Why are offshore regular saving plans so disastrous for most clients? If you are, or thinking about, saving regular amounts, typically monthly, then how can you avoid a sensible idea turning into a nightmare?

The background

We are often approached by clients that have been recommended an offshore regular saving plan by their local financial adviser. They have been promised a flexible product with full accessibility available after 2 years with a regular saving, and an illustration promotes the idea of

growth at 12% per annum with limited charges. In general it goes something like this:

Salesman offer a regular saving plans for anything between 15 and 25 years and encourage the client to start saving as much as they can afford at least for the first 2 years. They are assured there is flexibility after the first 2 years and the charges for the regular saving plan are 1% per annum.

See our video about this here:

A typical situation

Much of what they have been told turns out to be plain wrong, unfortunately! Choosing these types of plans can result in some very poor performance which of course is of no use to the client, as there are some really great ways of achieving a different positive outcome.

First of all, I have to explain why, what they are currently being recommended is often a poor solution. The reason they are encouraged to save as much as possible for the first two years is because this will increase the initial commission the salesman will make. The reason the client is told they must make all of the payments in the first 2 years is to ensure the salesman’s com­mission is safe. If the client fails to make all of the initial payments then the salesman will have to “pay back” the commission to the life company that has issued the savings plan.

This first 2 year term is known as the “initial period” and this is the main reason the client will only receive 60% or less of their savings back within the first 8 years. Put another way, all of the commission and charges that the savings plan is going to take from the client are linked to this initial period. Often through “initial” or “capital” units which have no value until the end of the investment term but also can be an 8% annual cost to the client.

If you consider that for smaller monthly amounts the savings plan can cost an additional 5% per annum to run, it is easy to see why these so called savings plans do not make any money for the client.

Regular saving

My definition of a regular saving plan is to build capital for the future through true flexibility, transparent low charges and accessibility that will work with the clients changing circumstances. We have a great solution for regular saving with a total annual ongoing charge including fund fees of less than 1% per annum. If you want us to manage it, which most people do, then we will charge a transparent fee for regular saving plan.

To find out how we can help you and your family’s financial future, Contact us and I’ll talk you through the next steps.

We have built a simple Savings Calculator for you to calculate your own potential returns, you are welcome to try it for yourself.

Expat Money Expert’s con­clusion

The views expressed in this article are not to be construed as personal advice. You should contact a qualified and ideally regulated adviser in order to obtain personal advice with regard to your own personal circumstances. If you do not then you are acting under your own authority and deemed “execution only”. The author does not except any liability for people acting without personalised advice, who base a decision on views expressed in this generic article.

This article was published in August 2016