Why Offshore ?
As an expatriate, you will have become accustomed to accessing products that are subject to the financial services and/or tax regulations in your home country. In many cases, these are only available to people who reside and work in the country concerned, and they are usually frozen once you leave. You may also have encountered restrictions when trying to access a broader range of assets within your onshore chosen products. On the other hand, offshore products are both personal and portable. They are not restricted by the financial services or tax regulations in your home country or the place where you live now. Also, unlike some pension plans, they are not linked to the company you may currently work for. Such products are truly global, a vast range of them are available, and there are very few restrictions on the type of assets you can invest in or the currency in which they are denominated.
The institutions that provide such offshore products pass on the benefits of their buying power and the discounts they receive to their clients in the forms of greatly reduced entrance thresholds (typically US$50 per fund per month or US$10,000 per direct asset), zero or greatly reduced entrance and exit fees, and management fees that are as low as 0.25% a year. In summary, offshore products offer personalised portable solutions, a greater choice of assets to invest in, higher growth potential, lower minimum entrance levels that allow a more diversified portfolio, and heavily discounted fees that enhance their profitability. Most of these products are domiciled in well-regulated jurisdictions, where government policyholder protection schemes cover up to 90% of their value. The consultants at Gilt Edge International are fully familiar with all the different categories of offshore products that are available. We can suggest which ones will best suit the personal circumstances and investment objectives of expatriates living anywhere in the world. |