IOMA Pensions, the retirement solutions specialist in the IOMA Group, has made major enhancements to its product range for both local and international business.
IOMA has streamlined its retail product offering for Isle of Man approved pensions, enabling both protected and non-protected rights to be managed under a single trust with access to the full range of investment opportunities.
IOMA Pensions Director, Mike Batey explained, “Quite simply we have been working hard to streamline our administration platform, a key result being that we no longer have to run two products to reach the entire market. Now clients can access their chosen investment route, whether protected rights or not, through a single pension wrapper. We are already starting to get really positive feedback from the Island’s IFA community on this.”
The company has also expanded its range of services with a Guernsey tax-approved pension arrangement and an international employer funded scheme.
The Guernsey scheme has been approved by the UK as a Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme (“QROPS”). The trustee of the scheme is Carey Pension and Benefits Limited in Guernsey and it will be administered from the Isle of Man by IOMA Pensions.
Because it is marketed and administered from the Isle of Man, the scheme has also been submitted for authorisation by the Insurance & Pensions Authority. Mr Batey added, “The QROPS market is maturing quickly and advisers want a choice of jurisdictions. We needed an offering for situations where the Isle of Man is not appropriate and Guernsey certainly seems to be the preference for most advisers currently.
The development of an international employer funded scheme completes a busy product development phase for IOMA Pensions. Mike Batey said, “The driver for this has been a swell of momentum in the UK for EFRBS (Employer Funded Retirement Benefit Scheme) arrangements. Essentially, these are unapproved retirement benefit schemes from a UK perspective and, for a number of reasons, it often makes sense to base these outside of the UK.
“The employers that finance them can, understandably, be nervous about sending employees’ retirement funds into an unregulated environment outside of the UK. To counter this sentiment we will seek IPA approval for each arrangement, and where applicable Isle of Man tax approval too. But we must stress that the market is not restricted to the UK – these are international schemes with a global application.”
IOMA Pensions is now focused on delivering these developments but further enhancements to the product range are also in the pipeline.
