New dawn at Old Mutual Actuaries and Consultants

Old Mutual Actuaries and Consultants (OMAC), o­ne of South Africa’s leading providers of actuarial and consulting services to retirement funds, is proud to unveil its refreshed brand identity as part of a new journey for the business.

The fresh new branding, which involves changes to its name, logo and visual language, as well as the introduction of a new tag line, - Provoking Thought, Engineering Success - underscores a new strategic direction for OMAC, an Old Mutual division that has established a proud reputation in the retirement fund industry over the past 40 years.

Explains Craig Aitchison, Head of OMAC, “Ultimately, the retirement fund industry has evolved and what worked yesterday is not necessarily working today. We felt it was time to re-think the traditional consulting approach and specifically “one size fits all” solutions. It is now very much about the bottom line for individual members of a fund as opposed to the fund itself.”

He says that OMAC will be partnering with clients, working with them to help ask the questions that will lead to the right plan of action. “We have taken this characteristic of questioning things, and expanded upon it in a thought-provoking way. We want to get clients to think about just how powerful the question really is, and how OMAC has harnessed this power in order to offer service and insights that are a little different to the norm.”

OMAC has also focused o­n employing seasoned professionals in specialist roles, who will be expected to challenge the status quo in the industry in a constructive manner. “For example, Windall Bekker, who has recently joined OMAC in his capacity as manager of our Investment Consulting unit, brings with him a wealth of local and international expertise.”

Aitchison says the actuarial team has also been enhanced by the recruitment of talented actuarial resources from Old Mutual Healthcare, which has boosted OMAC’s capabilities, especially in the area of balance sheet liabilities.

“The enormous amount of hours put in by the Retirement Unit has catapulted OMAC’s service provider selection capability to a market leader position. They have also turned our valuations into more than just statutory valuations, but o­nes that measures overall cost effectiveness of funds and how this impacts o­n member benefits.

“We have also recently introduced another first in our short term insurance capability, where we developed the ability to perform actuarial analysis across all aspects of a company’s risk management, as opposed to o­nly placing specific short-term insurance.”

He adds that OMAC has embarked o­n a journey of utilizing technology to provide the best possible advice and service, which will also serve to better connect members with their fund.

Aitchison says that good governance has always been important to OMAC both internally and for its clients and that it will continue to ensure that its funds have the highest standards of governance in the industry.

Going back to the colours and design of the new corporate identity, Aitchison says it was carefully selected to illustrate the new brand direction. “For example, the grey emphasises the professional and prestigious aspect of the brand within the financial services market, while the green highlights the fresh and crisp look needed in the industry as well as OMAC’s connection to Old Mutual. We believe this focus, together with the change in name to OMAC Actuaries and Consultants, will help position us an advice brand in the minds of our clients, rather than the product or solutions brand that they associate Old Mutual with.”

While OMAC Actuaries and Consultants will continue to operate as a proud division of the Old Mutual Life Assurance Company (South Africa) Ltd, the new brand identify reflects OMAC’s renewed focus o­n independence, objectivity and impartiality when it comes to giving advice.

“In summary, we are focused o­n provoking more thought and fine tuning our service offering to ensure it is relevant, up to date and by no means a “one size fits all approach”."