Sustainability and Transformation

Retaining a competitive advantage requires a perfect balance between strategy and execution, process and administration, and value versus cost.

We aim to maintain this balance without compromising our values, integrity, or ethics. We do so by continuously reviewing our sustainability drivers – strategy, processes, people, and capital – and, where practical, we draw on synergies between divisions to develop and to implement more efficient and sustainable solutions that capitalise on our company’s expertise and infrastructure.

We continue to implement strategies to ensure that we and our subsidiaries meet the respective transformation and broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) requirements. Efficient Group is a Level Four Contributor (click here for certificate). We are fully committed to meaningful and sustainable transformation, and regularly review our progress to identify areas in need of improvement.

THE ULWAZI EDUCATIONAL TRUST

In 2018, we founded the Ulwazi Educational Trust to fund the training and development of financial advisors. The purpose of the Trust is to provide financial support to individuals to make a meaningful impact on the qualifications, skills, and capacities of the recipient. The recipients are selected from targeted groups: Black designated groups, as defined by the B-BBEE Act, with a focus on black women younger than 35 years.

Since its inception in 2018, we have made regular donations to the Trust. To date, the Efficient Group’s Ulwazi Educational Trust and INSETA have invested a total of R1 193 787 into internships.

OUR INTERNSHIP PROGAMME

Our internship programme, known as The Paraplanner Hub, strives to provide proactive industry-leading advice that is fully independent and transparent. The programme has a primary, a secondary, and a tertiary purpose:

  • Primary purpose: Training and developing new financial advisors, with a focus on individuals from designated groups
  • Secondary purpose: Once paraplanners have been trained and have gained the necessary experience, they are considered for placement as Junior Financial Planners (Advisors) at pre-identified organisations, such as government institutions, large employers, and other organisations, where the need for financial planning justifies a deployment
  • Tertiary purpose: Increasing revenue by enabling financial planners to spend more time with clients, and by recommending approved/preferred products and solutions
Why an internship programme?
  • Interns are new to the workforce, with no work experience and do not know how to connect all of the information that they were taught at university
  • We provide them with a safe learning environment where they can develop their financial planning skills
  • Throughout the programme, there is a strong focus on the values of integrity, respect, excellence, and professionalism
  • The interns progress through a structured training programme to ensure that they are RFAs by the end of their internship, and that they are ready to commence their careers as financial advisors.

The Paraplanner Hub caters for all clients’ pre- and post-retirement financial needs, such as estate planning, investments, and risk planning. The Hub also strives to provide young graduate interns with comprehensive training in investment, retirement, estate, and risk planning.

Our internship programme includes the following modules:

  • Compliance, Sales and Operations
  • The financial planning profession
  • Psychology of financial planning
  • Introduction to basic economics
  • The financial planning process
  • Retirement and investment planning
  • Risk management: Insurance
  • Estate and risk planning
  • Practical implementation: Working in the Hub
  • Practical application: Simulations