Approach & Process
Clear. Independent. Fee-Only.
Arctis delivers executive benefits consulting to credit unions, health systems, and nonprofits. We are paid by the client and by no one else, and nothing we recommend earns us anything.
Compensation Philosophy
The simplest way to keep compensation from shaping advice is to have only one source of it. Arctis is paid a flat fee by the client, and by no one else. We do not sell insurance, place contracts, or accept commissions, overrides, revenue sharing, or referral fees from any carrier or vendor.
That means the fee is the same whether we recommend you keep your current program, restructure it, or unwind it. We have no financial interest in which answer is right.
Compensation Should
Never Obscure Advice
Three-Phase Process
01
Discovery &
Strategic Design
Compensation: Fee-Only
Purpose: Understand organizational needs and determine whether an executive benefit strategy is necessary.
Includes:
- Review of existing compensation and benefit structures
- Retention and succession analysis
- High-level compensation benchmarking
- Governance and compliance assessment
- Identification of viable plan structures
Excludes:
- Product recommendations
- Illustration preparation
- Product pricing or underwriting
- Administrative services
02
Technical Modeling &
Plan Architecture
Compensation: Fee-Only
Purpose: Convert strategy into a detailed, defensible design.
Includes:
- Detailed plan design (vesting, benefit formulas, timing)
- Financial modeling & sensitivity testing
- Accounting and tax impact analysis
- Compensation benchmarking with market data
- Draft board/committee materials
- Evaluation of conceptual funding approaches (generic, not carrier-specific)
Excludes:
- Life insurance illustrations
- Carrier-specific pricing
- Underwriting
- Ongoing servicing commitments
03
Product Evaluation &
Recommendation
Compensation: Fee-Only
Purpose: Determine which contract structure fits the funding objective, and whether insurance is the right funding vehicle at all.
Includes:
- Carrier evaluation: financial strength, product durability, in-force management history
- Contract structure analysis against the plan’s funding pattern and time horizon
- Illustration review and scenario specification*
- Cost and charge decomposition across candidate contracts
- Stress testing for crediting, rate, and persistency assumptions
- Written recommendation with reasoning shown
Excludes:
- Placement or product sales
- Underwriting
- Ongoing servicing commitments
*Arctis holds no carrier appointments and does not run illustrations. We tell you precisely which scenarios to request and from whom, and we analyze what comes back. The client executes any placement through a producer of their choosing, and Arctis receives no commission, override, referral fee, or revenue sharing from it.
Three-Phase Summary Guide
| PHASE | LED BY | FOCUS | COMPENSATION |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01: Discovery & Strategy | Arctis Advisory | Needs Analysis, Feasibility | Fee-Only |
| 02: Modeling & Architecture | Arctis Advisory | Detailed Design, Modeling | Fee-Only |
| 03: Product Evaluation & Recommendation | Arctis Advisory | Carrier and Contract Analysis | Fee-Only |
Nothing Behind the Advice
Where Our Revenue Comes From
- Arctis is paid by the client, and by no one else.
- We hold no carrier appointments and sell no insurance products.
- We accept no commissions, overrides, revenue sharing, or referral fees from any carrier, vendor, or administrator.
- Fees are fixed and stated in writing before work begins, and they do not change based on what we recommend.
- We perform no administrative or recordkeeping services.
- We coordinate with the organization’s designated third-party administrator and service providers so that administration and reporting continue uninterrupted.
These are commitments, not preferences. They are stated in full in our Standards of Conduct.
Not every situation requires an advisor.
Tell us what is in front of you and we will tell you whether you need us.
