a GPA of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale for all courses in the major field of study or those courses in the major completed in the last 2 years of study, or rank in the upper one third of the class in the college, university, or major subdivision, or membership in a national honor society recognized by the Association of College Honor Societies. OR You may qualify with a combination of experience and education. To combine education and experience, your total qualifying experience is calculated as a percentage of the experience required for the grade level. Then, your education is calculated as a percentage of the education required for the grade level. The two percentages are added together. The total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify for that grade level. In addition to the above requirements, you must meet the following time-in-grade requirement, if applicable: For the GS-9, you must have been at the GS-7 level for 52 weeks. For the GS-7, you must have been at the GS-5 level for 52 weeks.

Education

This job does not have an education qualification requirement.

Contacts

• Address
• Name: Applicant Call Center
• Phone: 304-480-7300
• Email: [email protected]