Treborz

fletchsmile, on 2012-03-07 16:05:03, said:

I haven't looked into either in detail yet but you would not be able to export a UK Pension into either product as HMRC would not allow you to draw your pension as a 100% commutation when their rules clearly state that 70% must be used to provide an income for life.

I know you weren't suggesting this but just bringing it back into the context of the thread.

GuestHouse, on 2012-03-06 20:47:05, said:

I can tell you our formation and annual management fees, the reason i didn't is because i didn't come into this thread to sell anything (in fact i have no marketing experience at all i just work on the administration side of things), just to make it clear that some Trustees are transparent with their fees.   However it was not clear if your initial post was referring to the Trustee fee, the investment management charges or both?

Anyway here you go as you have asked for them;

Formation Charges
£0 - £300,000 - £1,200
£300,001 - £500,000 - £1,700
£500,001 - £1,000,000 - £2,500
£1,000,001 - £2,000,000 - £3,000
(If more than one pension is being transferred then each additional pension will be charged at £300 with the largest forming the base figure)

Annual Management Charges
£0 - £300,000 - £1,000
£300,001 - £500,000 - £1,500
£500,001 - £1,000,000 - £2,000
£1,000,001 and above - £2,500

Termination or Exit Charges
Transfer to another administrator
The sum equal to 12 months management charges (However as annual fees are paid upfront this is usually minimal as that years fee is pro-rated and netted off the transfer fee.  For example it would be cheaper to transfer at the start of the year than at the end)

Any work to be carried on outside of the scope of a traditional pension such as the purchase of a commercial property is likely to incur additional time charges, currently £175 per hour.  Third party fees vary depending on who the client invests with, although clearly these will be made available by their chosen investment manager to the client before any decisions are made.  

So there you have it we're not the cheapest in terms of flat annual fee but we do not charge transaction charges for investment switches or any routine work during the course of the year.  What you see above is all that you will be charged by the Trustee.

We also run SIPP's from our UK office, in fact QROPS is not our main source of business at all and i doubt it ever will be.  Again as i'm not trying to sell anything, i'm not disclosing who it is i work for.

We charge a transparent flat fee for our QROPS (although this rises incrementally with the size of the introduced fund - but not with it thereafter) and the client is welcome to go with their IFA into an offshore bond (which as pointed out above is lucrative for the IFA in commissions) or they can use a discretionary investment manager of their choice, be it through an investment platform or direct with the managers own custodians etc.  That is one of the nice selling points as an independent trustee with no links/partnerships to the large insurance companies.

I actually met with a firm this morning who have just launched a new platform in Hong Kong that has over 55,000 mutual funds / equities available.  Clearly these will not all be suitable for a pension portfolio but certainly adds to the flexibility.

All signs are pointing towards Guernsey surviving post April, in fact they appear to be ahead of the others jurisdictions who will be non compliant under their current regimes.  The providers, tax office and local government on Guernsey are working extremely hard together to put together a solution.

Already past that stage

Good news for me as I bought an off plan condo there about 8 months ago