Proteus is a premier innovator and provider of pension plan governance and investment consulting solutions to corporate plan sponsors, not-for-profit organizations, trusteed plans, public plans, foundations and endowments.
Since 1994, Proteus has delivered a unique consulting approach with the commitment of understanding client needs and exceeding expectations in a cost efficient manner.
Proteus prides itself on the ability to offer independent, unbiased advice and insight to clients. Proteus is not affiliated with any investment management firms, record keepers or plan custodians. All of the firm's revenue is generated through pension plan governance and investment consulting services, including: Defined Contribution pension plans; Defined Benefit plans, group RRSPs, foundations and endowments, deferred profit sharing plans and non-registered savings plans.
Services
1. Investment Consulting:
Portfolio Construction:
Strategic asset allocation and investment selection
• Evaluate investments in relation to philosophy and objective
• Specify forward looking capital market assumptions
• Portfolio simulations and stress testing
• Provide modeling to ensure asset allocation is aligned with objectives, philosophy and goals and make recommendations for improvements
• Build appropriate benchmarks and performance hurdles for asset classes
• Research investment managers and products – interviews, quantitative analysis, fee bench-marking
• Construct optimal portfolio
Monitoring:
Performance review and risk management
• Monitor asset allocation and provide recommendations with respect to rebalancing
• Monitor investment managers’ compliance with the SIPP and with any special instructions and mandates provided to them
• Report on absolute and relative performance
• Provide style, risk and attribution analysis
• Report on fund manager organization changes
• Provide an economic overview and contextual determinants to fund performance
Proteus offers complete consulting support for the review, and evaluation of actuarial and record-keeping services. We don’t provide these services in house, so we do not hold any bias or conflicts of interest. We match suppliers to your needs rather than being matched to their services. Suppliers include: actuarial, record keepers, valuations, settlements and block annuity purchases.
2. Governance:
Pension governance is the process and framework for managing and administrating a pension plan and the relating pension funds. The objective of the process and framework is to ensure the Plan can deliver on its pension promise to meet its fiduciary obligations.
Good governance provides for a system of reporting processes, combined with checks and balances that allow fiduciaries to confidently certify the compliance required under pension legislation and demonstrate that fiduciary duties of prudence have been met. A thorough governance review adapts to the unique circumstances of your plan and a detailed report provides feedback, recommendations and best practices for going forward.
The purpose of the governance framework is to clearly define and communicate roles and responsibilities of the parties that have responsibility for the Plans to establish clear accountabilities and to enable timely decision-making regarding administration and governance for each Plan.
Program Design:
• We develop an optimized plan design for your organization based on corporate objectives, demographics, employee distribution, industry position and plan design management requirements
• We coordinate the creation of the new program, manage existing plans, consolidate existing programs, and plan design conversation for capital accumulation and defined benefit programs
Investment Policy:
• We establish a Retirement Philosophy Statement for the program, which is linked to the program investment policy and performance criteria for fund selection and monitoring elements
• We develop and monitor appropriate performance benchmarks and asset class criteria including fund performance thresholds and replacement/review structures
• We offer a unique three-year manager search guarantee
Plan & Record Keeper Management:
• We provide an annual pension plan governance review summary: an outline of the services completed for the year relating to the key areas of the Proteus governance model
• We facilitate periodic retirement committee meetings
• We document roles and responsibilities of fiduciaries (plan sponsor, consultant and record keeper)
• We support plan documentation, audit and reporting
• We provide a proprietary on-line governance model linked to CAP guideline requirements
• We provide ongoing review, and evaluation of record keeper services and benchmark pricing
• We offer RFP, search and transition services for record keeper changes
Who We Work With
• Corporate plan sponsors
• Jointly trusteed plans
• Not-for-profit
• High-net worth
• Public sector
• Foundations and endowments
• Capital accumulation plans
• Mutual funds
• Defined benefit plans
• Operation assets
• Insurance
• Benefit trust
