Most businesses know what they pay for an hour. Far fewer know what an hour costs them, and fewer still can say which job consumed it. That gap is where quoted margin quietly becomes actual loss. IN SHORT The cost of an hour is not the wage rate. It is the wage plus the employer’s...
Should I hire an accountant or outsource accounting? The vacancy is usually written before the requirement is. This article sets out what a finance function actually consists of, what an employed hire really costs once it is loaded properly, and why most Caribbean businesses end up with a hybrid rather than a choice between the...
The lowest substantive grade in the Jamaican public service pays about US$6,200 a year. In Barbados the equivalent post pays about US$12,900. In the Cayman Islands it pays about US$43,200. Seven times the Jamaican figure, for work that is recognisably the same work — cleaning, portering, general duties — in three public services that share...
The chain will always out-spend you. It does not have to out-know you — and in a local market, knowing is the higher ground. The Problem, Lived “Rohan” has run a supermarket in Georgetown for sixteen years — two floors, forty staff, a name his parish trusts. Four months ago, a regional chain announced...
If the business cannot run for two weeks without you, you do not own a business. You own a job with employees — and it owns you back. The Problem, Lived “Andre” runs an electrical contracting firm in Castries — eighteen staff, a respected name, a solid book of commercial clients across St. Lucia. He...
Across fourteen articles, this series has built one argument — that actuarial thinking is not a back‑office discipline but a way of seeing. This closing piece asks what it takes to convert that sight into decisions, and decisions into advantage. A number, on its own, decides nothing. A reserve estimate, a capital ratio, a...
Almost every Caribbean territory runs a national social security scheme, and almost all face the same arithmetic: an ageing population, a shrinking contributor base, and benefits that will one day outrun the money coming in. The actuary’s task is to say when — and what it would take to change the answer. Nearly every...
Beyond pensions, IAS 19 captures gratuities, long-service awards, post-retirement medical cover and accumulated leave. Unfunded and long-dated, these obligations are routinely under-provided — until an actuary measures them properly. Most boards know there is a number on their balance sheet for the pension plan. Far fewer are confident about the other employee-benefit obligations sitting beside...
A defined-benefit pension can be the largest financial risk an organisation carries — quiet for years, then suddenly decisive. De-risking is how a board takes control before circumstances do. A defined-benefit pension is one of the longest promises an organisation can make. It commits an employer, often decades in advance, to pay a member...
A full-time CFO is out of reach for most growing enterprises — and more capacity than they need. Here is what a Virtual CFO actually costs, what moves the price, and when the engagement pays for itself. There comes a point in an enterprise’s growth when a well-run finance function is no longer enough....
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