Content hub
Catch up on any content you may have missed. A recording of each of the five sessions, along with a summary of the key takeouts, follows below.
Highlights
Leading local and international thought leaders in the retirement fund industry converged to share thought-provoking insights and ideas for improving retirement outcomes during the inaugural Allan Gray Retirement Benefits Conference held recently. Catch the highlights reel here.
Dr David Knox
Mercer Australia
Trends in the global pension fund space
Dr David Knox, Mercer Australia senior partner and lead author of the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index, presents the key findings from the Index and explores ideas for maximising retirement outcomes in South Africa and abroad.
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Speakers
Various
Choosing a default
Gavin Ralston, head of the Strategic Client Group in the UK at Schroders, Tomi Kulcsar, partner and head of Investments at Mosaic Investment Consulting, and Solly Tsie, principal investment consultant at Simeka Consultants and Actuaries, explore the complexities of selecting a default investment portfolio.
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Speakers
Various
Governance and regulations
Jonathan Mort, founder of Jonathan Mort Inc, Muvhango Lukhaimane, the Pension Funds Adjudicator and Ayanda Gaqa, head of risk and compliance at the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund, delve into some of the most important challenges facing trustees and the issues that keep them awake at night.
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Speakers
Various
Evaluating umbrella funds
Hazel Hopkins, senior partner at Axiomatic Consultants, Vusi Maswili, director at ASI Financial Services, and Adv. Christi Franken, business development executive at Efficient Benefit Consulting, share the factors they think are most important when evaluating umbrella funds.
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Speakers
Various
Behavioural decision-making and achieving better retirement outcomes
Anne Cabot-Alletzhauser, practice director and co-founder of the Responsible Finance Initiative at the Gordon Institute of Business Science, Dr Hal Hershfield, associate professor of Marketing and Behavioral Decision Making at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and Wendy De La Rosa, Stanford PhD candidate and assistant professor at The Wharton School, discuss ideas for shifting our approach to, and attitude towards, saving for retirement and preserving retirement fund investments.
Andile is a seasoned entrepreneur and Chartered Accountant (SA) with 20 years of business experience. In 2013, he founded I AM AN ENTREPRENEUR, a programme that helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses. After 11 years as a shareholder and chief operating officer of MSG Afrika, Andile went on to establish KhumaloCo, an investment holding firm, in 2018.
Tamryn is head of retail distribution. She joined Orbis in 2006. After spending several years in both investment and client-facing roles, she joined Allan Gray in 2013. Tamryn completed her BBusSc at UCT and is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a CFA® charterholder.
David is a senior partner and senior actuary at Mercer Australia. He is the lead author of the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index. Before joining the company in 2005, David was employed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and prior to that, was the Foundation Professor of Actuarial Studies at The University of Melbourne. David served as an independent board member of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority from 1998 to 2003, and president of the Actuaries Institute in 2000.
Duncan is the chief executive officer of GraySwan Investments, an independent investment consulting and wealth management boutique that he founded 10 years ago with his wife, Tania, and brother, Gregoire. He has 23 years’ investment experience, of which 18 years were served as an investment consultant and wealth manager, and five years in offshore alternative investment management. During this period, he consulted to seven of the 10 largest pension funds in South Africa. Prior to establishing GraySwan, he fulfilled the roles of managing director and chief investment officer of Sanlam’s offshore alternative asset management business.
Gavin is the head of the strategic client group at Schroders and is based in London. He has been involved with the business in South Africa since 2014, and is a Key Individual of the regulated Schroders entity. He has 40 years’ experience in the industry spanning portfolio, client and business management. He holds a Master’s degree from Oxford University and is an associate of the Society of Investment Professionals.
Solly is the principal investment consultant at Simeka Consultants and Actuaries with 15 years’ experience in the investments, actuarial and employee benefits industry. He leads Simeka’s investment research team and consults to various retirement funds ranging in size and governance budget. Solly also has extensive experience working with institutional clients on all matters relating to investment strategy, governance and implementation.
Tomi is an experienced investment specialist and co-founder of Mosaic Investment Consulting, an independent, niche investment consulting firm servicing primarily pension fund clients. He is a CFA® charterholder with broad experience across both institutional and retail investing environments, gained at companies including Glacier, Investment Solutions and Novare Actuaries and Consultants. With 18 years’ investment experience, Tomi is responsible for the investment function at Mosaic.
Jonathan is a director of Jonathan Mort Inc, a specialist pension law firm, which he established in 2009. His specific area of interest is in governance and investment issues relating to pension funds. He is also an experienced pension fund trustee. Jonathan sits on the steering committee of the Pension Lawyers Association, the Institute of Retirement Funds Africa legal and technical committee, the Actuarial Society of South Africa governance board, and the advisory committee of the Southern Africa Pension Fund Investment Forum.
Muvhango is a seasoned lawyer and public servant with over 20 years’ experience. She previously served as the principal officer of the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund and an executive manager at the Department of State Security. In June 2012 she was appointed Deputy Pension Funds Adjudicator and in July 2013, she was appointed Pension Funds Adjudicator.
Ayanda is the head of risk and compliance of the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund. He has over 18 years’ experience in the investment management and retirement funds industries. Ayanda is a CFP® professional, a Certified Fraud Examiner and a Compliance Practitioner.
Christi is a pension lawyer and an admitted Advocate of the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa. He is currently a business development executive at Efficient Benefit Consulting. Prior to this he was the CEO and founder of Verso. Christi holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Law, LLB from Stellenbosch University and has a special interest in Pension and Labour Law.
Hazel is a seasoned employee benefits practitioner with over 35 years’ experience in the field. After holding various positions at benefits service providers, she joined Naspers in order to gain experience on the “other side of the fence”. In 2003 she started Axiomatic Consultants, an independent benefits consultancy with a special focus on South Africa, Africa and the UAE.
Vusi is the director for consulting services at ASI Financial Services. He oversees the Corporate Employee Benefits division, spearheading the health, group risk and retirement funds. His passion for strong and unique employee benefits fuels his purpose for sharing his knowledge of financial literacy with South Africans.
Anne is the practice director and co-founder of the Responsible Finance Initiative at the Gordon Institute of Business Science. She has over 40 years’ experience in asset management and finance, 32 years of which were spent managing pension fund assets in North America, Japan, the UK, Europe and South Africa. Anne pioneered the development of the multi-manager management approach of pension fund management that has become the hallmark of that industry today.
Hal is an associate professor of Marketing, Behavioral Decision Making and Psychology, and holds the UCLA Anderson Board of Advisors Term Chair in Management. His research, which sits at the intersection of psychology and economics, examines the ways that people consider their future selves, and how feelings of connection to these distant selves can impact financial decision-making over time. He holds a PhD in Psychology from Stanford University.
Wendy is the co-creator and host of TED's Your Money and Your Mind series and the co-founder of Common Cents Lab, a financial decision-making research lab. Her TED talk has been viewed over 3 million times and her award-winning research has been published in Scientific American, PBS Newshour, Forbes, and Tech Crunch. She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and a Daisy and Paul Soros scholar. Wendy is a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and will be joining The Wharton School as an assistant professor.
Richard joined Allan Gray in 2007. He is head of Assurance and is responsible for Compliance, Risk, Internal Audit and Group Legal. He is also a director of Allan Gray Life and Allan Gray Investment Services. He was previously jointly responsible for the Retail business, heading up Product Development. Richard holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree in Actuarial Science from the University of Cape Town and is a qualified actuary.