Responsibilities of an F&I Manager

When you think of an F&I manager’s responsibilities, what comes to mind? What do your sales people think the F&I manager’s responsibilities are? What do lenders think?

As a dealer principal or general manager, you probably think the F&I manager is responsible for increasing your gross profit, maintaining lender relationships, and ensuring compliance. And, that’s a fairly comprehensive outlook. Meanwhile, ask any sales person and they might say something more like this, “The F&I manager just sells products.” And, lenders might describe the F&I manager’s role as, “structuring financing arrangements”.

While each of these descriptions touches on some of the F&I manager’s responsibilities, they fall short in representing the total importance of an F&I manager’s position in dealership operations. And, while that’s not technically a bad thing for people to define F&I managers differently, giving everyone in your dealership a baseline overview of the F&I office’s function can actually help enhance dealership performance and foster a greater level of teamwork.

So, what exactly are the responsibilities of an F&I manager?

The F&I manager’s responsibilities fall into four categories:

• Sales
• Management
• Administration
• Legal

Each of these categories requires in-depth industry expertise, and a bevy of tasks to be performed daily. Let’s start with sales.

The F&I Manager’s Sales Responsibilities

The sales person was right in describing the F&I manager as someone who sells F&I products, but they in fact sell quite a bit more than just products. Starting with consumers, F&I managers are tasked with building relationships and marketing the dealership as the place to go for service and maintenance, as well as future vehicle purchases, along with F&I products. This responsibility alone requires F&I managers to take the time to understand customer driving habits and needs for them to tailor their presentation. Just like in sales, they need to be experienced orators and marketers, as well as active listeners to be successful in this role.

F&I managers are also responsible for selling the dealership and its customers to lenders. This encompasses building lender relationships, understanding and working within lender requirements, and working with lenders to send enough business their way for the lender to justify taking on less-than-prime paper every so often. F&I managers are the face of the dealership for lenders, and their ability to work with lenders can make or break a dealer’s lending base.

Lastly, F&I managers are responsible for selling the benefits of working with a competent F&I manager to dealership sales people. In essence, they are responsible for bridging the divide. This is accomplished through daily tasks such as “Save the Deal” meetings. By working to save a deal, F&I managers are protecting not only dealership profitability, but also the salesperson’s commission, as well as their own. And yes, while F&I managers do sell products, their number one responsibility is to secure the deal and protect the gross profit, again ensuring the paychecks for all involved in a vehicle sale.

The F&I Manager’s Management Responsibilities

Remember, the F&I manager’s title includes the word manage. So what exactly do they manage? First, it’s important to remember that most F&I managers started on the sales floor. They worked diligently to become top sellers, distinguishing themselves for a management role. That means they have the knowledge and background to provide excellent sales training to the salespeople they work with every day, on everything from assisting customers in selecting the right vehicle, practicing sales closes, completing paperwork, and ensuring that they are provided with what they need to close the deal in F&I. This also requires team management to ensure that sales and F&I work together every step of the way to finalize each deal.

F&I managers are also responsible for tracking documents to ensure accuracy and compliance, as well as tracking contracts in transit and chargebacks to, again, protect the gross. This leads directly to their administrative responsibilities.

The F&I Manager’s Administrative Responsibilities

F&I managers are responsible for contract preparation and ensuring that the documents the sales team provides are accurate and compliant. In addition, they have signature authority, meaning they are in charge of making sure the customer signs all necessary forms. Lastly, they are responsible for receiving any money or deposits as part of the financing process.

Each of these responsibilities may seem tedious and time-consuming to an outsider, but each of them also comes with a compliance price tag. F&I managers need to be diligent in maintaining their administrative responsibilities to ensure dealership compliance, as these are the easiest elements for an auditor to tally up. And, this segues nicely to their legal responsibilities.

The F&I Manager’s Legal Responsibilities

As we discussed earlier, F&I managers are responsible for making sure all documents are signed properly. In addition to signature authority, they are responsible for informing customers about all dealership, manufacturer, F&I product, and lender disclosures. They secure personal information, and they are responsible for completing their role in an ethical manner. This is reflected by several laws governing F&I practices, but is encapsulated by the 300% rule, ie – present 100% of F&I products to 100% of customers 100% of the time. Failing to maintain their legal responsibilities can result in hefty personal and dealership fines, and even jail time.

An F&I manager can literally make or break a dealership. A good manager that provides training and fosters teamwork, manages lender and customer expectations, and maintains their administrative and legal responsibilities, has the potential to significantly increase dealership profitability and enhance operational efficiency. A poorly-trained or ineffective manager can reduce dealership efficiency, increase the likelihood of chargebacks, and leave the dealership open to costly compliance-related issues and legal fees.

At EFG Companies, we apply our almost 40 years of retail automotive experience within our training curriculum to maximize operational efficiencies, enhance customer service, ensure complete compliance and drive more sales. Our AFIP-certified trainers work with dealership management to create a culture of teamwork and personal ownership between all dealership departments. Contact us today to put our training to work for you.