Services

What We Do

Five ways to engage Arctis, each scoped and priced in writing before the work starts.

Arctis advises credit unions, health systems, and nonprofits on executive benefit programs and the funding behind them. Every engagement is fee-only. The fee is the same whether we tell you to keep what you have, restructure it, or unwind it.

Building or rebuilding a plan

For organizations designing a new executive benefit program, or rebuilding one that no longer fits. Three phases, each one standing alone.

01Discovery and strategic designWhether a program is needed at all, and what shape it should take.

02Technical modeling and plan architectureThe design, the economics, the tax and accounting impact, and the board materials.

03Product evaluation and recommendationIf the plan will be funded with insurance, which contract structure fits the objective.

Each phase is quoted separately and nothing commits you to the next. Engagements start at $3,500.

How the phases work →

Prefunding and charitable donation accounts

For credit unions building a prefunding program under NCUA §701.19(b) or a charitable donation account under §721.3(b)(2). If the program already exists and you want it reviewed rather than built, that work is in the next section.

Feasibility and authorityWhether the program is permitted, whether it fits what the board is actually trying to accomplish, and what the regulation does and does not allow.

Regulatory limit analysisThe five percent net worth cap, the fifty-one percent distribution requirement, and the concentration and liquidity constraints the program has to live inside.

Policy and board documentationThe written policy that governs the program, and the record that shows an examiner how the decision was made.

Funding vehicle evaluationHow each category of instrument behaves against the obligation being funded: cost, liquidity, accounting treatment, and what happens under stress.

Monitoring frameworkWhat gets reviewed, how often, who reviews it, and what the board sees each year.

Annual reportingOngoing monitoring and board materials after the program is in place, quoted at the outset rather than added later.

Arctis does not select investments, recommend securities, direct allocations, or manage assets. We analyze structure, authority, documentation, and how a category of instrument behaves against the obligation. Choosing the holdings is your decision, made with whoever advises you on investments.

Programs start at $4,500, quoted before work begins.

See what our work costs →

Reviews and analysis

One defined question, scoped and priced on its own, with no expectation that it leads anywhere else.

Vendor proposal second opinionAn independent read of up to three proposals put in front of you, including the illustrations behind them: what each assumes, what it leaves out, an estimate of what the design pays the firm proposing it, and how they compare on the same assumptions.

Illustration reviewThe product mechanics behind a policy you have not bought yet, whole life or universal: dividend or crediting assumptions, charge and blend structure, loan treatment, and the difference between what the contract guarantees and what it only assumes.

Independent Plan ReviewWhether a plan you already have functions the way the organization believes it does, and whether the assumptions behind it are documented and governed.

In-force policy portfolio reviewHow existing policies are actually performing against what was assumed when they were placed.

Prefunding and EBP funding analysisWhether the funding supports the obligation, under NCUA §701.19 where it applies, and what happens if it does not.

Charitable Donation Account analysisCDA structure against the five percent net worth cap and the fifty-one percent distribution requirement.

§7872 imputed income analysisLoan-regime split dollar, applicable federal rates, and the annual imputed income calculation.

§4960 excise tax exposureWhere compensation crosses the threshold, what the excise tax costs, and which timing choices change it.

Funding adequacy reviewWhether the assets set aside will actually meet the promise when it comes due.

Replacement and 1035 reviewWhether a proposed exchange improves your position or someone else’s.

Board educationA working session for a board or committee on how these arrangements function and what to ask about them.

Governance retainerOngoing oversight, annual review, and documentation that holds up to an examiner.

A second opinion on up to three proposals is $1,500. Other reviews are quoted on scope.

See what our work costs →

Executive-level reviews

For the individual executive who is a participant in an arrangement someone else designed, and who wants to know what it actually does for them.

Split-dollar position reviewWhat you own, what you owe, and what happens at separation, retirement, and death.

Restricted bonus reviewVesting, tax treatment, and what the restriction actually restricts.

Death benefit only arrangementIncluding the fact that the benefit is ordinary income to your beneficiary rather than tax-free proceeds.

Plan and policy interactionHow the plan document and the underlying contract behave together, which is often not how either reads alone.

Insurable capacityAggregate coverage across every arrangement you are part of, and whether it constrains anything you want to do.

Full position reviewEvery arrangement you participate in, reviewed together rather than one at a time.

Premium-financed arrangementsLoan terms, collateral, rate stress, and the exit, reviewed independently of whoever arranged it.

Individual reviews start at $450. Arctis is engaged by the executive, and the employer is not the client.

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Individual policy reviews

Personally owned life insurance, reviewed the same way we review an institution’s. What the policy is doing, what it costs, whether it is on track, and what your options are if it is not.

From $475, quoted before the review begins.

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Start with the question you came with

You do not need a program in mind. Tell us what is in front of you and we will tell you what it would take to answer it, and what it would cost, before you commit to anything.

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Ready for a truly independent partner?

Arctis provides clarity, transparency, and technical depth in a market that has long operated without them.

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