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Vantage Program
The Heron Vantage Program has been exclusively developed by The Heron Partnership to assist superannuation funds to soar to new heights.
The purpose of The Heron Vantage Program? To reduce existing and future superannuation costs.
Why "The Heron Vantage Program" has been developed
Our market research has told us that employers and trustee boards are seeking to not only better manage but to reduce their overall superannuation costs and in particular are looking for improvements in three major areas:
- To reduce the time taken by officers of the employer to arrange, monitor and authorise fee for service consulting assignments
- To have more certainty around consulting costs (i.e. to establish a consulting retainer)
- To reduce the costs of overall costs associated with administration and fee for service consulting assignments.
Why The Heron Partnership is best placed to offer this program
The Heron Partnership is uniquely placed in the superannuation industry to scrutinise fee arrangements because:
- We are independent from all service providers meaning we are in a preferred position to negotiate down all fees on your behalf
- We have significant operational experience in working in a consulting environment and understand where the most likely "fee rourting" takes place
- Our breadth of consulting experience means we are able to place a reasonableness test against proposed fees to check that they are actually reasonable for the task at hand
- Our engagement as an independent firm will enforce good corporate governance for the fund and will separate any potential areas of conflict by service providers
What Is "The Heron Vantage Program"
The Heron Vantage Program comprises a cost scrutiny that will:
- Identify all existing service providers and their responsibilities
- Quantify cost exposure by service provider and identify cost pressure points within the service providers that you use
- Review existing contractual arrangements and identify scope for fee reduction and service clarification
- Establish or verify a budget for the fund
- Monitor activities against the budget, including the application of reasonable tests for fee for service consulting assignments
- Update you on market trends for costs and rate your fee exposure within the industry so that you have a clear benchmark to compare your fund against
- All of these issues can be addressed without requiring you to change any of your existing service providers. The primary objective is to reduce the total operational cost of your superannuation fund
How "The Heron Vantage Program" Works
The Program consists of three stages:
- Service Provider Relationship Review
- Cost Mitigation Strategy
- Implementation of Cost Savings
How to Get Started With "The Heron Vantage Program"
To get things started you need only instruct us to proceed with Stage 1 and provide us with the required details. Within two weeks we will provide you with our "Cost Mitigation Strategy" which will indicate if there are potential savings for you to benefit from. In the event that it is worthwhile proceeding there is a simple letter of engagement that we require you to sign. Stage 3 implementation and monitoring then follows.