L&G launches
toolkit to assist
in designing
tax packages
Legal & General (L&G) has
launched a range of tools
designed to help financial
advisers assemble tax planning
packages.
It is introducing the
new tools after registering
a 215% rise in IHT
receipts between 1992-93
and 2007-08, according to
L&G wealth director, Martin
Wigginton. This works out
at a compound annual
growth rate of almost 8%,
he said.
The new tools, which
include easy-to-use trust
deeds and completion
guides, complement the
company’s new trust suite,
introduced in April.
Also included:
n schemes to reduce IHT
liability and retain access
to capital;
n professional support for
advisers, by a dedicated
tax and trust team;
n dedicated service for
administration of discounted
gift schemes;
n onshore and offshore
bond products;
n new support literature,
including case studies
and guides that L&G
said explain the benefits
of its trusts;
n a website featuring a
webcast by L&G head
of tax and trusts, Mark
Green, on the use of
discounted gift schemes
and loan trusts; and
n a so-called “online interactive
decision tree”,
designed to help IFAs
determine the most
appropriate package for
their clients.
The new tools are
available at www.landg.
com/advisercentre.
London-based, FTSE
100-listed L&G is one of
the UK’s largest financial
services companies and
handles investments worth
more than £304bn globally
on behalf of investors, policyholders
and institutions.
OECD countries take steps
to increase transparency
by Helen burggraf
Some 16 new bilateral agreements
on the exchange of
information for tax purposes
have been signed
between the Organisation
of Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD)
countries, in what the OECD
said was an important step
towards bringing greater
transparency to cross-border
financial transactions.
The new agreements
come as recent global
financial turmoil coupled
with tax evasion scandals
“have strengthened governments’
determination
to fight tax evasion and
bring increased transparency
to cross-border transactions”,
the Paris-based,
30-member OECD noted in
a statement.
The British Virgin
Islands has signed bilateral
tax information exchange
agreements (TIEAs) with
Australia and the UK, while
Guernsey and Jersey each
signed bilateral TIEAs with
the Nordic economies.
Interest in overseas properties boosted
High net worth individuals
are increasingly looking
to purchase properties
overseas rather than in the
UK, because they see them
as a better investment at
the moment, according to
Investec Private Bank.
It says it has seen a
“significant increase” in the
number of clients looking
to take out £1m-plus
mortgages for such over-
seas properties, particularly
in the south of France
and Italy.
But there has been
a “significant drop” in
demand for mortgages on
Spanish properties, reflecting
the recent downturn in
Spain’s real estate market.
Andrew Arnott, head of
business development for
Investec’s mortgage operation,
noted that potentially
Lipper data shows growth of net assets
for Irish-domiciled funds to end of June
Net assets of funds serviced
in Ireland grew by 18% in
the year to the end of June,
to $1.93trn (€1.23trn), as
the global asset management
industry continued
to take advantage of nondomiciled
arrangements
available there, new figures
from Lipper show.
Total net assets in
Ireland-domiciled funds
grew by 13% to $1.2trn, in
3,125 funds and sub-funds,
during the year to 30 June,
according to Lipper, the
specialist fund subsidiary
of Thomson Reuters.
Director of European
fiduciary operations Ed
Moisson said the data
showed Ireland’s fund
Irish-based administrators (net assets)
350
300
200
150
$bn 250
100
50
0
BNY Mellon State St Int’l JPMorgan North’n Trust
To end of Jun ’08. Source: Lipper
December 2008 [www.international-adviser.com] INTerNATIONAL ADVISer 11
industry “continues to grow,
albeit at a slower rate”.
“The industry’s success
in servicing non-domiciled
funds, as well as money
TIEAs
Jurisdiction No of TIEAs
signed
Isle of Man 11
Jersey 10
guernsey 9
neth antilles 4
bermuda 3
bVI 3
antigua/barbuda 2
aruba 1
bahamas 1
Cayman Islands 1
Source: OeCD
costly mistakes can be easy
for investors to make, particularly
as currency considerations
come into play,
along with tax implications.
In some circumstances, for
example, it may be beneficial
for an investor to have
a mortgage on a French
property, as opposed to
purchasing it for cash, as
this could reduce the liability
to wealth tax, he said.
market products, has
served it well of late and
should continue to do so
in current circumstances,”
he added.
Citi
fuNd NEWS
White: important presence
Ogier expands
offering with
offices in Tokyo
and Bahrain
Ogier, the offshore legal
and fiduciary specialist,
has opened new offices
in Bahrain and Tokyo as
it seeks to cater for an
increasingly global market.
Ogier Bahrain will be
headed up by Paul Perris,
who has moved to Bahrain
from Ogier’s offices in
Jersey. He is also managing
director of Two Seas
Trust, a new joint venture
in Bahrain between Ogier
and Keypoint Consulting,
a Bahraini accounting and
advisory firm.
Ogier Tokyo will be
headed by Skip Hashimoto,
who joins Ogier from
Walkers, another offshore
law firm in Japan.
Ogier, which was founded
in 1922 in Jersey, was
one of the first law firms to
go multi-jurisdictional. It did
so in 1998, when it opened
an office in Guernsey. It
also has a presence in the
British Virgin Islands (BVI),
Cayman Islands and Jersey.
Its merger with the
BVI firm of WSmiths in
2007 gave it a foothold in
Hong Kong, and it also
has operations in Dublin,
London, New Zealand and
Montevideo.
Group chairman, Jonathan
White, said Ogier felt
it was “critically important”
to establish a presence in
both the Middle Eastern
and Japanese markets, to
“provide the full range of
services to our clients in
their own time zone and in
a manner that is responsive
to local conditions.”
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