Key Services
Strategic Consulting
This service entails advice on the following:
- Benefit Design.
- Industry Developments and its impact on the benefit programme.
- Financial implications of accounting practices on the fund and employer.
- Financial implications of benefit structures on the fund and the employer.
- Implications of Mergers and Acquisitions on benefit structuring, company accounting and benefit funding.
- Management of bulk transfers between funds and employers in terms of Section 14 of the Pension Funds Act and Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act.
- Legal support (including legal opinions, adjudicator complaints, distribution of death benefits, etc.) and fund rule drafting and maintenance.
- HR Practises and their impact on the retirement fund and benefit programme.
- Fund communication programmes.
- Liaison with the Authorities.
- Liquidations.
- Tax implications.
This service entails advice on the following:
- Group scheme renewals.
- Risk benefit structuring in accordance with benefit promises.
- Rebrokes and the placement of group schemes.
- Policy Terms and Conditions.
- Industry developments and their impact on the risk benefit programme.
- Self-insurance options, its impact on the fund rules, accounting practices, reinsurance contracts and funding options.
- Risk sharing, profit sharing and pure reassurance options.
- Medicals and Free Cover Limits.
- The Long Term Insurance Act.
- New products offered by insurers.
This service entails advice on the following:
- Fund and liability analysis with the view to set investment objectives.
- Portfolio structuring.
- Manager selection.
- Benchmarks and monitoring.
- Reporting and communication with trustees
- Investment strategy documents.
- Member level investment strategies and portfolios.
- Member communication.
- Hedging strategies.
Additional Services
Administration
While Elite Consulting does not undertake fund administration, we acknowledge that the trustees require assistance in monitoring the fund’s administration activities. Elite Consulting therefore will often consider it part of the consulting function to perform the following services:
- Assessment and recommendation of suitable fund administrators.
- Monitoring administration service against service level agreements, such as claim payments, premium payments and the production of benefit statements.
- Monitoring cash flow management on a monthly basis.
- Monitoring of debtors and creditors management.
- Monitoring of daily asset / liability matching.
- Financial Statement review.
- For umbrella funds where Elite Consulting are involved to give input and monitor service.
Elite Consulting can take responsibility for the compilation of agendas, keeping minutes of meetings, receive all fund correspondence and keep a record of the fund’s contracts and legal documentation.
Financial Planning
The trustees are responsible to make appropriate advice available to members in the event of a member exiting the fund or when the fund adopts a structured individual investment choice programme. Elite Consulting will assist the trustees in this process by assessing and monitoring the appropriate products in the market.
Actuarial Services
We believe that the fund’s actuary should be independent of the fund’s consultant in the same way that we believe that the consultants should be independent from other service providers. This independence puts in place an important governance leg, which gives the trustees comfort that the advice they are receiving from their consultants is being checked and commented on by an independent third party. Elite Consulting can therefore recommend actuarial service providers to the fund, but will not undertake this service.
Trustee Training
Elite Consulting facilitates trustee training by contracting with specialist trustee trainers.
We believe the best form of training comes in the form of real live experiences and we endeavour to empower trustees to make informed decisions regarding the issues that pertain to their fund by providing comprehensive and independent advice to the various issues that a fund needs to embrace.
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