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Introduction

South African’s generally have a poor habit of saving. As such corporate retirement funds usually make up a significant portion of a retiring staff member’s savings. To this end it is vital that your corporate benefits are properly structured and managed.

In line with our independence IPM ensures we optimise the financial solution both for the employer and to your employees.

Why choose IPM?

How does IPM ensure the funds are well run?

Retirement funds have to comply with strict legislation, however it is the rules of the fund that determine how the fund should be run. IPM ensures that the fund’s rules comply with legislation and that the fund is run according to the rules. Importantly, we ensure the compliance of payroll with the fund rules. It is essential for a company’s payroll to be run in line with the funds rules ensuring that there are no unforeseen tax consequences for the fund’s membership as well as the employer. Good governance also dictates that there are service level agreements in place with all service providers to the fund, as well as amongst others documented investment strategies and communication policies in place. IPM together with one of our partners ETM assists in setting the investment strategies for funds. IPM uses asset consulting not only to set and manage the investment strategies, but also as an effective member communication tool.It is vital that members have an idea of what their fund will provide them at retirement. In a defined contribution world, communication of member benefits can be difficult, however IPM have simplified this via the use of member asset-liability modelling.

Organisations will sometimes use benefits as a loss leader into other benefits and as such there are inefficiencies in the pricing models used by underwriters. Best fit solutions take advantage of any price inefficiencies in favour of our clients.

Recent tender presentations have illustrated administration cost spreads of up to 100%. Administration margins are notoriously tight and there is a worrying tendency towards asset based administration fees which are potentially lucrative for the administrator, but are difficult for employers and retirement fund members to quantify. Honest comparisons between service providers then become more difficult.

IPM has agreements with a number of service providers in the industry. Although there are contractual agreements in place, ensuring service delivery, there is no shareholding in any of these service providers, thus eliminating any potential conflicts of interest. IPM has chosen to deal with specific service providers in the industry and has also partnered with some less well known service providers who offer specialist services.

MEET OUR TEAM

With our staff members having on average 20 years service in financial services, our team is staffed by individuals who have made their career in financial services.

Bill Lane-Mitchell

BA LLB CFP

Bill has been involved in the employee benefits industry since 1985. Having completed his BA LLB at the University of Cape Town he joined the Southern Life Association Limited as a legal advisor eventually leaving Southern Life in 1999 having attained the position as National Sales Manager, Employee Benefits. During this tenure he was admitted through examination to the Financial Planning Institute and is a Certified Financial Planner. On leaving Southern Life he was a co-founder and shareholder in Triangle Solutions (Pty) Ltd, an employee benefits consulting company. Triangle Solutions was taken over by Investec Employee Benefits in 2001. He worked with Investec Employee Benefits until 2003 and then left to join Econorisk Benefit Consultants (where he first started working with Darryl Williams) and was then also part of a period of mergers which followed whereby the practice evolved through different brands incorporating employee benefits and retirement fund administration. In 2011 he left the retirement fund administration and consulting business to join Darryl at IPM in the pursuit of establishing a purely independent employee benefits consulting company.

Darryl Williams

B.Sc (Hons) CFP

Darryl has been involved in the industry for a number of years. After graduating from Wits University with a B.Sc Honours degree, he entered the industry first with ABSA as a personal financial planner. He later moved on to do Financial Planning in Nedcor’s Business Banking unit focusing more on the Corporate Market. During this period he was admitted through examination to the Financial Planning Institute and is a Certified Financial Planner. After leaving Nedcor in 1997 he set up Integrated Portfolio Management (IPM) as an Independent Financial Planning practice, which was run successfully for a number of years. A period of mergers followed whereby the practice evolved through different brands incorporated employee benefits and retirement fund administration. Not happy with the inherent conflicts that this produced over time, he resigned his position to re-establish IPM purely as an independent consultancy in 2010. The original core team members of IPM followed in 2011 and have worked together in excess of 10 years in most cases. In his spare time Darryl enjoys spending time with his family and is an avid golfer and rower.

 

Debbie Byrne

Assistant to Darryl Williams

  

Andrea Nel

Employee Wellness Executive

Andrea has studied and worked in the Wellness Industry for over 15 years, realizing that working with people is what she truly enjoys. She started off her career life qualifying in Health and Skin Care and continued in that working for a Plastic Surgeon until the entrepreneur bug bit her and she started a JV in marketing and eventing. Having had a successful and busy few years of servicing clients in the Pharmaceutical and Corporate Industry Andrea thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of Communications but needed to take a step back and recharge which lead to a lifestyle change and a Certificate as an Internationally Qualified Pilates instructor. This is where her heart for people really began to grow, understanding there is more to a human being than what meets the eye. Pilates has been a means to offer people a platform to strengthen and restore from the inside out. In addition to this, working for IPM as a ‘Employee Wellness Programme’ Executive has been a natural progression and a brilliant experience, knowing she has a positive impact on people’s lives just through a different platform.

Denise Nel

Administrator

Denise grew up at the coast and followed her heart to Gauteng. On looking for her first full time employment she was told to be enthusiastic if she wanted the job. Following this advice, she was and joined Liberty Life head office in 1977. During her years with Liberty she gained extensive experience in various aspects of Insurance, moving between Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Pretoria. She left Liberty in 1983 to take up her most fulfilling role as yet – motherhood. On re-entering the workforce some years later in the 1990’s she joined a small brokerage. Denise has been part of the IPM core ever since and has followed the team through a series of mergers and the subsequent break away from Maxim and NMG in 2011. When not in the office, Denise prefers to exercise her right brain.

 

Yvette Smit

Senior Consultant

Yvette started her career at Metal Industries Benefit Funds Administrators (MIBFA) in 1996 as a Temp Claims Clerk and worked her way up to Senior Claims Clerk. After 2 years she moved to Fedsure to become a fund administrator. Fedsure was bought by Investec in 2001 and Investec sold to Liberty Corporate Employee Benefits in 2006. Yvette was part of all these transitions. She has gained extensive experience in the fund administration industry and was involved in conversions from one system to another as well as training and development when Pension and Provident funds had to start being audited. Yvette has now decided to focus her career on consulting and joined IPM in October 2020. She is looking forward to learning new skills and excited about her new challenges. In her free time Yvette enjoys scrapbooking and being creative.

MILESTONES

Some remarkable achievements we have made.
 

Merged with Econorisk Benefit Consultants

2001

Merged with Econorisk Benefit Consultants to incorporate Employee Benefit capability

Re-establishment of IPM

2010

Darryl re-establishes IPM as an independent provider of financial solutions

Strategic alliance with 21st Century

2015

Strategic alliance with 21st Century to develop TRS solutions for clients

Established partnership with Careways Group

2019

Partnered with Life Heath Solutions to provide a Wellness Solution to smaller enterprises

IPM established

1997

 

Merged with Hollard Administration Services

2006

Merged with Hollard Administration Services to form Maxim Employee Benefits incorporating a Retirement Fund Administration Capability

Strategic Alliance with ETM Analytics

2012

Set up Strategic Alliance with ETM Analytics to provide asset consulting for our life stage solutions

On Target Consulting comes on board

2018

On Target Consulting comes on board to provide management training solutions to our clients