32
LIFE PROFILE SCOTTISH LIFE INTERNATIONAL’S PARAGON
Remaining loyal
has its rewards
Scottish Life International – which generally
focuses on single premium business – has just
launched Paragon, a new regular savings product
for Middle and Far East investors. Gary Boal takes
a look at how the newcomer compares in this
competitive market
Gary Boal, managing director,
Boal & Co
Scottish Life International
(SLI) came into the offshore
life market in 1996,
based in the Isle of Man
with a marketing strategy
focused on capital protected
bonds and funds. Over
the years, SLI has been led
by a number of interesting
industry characters, and its
business strategy has gradually
evolved. A current
key product is the PIMS
portfolio bond.
SLI operates not only in
the UK but also in other
areas, including the Middle
East (with offices in
Lebanon and Dubai), the
Far East (Hong Kong) and
Germany, where it operates
under the Royal
London brand. New business
in 2007 was £165m
and funds under management
exceed £800m.
Parent Royal London is
now the largest mutual life
and pensions group in the
UK, with funds under management
of £32.6bn and
annual profits of £147m in
2007. When Royal London
finally won the bidding
war to buy Resolution, the
acquisition brought offshore
competitor Scottish
Provident International Life
Assurance (SPILA) into the
group. A key corporate
priority for the next 18
months will be the integration
of SLI and SPILA into a
single Isle of Man operating
unit, although no
announcement has yet
Table 1: top Paragon funds over 1 year
Manager Fund Performance (%)
Blackrock World Gold +39.4
ABN Amro Brazil Equity +34.4
Blackrock World Mining +35.4
ABN Amro US Opportunities +30.6
Blackrock World Energy +26.9
Threadneedle Latin American £ +23.3
1 year to 30 June ’08. Source: SLI
Table 2: top offshore life funds over 1 year
Insurer/manager Fund Performance (%)
Norwich Union Int’l/Blackrock Gold & General 46.3
Scot Provident Int’l/Blackrock World Gold 39.4
Zurich Int’l/Threadneedle Latin American 23
Skandia/JPMF Glbl Cap Preserv 20.6
Scot Provident Int’l/Blackrock Latin American 19.7
Norwich Union Int’l/Baring Global Bond 19.5
CMI/CMI Japan Bond 19.1
Skandia/ABN Amro Latin American 18.9
CMI/CMI European Bond 18.7
Hansard/Hansard Latin America 18.6
1-yr performance. Source: LifeBase
INTERNATIONAL ADVISER [www.international-adviser.com] AUGUST 2008
been made as to whether
the longer-lived SPILA
brand and business will be
maintained.
l Funds
SLI’s fund range for Paragon
is comprehensive and very
international in flavour, as
suits the regions in which
it is being launched.
Paragon links directly to a
range of about 100 external
funds. The range of
fund managers includes:
��Aberdeen
��Axa Rosenberg
��BlackRock
��CAAM
��Credit Suisse
��Fidelity
��Franklin
��Gartmore
��Goldman Sachs
��BNY Mellon
��JPMorgan
��New Star
��Parvest
��Pictet
��Schroders
��UBS
Table 1 shows the highperforming
funds in the
range, while Table 2 indicates
the top ten performing
offshore life funds over
the same period. As ever,
some companies take their
charges through the funds,
while others, such as SLI,
take them as unit deductions.
For this reason,
LifeBase enables performance
analysis to be done on
a ‘modified-performance’
basis, to provide proper
like-for-like comparisons.
The product provides a
number of interesting fund
choices. Its range has been
carefully selected to include
a good choice of specialist
funds, along with more traditional
investment choices.
Examples of the latter
include numerous singlecountry
equity funds, such
as� Franklin India, CAAM
China (one of three China
funds in the SLI range),
UBS Taiwan,� JF Singapore
and�CAAM Korea.
Specialist funds include�
ABN Amro Energy,
Blackrock World Mining,
JPMorgan Natural Resources,
Pictet Water, BNY Mellon
Global Alpha, Pictet ABS
Return Global Driver and Al
Dar Islamic Global Equity.
l Charges and design
Paragon ignores the normal
‘standard and initial unit
design’ of other popular
offshore regular premium
plans. Instead, it uses a
four-year establishment
charge, with between 30%
(for a five-year premium
payment term) and 54%
(25-year term) of all units
purchased in the first four
years being cancelled over
the period. Establishment
charges are guaranteed to
SLI via a corresponding
penalty on early surrender.
Unit allocation is 100%
to 105%, depending on
To view a Ceros magazine you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser and have the flash player 8 or higher installed. To install the latest flash player, click the icon above, install the flash plugin and then click here to refresh this page.