{"id":1475,"date":"2014-02-20T16:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T21:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/?p=1475"},"modified":"2020-09-21T13:12:20","modified_gmt":"2020-09-21T18:12:20","slug":"offshore-pension-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/blog\/offshore-pension-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Offshore Pension Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understanding Offshore Pension Plans<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As an expat, it\u2019s possible that you\u2019ve been approached by someone about an offshore pension plan either by phone or email.\u00a0 These plans are also known as unit-linked life insurance plans.\u00a0 They\u2019ll claim that they can substantially improve your financial situation.\u00a0 Should you be considering this as an option?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is an offshore pension plan?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Offshore pension plans are basically a combo of insurance with an investment strategy.\u00a0 Part of your money will go to the life insurance policy premium while the rest is invested in other equities.\u00a0 Once your money, along with many others, is collected, the insurance company will create a fund pool to invest in various markets, similar to a mutual fund.<\/p>\n

Features include the ability to switch between funds during the policy, top-up facilities, changing the level of protection, extra riders to increase returns, options to surrender, and tax benefits.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What does an offshore pension plan cost?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This will vary greatly depending on the options and coverage you choose.\u00a0 Of course, according to most plans\u2019 marketing material, you\u2019ll get great returns and they say that it only needs to grow .4% to break even.\u00a0 However, this doesn\u2019t include any fees paid into the plan, any external charges, or take into account any problems with the plan, like missing a payment.\u00a0 Some of the plans even promise bonuses that will credit money back into account.\u00a0 While these seem lucrative, they mostly serve as a distraction from the enormous fees that the funds take.<\/p>\n

To get an idea of the charges that will be accrued, take a look at the terms and conditions of the contract.\u00a0 This will outline the fees and commissions that will be taken from the account.\u00a0 As a word of warning:\u00a0 your agent will receive a large bonus \u2013 called an \u201coverride\u201d \u2013 for signing you up on this plan, hence why they can try to oversell you on them.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, your contributions will be \u201clocked up\u201d until the end of the term.\u00a0 The problem is that since the commissions and fees are paid upfront, the surrender fee winds up being larger than any earnings. And even if the trust is based in a tax haven, your policy will be taxed based on where you are a resident.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Should I invest in an offshore pension plan?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In short, probably\u00a0not.\u00a0 BBC recently did an investigation on these kinds of pension plans and found that even though the agents claimed pension fees were only 1.5%, they often wound up costing almost 80% of the investor\u2019s contributions.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking to invest while living abroad, always stick with a cost-efficient and simple plan, not something that someone has to sell you on.<\/p>\n

Here is<\/b> probably the most extensive ebook on <\/b>Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Eliminating Your Taxes, Protecting Your Assets And Regaining Privacy Over Your Life And Investments<\/i><\/b>. It is called<\/b> The<\/b> Ultimate Guide To Going Offshore<\/b><\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

I hope you enjoyed reading this article: Understanding Offshore Pension Plans. If you have any questions, please contact<\/b> our office HERE<\/b><\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

I’ve included some great articles for you to read, enjoy!<\/b><\/p>\n

When Things Go Wrong: Healthcare Abroad in the EU<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

How to Secure Your Financial Data<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

An Offshore Haven For Crashing Hong Kong Investors<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Understanding Offshore Pension Plans As an expat, it\u2019s possible that you\u2019ve been approached by someone about an offshore pension plan either by phone or email.\u00a0 These plans are also known as unit-linked life insurance plans.\u00a0 They\u2019ll claim that they can substantially improve your financial situation.\u00a0 Should you be considering this as an option?   What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":42144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9409],"tags":[199,207,301,318],"yst_prominent_words":[1724,14670,3970,3702,2022,6778,1960,2061,18520,18519,7728,18521,12771,4482,10527,2237],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/offshore-pension-plan.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42149,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions\/42149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapeartist.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}