OffShore funds

[rickybouy]

Hi all,

Searched the forum but couldn't find anything on this but apologies if it's been covered. I am currently an expat who has a varied financial portfolio, shares, gold, property offshore savings but am in discussion with a advisor regarding. 15 year Royal London savings fund its around 2000 a month, has anyone any experience of these or similar schemes? They are risk related so it's a low to mid risk I would go for its more first hand experience I'm interested in. I am also aware that obviously profit is related to market performance etc.

Thanks in advance
Rick

[Cheib]

Need more details than that ! What's the exact fund called ?

[rickybouy]

Hi apologies if not clear it's a Royal 360° product made up from 8 different funds:

Invesco sterling bond
Templeton sian bond
Henderson Hz Gbl Technology
JPM Gbl Natural resources
Aberdeen Asia Pacific & Japan
Aberdeen Liquidity
Blackrock GF Emg Europe
Blackrock GF AS Igerbd


obviously each fund has hundreds of companies within them so difficult to give more info than that, what specifics would you need? apologies i'm fairly new too this!

[ellroy]

Sounds like an offshore unit linked life policy to me. Without looking at the details hard to be 100%.

In effect they are often used as an offshore 'pension' plan allowing savings into a variety of collective funds from across the fund universe. No real tax advantage if you're remaining offshore, ability to get the whole pot at maturity, with tax likely to depend on your domicile at the time of maturity.

Note there are some changes to qualifying policies, those with some tax advantage to UK res/dom, mentioned in the budget, so be careful in the small print if you're likely to be heading to blighty.

Could be rather expensive on the fees/commission side of things. It is often possible to buy the same underlying funds directly at much cheaper cost.

[Cheib]

what is the fee structure ? Why not just invest in those funds directly ?

[TFP]

£2k per month split that many ways is probably not going to satisfy their minimums.

[rickybouy]

Thanks elroy, it is exactly a you say, my main concern is the tax issue on completion as we will likely be back in the UK and if tax is to be paid could prove pricey. Although I guess it could remain in my offshore account but may have trouble accessing it. I think to do the funds directly I would need a much larger amount each month.