FedGroup focuses on bigger returns, lower fees in revamped retirement product
FedGroup, South Africa's leading independent financial services group, today announced the re-launch of Distinction Umbrella, a simplified, transparent employee benefit retirement offering for small- to medium-sized businesses.
"FedGroup is a family-owned business, and that independence has allowed us to develop our own point-of-view on retirement planning and savings," explains Walter van der Merwe, CEO of FedGroup Life. "With this unique way of thinking our team of experts has worked hard to develop a simple and transparent retirement offering, where people are put before profit."
According to Van der Merwe, the retirement industry has become extremely complex since marketing and product differentiation strategies introduced concepts such as 'member choice' or 'life-staging', which often increase costs in the long run.
"This eats into the ultimate returns a person realises on retirement, which is why our aim has always been to maximise the final pay-out a member receives by keeping our fees low, and operating in a completely transparent manner."
Enter FedGroup's Umbrella Fund
"We understand that every business is unique, so we aim to treat them that way," continues Van der Merwe. Companies are therefore able to choose from two retirement fund options in the Umbrella Fund offering: Core and Distinction.
"The key differences between the two are the degree of tailoring, and the level of interaction with the FedGroup team."
The Core option is available to companies with five to hundred employees, and offers simple self-help online functionality to keep administration costs low. The Distinction option gives companies access to all the features in the Core option, with additional features such as exclusive costing, e-mail data submission, a data manager to assist with administrative requirements, and uncapped risk cover.
"With the online integration and functionality offered in both options, businesses and their employees have the tools to easily track their investment and its performance. This level of transparency also extends to the statements provided to members, which clearly illustrate the rand value of pay-outs, with a granular, line-by-line analysis of fees. This ensures that our clients know exactly where their money is, what they're paying for, and how their investment is working for them," he explains.
FedGroup also offers a range of award-winning group risk products to complement the offering, including life, illness, disability, funeral and education cover ? depending on the option selected.
"These benefit lump-sum pay-outs provide the necessary financial support to an employee's family when needed most, and provide a vital source of income in the case of disability," says Van der Merwe. "An employee's spouse will also receive cover on specific options."
For any new small- to medium-sized businesses that are interested in setting up their employee benefit retirement scheme with FedGroup, the setup and acceptance process has been simplified and takes 10 minutes.
"With the re-launch of FedGroup's Umbrella Fund offering, small- to medium-sized businesses no longer need to worry about providing complicated retirement and group risk benefits to their valued employees. We've done all the hard work upfront, to make the offering and process refreshingly simple and cost effective. This ensures more of our clients' money goes to saving for their retirement, not someone else's," he concludes.