Investment Specialist

Investment Specialist

Business Unit: Discovery Employee Benefits

About Discovery

Discovery’s core purpose is to make people healthier and to enhance and protect their lives. We seek out and invest in exceptional individuals who understand and support our core purpose, and whose own values align with those of Discovery. Our fast-paced and dynamic environment enables smart, self-driven people to be their best. As global thought leaders, Discovery is passionate about innovating in order to not only achieve financial success, but to ignite positive and meaningful change within our society.

About Discovery Corporate & Employee Benefits

Our goal is simple – to reimagine the way we deliver benefits to South African employees and companies. We have the unique ability and responsibility to shape employee behaviour in our country. In doing so, we can create healthier and wealthier workforces and move South Africa forward.

The role spans the entire Corporate & Employee Benefits business, including:

- Group Risk
- Retirement Funds
- Healthy Company
- Strategic Clients Solutions Hub
- Integration projects with Discovery Health, Vitality and Insure

Key Purpose

This role will be focused on developing, selling and reporting back on our investments value proposition within the Discovery Retirement Fund. Investments and funds are critical components of a retirement fund – the candidate for the role must become the go-to expert on our funds and their performance, and also drive changes within the offering.

You’ll report to the deputy head of R&D and will be considered a high calibre, outstanding member of our management team – a confident speaker who can quickly grasp and communicate new concepts and develop new ideas.

Areas of Responsibility may include but are not limited to:

Sales and support

- Presenting at prospective employer clients
- Presenting at product launches and client pitches
- Providing ongoing sales support to the Discovery distribution teams
- Presenting to intermediaries and other investment specialists on technical product information
- Handling ongoing technical investment queries
- Compiling material (including Discoverers and articles) that can be rolled out through PR campaigns and to intermediaries and liaising with media to manage the rollout
- Training internal and external staff and brokers on products and technical details
- Reporting back on performance at client manco meetings on product, admin and investments
- Building new sales material including brochures, presentations on short videos
- Deeply understanding the corporate market and competitors, researching competitor products, and working that knowledge and insight into product development and distribution support materials
- Developing research material that can be used to position Discovery as a thought leader in the market
- Developing actuarial white papers to drive thought leadership in the investment space
- Developing new ideas around our retirement fund investment proposition, including new funds from multi manager to passive, and refining our retirement fund value proposition over time
- Performing technical calculations including IRR runs, data analysis and pricing on our retirement fund
- Working with product development on the broader group risk and healthy company propositions to help position new solutions for clients and tools for intermediaries
- Building calculators and tools that help advisers and clients understand our purpose and products
- Designing a framework to measure the effectiveness of different marketing campaigns

Relationship building with:

- Discovery sales consultants and intermediaries
- Back-office operations
- Training teams
- Marketing services
- Discovery management and executives

Personal Attributes

- Demonstrate keen business acumen
- Interact positively with difficult people
- Plan, organize and deliver on individual deliverables
- Deal with pressure, tight deadlines and setbacks
- Present and communicate information effectively
- Understand and work with big data sets in order to achieve desired outcomes
- Show initiative and drive projects to completion with guidance

Education and Experience

- Nearly qualified actuary, CFA, or financial manager
- 1 - 2 years’ investment experience
- Top achiever
- Excellent English and presentation skills

Employment Equity

The Company’s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.

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