Arch Actuarial Consulting
Insurance in Cape Town

We provide services to a range of clients operating in the insurance, investment and legal industries.
ARCH Actuarial Consulting is an independent, employee benefit, health care, black economically empowered firm of actuaries and consultants.

We pride ourselves in understanding our clients’ needs, going the extra mile and delivering promptly. ARCH Analytics, a division of ARCH Actuarial Consulting, provides insights to business and researchers through directed data mining and statistical analysis. In a developing country like South Africa, research is key. Since 2001 ARCH has been applying its statistical know-how and technical skills towards the design, analysis, reporting and journal publication of research data gathered by the broader scientific community, particularly in the field of public health research. These are useful inputs for formulating strategies and drawing up informed business plans and interventions. ARCH Analytics has been involved in the production of all three South African National Youth Risk Behaviour Surveys (YRBS) which produced nationally and provincially-representative datasets on the prevalence of behaviours that place South African high school learners at risk, and tracked changes in the prevalence of these behaviours over time. ARCH is not a registered Financial Service Provider. This ensures that any conflicts of interest are avoided, that our advice is not affected by potential commissions or other rewards, and that other employee benefit brokers and benefit consultants can contract us to give independent actuarial advice. The valuator is then also responsible for providing regular actuarial services during the inter-valuation period, including individual benefit calculations, costing benefit improvements, recommending pension increases, and conducting interim valuation reports. The Act was subsequently amended to provide for minimum benefits on exit, but there are still DB funds wishing to convert to a DC arrangement. In 2001 the Pension Funds Second Amendment Act required all funds to reassess their surplus position, after making provision for minimum benefits (past and future) so as to equitably share that surplus, if any, amongst stakeholders. DB funds should communicate members’ benefits at least annually, including actuarial reserves, minimum individual reserves, and projected pensions as a percentage of final salary (replacement ratio). DC funds must also reflect members’ minimum individual accounts and should be projecting benefits to retirement to ascertain what further contributions might be necessary to ensure a more acceptable replacement ratio. These forms are required from the fund’s valuator to confirm that the transfer of assets and liabilities between funds is fair, i.e. We support administrators by calculating a fund’s investment return, where that fund is invested in different portfolios, with varying monthly cash flows. These certificates summarise the fund’s assets and liabilities and are included in their annual financial statements. Ideally, this should aim to exceed 75%, enabling a comfortable retirement. Members closer to retirement would need to make additional contributions to enjoy a similar pension level. This type of calculation is often needed by legal practitioners in the Personal Injury field, most often relating to motor vehicle accidents (MVA) that give rise to claims against a third party for losses of earnings by claimants injured on the road, and losses of support by the surviving dependants of road-users involved in fatal accidents. In addition to loss of earnings and loss of support calculations in RAF matters, we apply similar actuarial methods and techniques across a broad range of matters all involving compensation for lost income by way of a lump sum. We are prepared to receive payment on settlement, provided that the merits of the matter have been conceded prior to our being instructed, and we work to an average turnaround time of one to three days, from receiving an instruction to completing a calculation and report. For a hypothetical personal injury claimant aged 20, what she could have earned and what she can now earn are represented by the blue and red columns in this graph. The difference between the uninjured and injured columns, once we allow for income tax, represents the loss she may suffer in each future year, should she survive to that year. This section refers to the employee benefit valuations conducted for financial statement purposes, e.g. A liability exists when an employer is obliged to subsidise an employee’s medical aid contributions at retirement (or their dependants’ contributions on death). These are compensatory or top-up pension benefits granted to members who were not pension fund members before a certain past date, often because they were denied membership prior to 1994.