Meet the Van Dewael Family

Geert and Inge take a special interest in FinTech companies and would like to invest part of their savings to support the growth of these firms. Ideally, the investments would generate enough return for them to retire and leave a healthy inheritance for their children.

Their wealth manager advised them to take out a Luxembourg life assurance contract and to use a Securitisation vehicle to efficiently structure their investments. This gives them full control to customise the solution to their needs and also the possibility to multiply invested assets while segregating risk. Throughout the contract, Geert and Inge would not only be tax compliant in all the relevant jurisdictions but their children would also benefit from a tax efficient wealth transfer.

Choosing Securitisation as an option brings the possibility of highly-tailored investments combined with a wide range of yield, risk and maturity permutations. The Luxembourg regulatory framework offers a flexible and diverse approach to the structuring of these vehicles which means that the investor can target distinct transactions whilst segregating risks on the assets. What might seem complex at the outset can be made simple.

Interested in finding out what the solution for the Van Dewael family is? Download our e-book = > here!

Introduction to non-traditional investments

In the world of a High-Net-Worth Individual (HNWI), there are many things that can be complicated -wealth and succession planning, managing tax across multiple jurisdictions and navigating a cross-border lifestyle, to name a few. However, investing in non-traditional assets doesn’t have to be complex, despite sounding it!

With the OneLife solution, non-traditional assets can be integrated into your life assurance contract – covering investments within Private Equity, Real Estate, Securitisation, Financial Holdings, as well as managing the transfer of wealth between generations.

*SIF = Specialised Investment Fund

RAIF = Reserved Alternative Investment Fund

SCS = Sociétés en commandite simple / Common Limited Partnerships
SCA = Sociétés en commandite par actions / Corporate Partnerships Limited by Shares

S.àr.l. = Société à responsabilité limitée / Private Limited Companies
S.A. = Société anonyme / Public companies limited by shares

With the high levels of customisation and flexibility that a Luxembourg life assurance policy provides, at OneLife we work with you to find the investment solution which best suits you. The one that helps you to unlock potential for growth and diversify your portfolio – all within the safe and secure framework of Luxembourg life assurance.

Non-traditional investments may also be combined with traditional ones, giving you the opportunity to take advantage of a wide range of asset classes. And if you decide to relocate one or even several times, the portability of your policy makes it possible to meet all cross-border requirements. So if you want to pass on wealth to the next generation just as you want to, make it grow while keeping it safe, live a mobile lifestyle – a life assurance policy from OneLife is the ideal solution!

Interesting in learning more about investing in non-traditional assets? Check out this => link!

Unit-linked life assurance contracts and non-traditional assets

Did you know that Luxembourg unit-linked life assurance policies give access to a world of investment opportunities?

Which means that you can create your own personalised investment plan based on both Traditional and Non-Traditional Assets. From UCITS funds, through alternative investments to Private Equity, Real Estate and Securitisation.

Non-Traditional assets allow you to diversify your portfolio, minimise risk and invest for higher return.

You can choose sectors and assets which interest you the most so that you follow your passions and stay connected with the latest fast-growing companies. All in one life assurance policy from OneLife – flexible, secure, personal!

To find out more about the benefits of Non-Traditional Assets, => check out our video!

Is it possible for a Brazilian resident to hold a foreign life insurance contract?

In the Luxembourg insurance industry, we always face the question whether it is possible or not, from a regulatory point of view, for a Brazilian resident to hold a foreign life insurance policy. Hence, we believe it is appropriate to objectively address this query and lay out the regulatory scenario and tax consequences in this jurisdiction.

Brazilian regulatory framework

According to the general rule, individuals or entities resident or domiciled in Brazil can only contract insurance policies issued by companies duly incorporated under domestic legislation and registered with the local insurance authority (SUSEP). Hence, foreign insurance companies cannot perform, directly or indirectly, unauthorised selling or marketing activities in Brazil or issue insurance policies to policyholders resident in the Brazilian territory.

Bearing in mind the general rule, there is nothing in the Brazilian law that prohibits non-residents from contracting offshore insurance to the benefit of Brazilian residents. Given that Brazilian law adopts the principle of legality, according to which individuals or entities are allowed to enter into agreements not prohibited by law, this should be considered an agreement validly executed by two non-Brazilian entities and in full compliance with the laws of their country of residence.

In this context, there are strong arguments supporting the fact that an offshore entity, even if controlled by Brazilian residents, could contract foreign life insurance wherein Brazilian residents are insured persons or beneficiaries of the policy. This situation is not forbidden by Brazilian laws since a Brazilian resident is not contracting a foreign life insurance, but simply represents the risk covered by a foreign entity.

Attention should be paid to the fact that Brazilian authorities are currently more sensitive to transactions contracted by offshore structures for the benefit of individuals resident in Brazil and may disregard them if considered that a certain transaction has been artificially structured through offshore entities to avoid restrictions imposed by local laws and regulations on Brazilian residents.

Thus, a robust solution must be implemented in order to reduce risks that local authorities challenge the proposed structure in the future based on a substance-over-form approach. In this sense, foreign insurers should take into consideration factors such as: the pre-existence of a structure dully declared to the Brazilian authorities that was not incorporated only for the purpose of purchasing a life insurance policy; the fact that this structure is operational and/or has other types of investments; the corporate purpose of the offshore company is to serve as a holding and investment company; evidence of insurable interest by the offshore structure over the life assured; offshore company appointed as one of the beneficiaries of the policy etc.

It is important to mention that major law firms in Brazil have confirmed that, up to this moment, there are no laws, regulations or binding precedents allowing SUSEP to use the substance-over-form standard to disqualify legitimate agreements and structures governed by foreign law in territories abroad. Moreover, in their researches on administrative and judicial case law, they did not verify any decision challenging a similar structure, where a foreign legal entity or individual contracted an offshore insurance policy in which a Brazilian resident was the life assured or beneficiary.

What is necessary to qualify as a life insurance policy in Brazil?

Since a unit-linked insurance agreement is an international contract celebrated outside Brazil, it is important to compare it with the Brazilian concept of an insurance in order to determine the Brazilian tax and legal implications.

We must stress that such hybrid insurance policies traditionally offered by Luxembourg-based insurance companies are not usual in Brazil. The Brazilian life insurance business is dominated by simple term life insurance policies (which might have a one year validity term and do not accumulate cash value) or by pension products such as the VGBL (“Vida Gerador de Benefícios Livres”- which is treated as a life insurance policy for tax reasons). Therefore, it is of paramount importance to design a solution that legally qualifies as a life insurance policy in Brazil to avoid a tax requalification of proceeds as income arising from a typical foreign financial investment.

The Brazilian Civil Code provisions define an insurance agreement as one under which the insurance company, in consideration of payment of a premium, is obliged to cover the beneficiary’s interest in connection with insured risks related to persons or things. Moreover, to qualify as life insurance, the contract must guarantee an indemnification payment for future and unpredictable events, containing a significant death risk coverage that asserts the nature of a life insurance policy.

Therefore, if the contract is designed taking into account the above-mentioned requirements, proceeds received by Brazilian beneficiaries should qualify as an insurance indemnity under Brazilian Law.

Brazilian tax consequences

After qualifying as a life insurance policy, it is necessary to address eventual tax consequences that could be triggered in Brazil.

In case of death proceeds, the Brazilian Civil Code foresees that those are not considered part of the deceased’s estate. For this reason, Brazilian beneficiaries should be able to receive the referred proceeds shortly after the life assured’s death, without setting off an inheritance procedure. The settlement period should not exceed one month from the date of receipt by the insurance company of all the documents necessary for payment.

From a tax perspective, such proceeds would not be subject to inheritance/gift tax as the triggering event for such is the transfer of property or right resulting of succession or donation but not life insurance indemnification. Moreover, the Brazilian Income Tax Code sets out that the stipulated capital of a life insurance policy paid to a Brazilian resident as beneficiary is exempt from income tax. Furthermore, the Brazilian tax authorities have already recognised through a ruling that such exemption also covers life insurance policies contracted abroad, as long as the Brazilian insurance mandatory characteristics are dully observed. Hence, if properly designed, death benefits paid to Brazilian beneficiaries should not be subject to inheritance/gift tax and are exempt from income tax.

In case of proceeds arising from surrenders or maturity claims, since Brazil does not impose CFC rules on individuals, taxation would only be triggered once dividends are distributed to the shareholder or when a capital reduction/liquidation of the offshore structure takes place. In the first scenario, income tax would be levied at 27.5%. In the second scenario, individuals should assess the capital gain obtained and subject it to a progressive taxation ranging from 15% to 22.5%.

Given foreign exchange control rules in Brazil, remittances made in and out of the territory would trigger IOF exchange taxation. Usually, clients instruct insurance companies to deposit proceeds at their offshore bank accounts. If individuals wish to repatriate those amounts to Brazil, they would need to close a foreign exchange agreement at a Brazilian bank to return the financial availability from abroad (“retorno de disponibilidade”), which would trigger 0.38% IOF exchange taxation.

Brazilian tax developments

It must be stressed that Brazil is a jurisdiction that neither imposes CFC rules on individuals nor has properly regulated a substance-over-form doctrine. In this sense, there are plenty of tax planning opportunities to be explored and most Brazilians do structure their wealth through private investment companies located in tax havens. Despite the lack of political will to approve the necessary legislation, the Brazilian tax authorities have increasingly targeted offshore structures. Therefore, it is important to look at how the local administrative and judicial courts have been interpreting and admitting tax planning solutions.

Until recently, the limits of tax planning were based on the legality principle (negative limits of conduct). Nevertheless, the tax authorities have started to demand the existence of additional constraints related to business purpose (positive limits of conduct) in order to fill legal loopholes. Thus, they start to distance themselves from an analysis exclusively based upon the formality required by law towards the substance-over-form doctrine, under which the legal form of a transaction is levied according to its economic substance. So, if a transaction is arguably carried out with a certain degree of artificiality in a tax avoidance context, this transaction could have grounds to be challenged by the local tax authorities.

In order to prepare for this change of paradigm, we strongly advise our clients to take into consideration the relevance of business purpose and substance when designing long-term wealth structuring solutions.

Do not hesitate to contact us in case you need help with yours.

Taïza Ferreira

Rising interest rates: a threat ?

Rising interest rates have been a worry for investors for the last couple of years, without that fear actually manifesting itself in market movements. We have seen interest rates on the rise this year, as was to be expected from the historically low – and in many cases negative – levels. An overview.

Especially in the US, where 10-year yields moved from 2.40% at the end of 2017 to 2.86% by the end of May, with an intermediate high of 3.11%, meaning an amplitude of +0.71% at the most, we saw some volatility but the trend is clear and might not be finished either: up! The market indeed sees 3 to 4 more hikes by the Federal Reserve in short-term rates, and these clearly have their influence on the expectations surrounding long-term rates, even if part of the rise on the short-term rates is lost in a considerable flattening of the curve (i.e. a shrinking difference between short-term and long-term interests). Most investors in US debt seem to be positioned in quite short duration assets or floaters that might even profit from gradually climbing rates. Benchmarks, which traditionally tend to have quite long average duration, have suffered more than real portfolios it would seem.

It’s a different picture in core Europe: 10-year yield on the German Bund started the year at 0.43%, had an impressive climb up to 0.77% by early February, before coming back down more slowly to levels between 0.50% and 0.60%. By the end of May, mainly driven by the flight to quality over Italian political turmoil, it dropped steeply and actually ended the 5-month period we are considering here lower than it started, at 0.34%.

As they are used by quite a few portfolio managers for the sake of yield enhancement, we should of course also take into consideration the so-called “peripheral Europe” bond markets, mainly represented by Italian government bonds. The 10-year yield on those BTP’s (Buoni del Tesoro Poliennali – multi-annual treasury bonds) followed quite a different path: starting the year at just over 2%, it was actually pretty stable until mid-March, when it started declining to reach a low of 1.72% by mid-April. From the second week of May, politics took over the agenda and 10-year rates skyrocketed to 3.16%, finally ending the month of May at 2.80%.

Just to be complete: Japanese government bonds, although an enormous market in size, are only very scarcely used by our main portfolio managers, because Japanese yields are really microscopic. The 10-year rate was at 0.05% to start the year, it “shot” up to 0.10% by the end of January before falling again to 0.04% by the end of May. Not exactly an interesting asset for non-JPY investors.

So, what then has been the influence of these interest rate fluctuations on an actual client’s portfolios ? We have looked into the top-8 of flexible funds in our external fund range to get a diversified view on what different types of allocators and flexible managers did over the first 5 months of the year.

What do these figures, and specifically the timing of Highs and Lows, teach us about the correlation with interest rates ? Well, it would look like there is an almost negative correlation between most flexible funds and Bund prices, despite their portfolios often being mainly invested in bond type assets.

The peaks by the end of January (6 out of 8 funds) coincide with the highest 10-year Bund yields observed since the beginning of the year. This is probably the result of extreme confidence in the markets, making slightly higher interest rates positioning by the Central banks more likely because they consider the economy can take it without too much trouble. Whenever this risk appetite drops, for whatever reason, we see 2 phenomena: markets thinking Central banks might go slower on rate hikes to avoid cooling off the economy, plus a “flight to quality”, i.e. investors taking money out of stocks and into safe havens like German govies. Both will drive yields down.

Portfolios however are not invested like the bond benchmarks today: we see a lot more credit risk, both on corporates and on peripheral govies than in standard government bond benchmarks. And duration looks completely different too from that on the core European government debt market, with nobody really daring to be invested far out on the curve, where a slightly wrong estimation on the direction of rates can have painful consequences.

One area where some funds mark quite some correlation is unfortunately the Italian debacle on political turmoil end of May. Some of our French investment partners had their funds quite heavily exposed to Italian spreads, resulting in portfolios dropping in the last two weeks of May. This came on top of equity markets globally losing out on the Italian nervousness as well.

As a conclusion, we might say that even for portfolios with a maximum of 50% equity exposure, performances today coincide a lot more with equity indices than with bond benchmarks. The fact that managers won’t hold long duration core European government bonds like they used to do 10 years ago on the one hand will protect from the negative impact of rising rates going forward.
On the other hand, portfolios will not benefit from the same “risk dampening” they used to show when risk assets, including credits and peripheral debts that now seem to make up an important part of non-equity pockets, will suffer from increasing risk aversion in the markets.

So far it would seem managers with the highest risk budget in terms of volatility have had better returns by actively timing their risk allocation, but one does need a strong stomach to endure much higher volatility and temporary draw-downs. The more cautious risk managers, relying more on the non-equity part of their investments might be in for a hard time to put down good returns in choppy markets, especially when short-term nervousness shakes up both parts of their allocation.

For more information on investments, please contact us.

Ruben De Roover

#Success in #Succession – Part II – A relocation-friendly life assurance plan

Our research shows that across Europe, two-thirds of high-net-worth individuals use life assurance products – particularly in France (78%), Germany (72%) and Belgium (71%).

Belgian expats Andreas and Angela live in the UK along with their two children, Conran and Chloe. However with Brexit looming, creating a life assurance plan is on their minds. In safeguarding their future, the Willems’ are keen that their new plan includes an integrated succession plan and is fully flexible in the event of relocation, once their children complete their education and move out.

The OneLife solution meets these objectives by creating a life policy that protects the surviving spouse, consolidates their assets against relocation and mitigates the level of tax applicable to their policy. It is worth considering that a Luxembourg life assurance policy is an internationally recognised wealth planning solution that places protection, flexibility and efficient wealth transfer at the heart of its proposition. Luxembourg’s strong policyholder regime, its safe and stable financial and political environment and its AAA credit ratings from the top international rating agencies brings peace of mind that wealth is well protected – for the long term.

Interested in learning more about the OneLife solution for the Willems family? = > Click here!

Source: OneLife & Scorpio Partnership

More than a game, a cultural experience

When it comes to sports, football is the most famous in Europe. The game is deeply rooted in daily life and cultural habits of several countries like England, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany, Italy and the list goes on. Rumour has it that even Queen Elizabeth II in her teenage years used to disguise herself in order to participate in football matches played near Buckingham Palace.

European colonists and expats have given football a widespread reach that has made it the world’s most popular sport by far. Nowadays, millions of fans around the world follow European championships. The biggest reason for that is the fact that Europe is home to the most prestigious professional football leagues, and the best players in the world fight for a spot on their teams.

In the last two decades, football has become a multi-million euro industry. The globalisation of the game has made international players increasingly in demand by teams all over the world. In hopes of getting an early glimpse at future stars, European teams are sending scouts abroad to find exportable talent while they are still teenagers. Likewise, local teams are signing kids and willing to keep them until their value increases and they can be sold to European clubs. As a result, Europe ends up welcoming many international football players who are likely to be well remunerated and in need of further advice to structure and manage their wealth.

Wealth management and the peculiarities of a professional football player

The particular situation of a professional football player requires a different approach. The mix of high salaries, young age and usual lack of financial education given focus on the game result in a false sense of financial security and high expenditures. This combination of factors can be even worse when you take into consideration that few professional players earn six-figure monthly salaries. Due to early retirement in this business, athletes need to plan and save for the future in order to avoid financial troubles after retirement.

On top of that, international mobility is the rule in an ever more connected world and those athletes end up moving to different places before retiring and going back to their home country. Thus, advisors need to evaluate which is the best tool to consolidate, protect and invest their international wealth, as well the tax and legal challenges they might face within the different jurisdictions they end up living in throughout their careers.

A versatile wealth structuring solution

When dealing with the future of international football players, stakeholders within the industry must be aware that a holistic approach is essential. This is especially relevant after having this niche of clients caught up in accusations of tax fraud and other financial crimes in Europe during the past years. A robust and compliant tool must be chosen and a portable solution is necessary due to their regular moves. Hence, life assurance has seen a growing demand from this community as advisors learn about the product and its benefits for wealth management and asset protection.

Life assurance is a structure fully recognised and compliant in Europe, usually enjoying a favourable tax treatment as it forces individuals into a savings regime. It is also used as a powerful tool to consolidate and transfer wealth. This dynamic product can provide cross-border flexibility and unique security of a contract made in a top-investment jurisdiction such as Luxembourg, which is protected by a rigorous regime known as the Triangle of Security. Besides, Luxembourg offers tax neutrality, with taxation based on the policyholder’s country of residence.

In terms of taxation, this product usually offers full tax deferral until surrender and tax-free death benefits depending on the country of residency. In terms of succession, a life assurance policy can protect both spouses if one predeceases the other and facilitate an eventual cross-border inheritance procedure. Additionally, the beneficiary clause functions as a will and the policyholder is able to change beneficiaries at any time. Apart from that, death benefits arising from life insurance policies are usually not deemed as part of the deceased’s estate in most countries. This facilitates transferring wealth to beneficiaries in case of death, as the settlement period should not exceed 30 days from the date of receipt by the insurance company of all the documents necessary for payment.

In addition, contracts can be tailor-made to offer portability whenever international football players relocate to different jurisdictions during their career. In case of a move, a thorough analysis must take place before proceeding with any contractual changes necessary to obtain legal and tax recognition of the policy at the destination country. At the same time, such changes must respect the initial objectives of the policyholder so the solution remains appropriate and efficient.

This tool may also offer a flexible and wide range of underlying assets, such as external and internal collective funds, as well as dedicated funds that allow discretionary management according to the policyholder’s personal objectives. Another interesting feature is that such solution allows clients to withdraw at any time a portion of their original investment if needed. It also gives the possibility to keep the same investment manager and custodian bank for the underlying assets during the policy lifetime.

In summary, life assurance might be the best option for international players living in Europe to structure and manage their wealth. At OneLife, we promote research into the challenges that lay ahead in dealing with professional football players’ finances. By supporting this initiative, we strongly desire to make stakeholders within this industry aware that a sophisticated approach is imperative to succeed when dealing with the future of football players. We cannot wait to hear from you!

Author: Taïza Ferreira

Safe. Flexible. Portable.

Latin America – a region with a future

Latin America is home to some of the world’s fastest growing economies. Entrepreneurs thrive in this area of the globe that boasts rich natural resources, a burgeoning tourist industry, a history and culture of envy, an open-minded and dynamic approach to international business. It is therefore not surprising that along with this sort of wealth creation comes a certain amount of complexity: to help ensure that wealth is managed propitiously, that solid inheritance planning is in place, that wealth works in a secure and flexible way for both wealthy individuals and their families in order to help them maintain their lifestyles and make further investments for the future.

At OneLife, we are committed to the Latin American region. In 2017, we added Latin America to our already well-established markets in Europe as an area of high potential in terms of business growth, one of the few Luxembourg life assurers to do so. We identified the added-value for Latin American individuals and their families of using life assurance solutions as a means of protecting, managing and transferring their wealth in a safe and flexible way.

Spain and Portugal, collectively known as the Iberian peninsula, are key markets for OneLife which, with their far-reaching links to Latin America and the ever-increasing mobility of individuals moving between the new and old continents, are important jurisdictions when addressing the needs of Latin America clients. With solutions provided through OneLife’s Wealth range, Wealth Portugal and Wealth Spain are products which can be tailored to the specific needs of clients with a totally personalised approach to investments, non-traditional assets and cross-border opportunity.

On the road, spreading the word

In March and April, OneLife’s team of Iberian and Latin American experts, in close collaboration with some of the most renowned international legal firms, conducted a number of roadshows with the aim of both explaining the advantages of Luxembourg life assurance for clients who reside in these regions and showcasing OneLife’s credentials in offering robust solutions for this clientele. Starting in the international banking centres of Switzerland and Luxembourg and finishing in Portugal and Spain, OneLife and its legal partners were able to demonstrate the appeal of life assurance as an effective wealth planning tool for internationally mobile high net worth clients and their families.

According to OneLife’s Chief Commercial Officer, Wim Dieryck:

“Spain, Portugal and Latin America are all important markets for OneLife. With the increasingly mobility of families, the complex situations which can arise when members of the same – or recomposed – families reside in different jurisdictions, the wide diversity of assets which the wealthy now hold – all this means that asset management has to evolve and embrace a holistic approach. Life assurance is an ideal solution to respond to this complexity, helping internationally families to manage, protect and transfer their wealth in an effective and flexible way.”

Closer to home – the benefits of life assurance for French residents and their families

In addition to being market leader in Belgium, OneLife is firmly committed to serving (U)HNW clients and their families in France providing them with the benefits of a Luxembourg life assurance policy as a robust and flexible wealth management tool. We recently announced the launch of the first 100% digital Luxembourg life assurance contract for France through our collaboration with one of the leading French FinTech companies, Advize. Independent Financial Advisers in France will soon be able to subscribe a Luxembourg life assurance policy from OneLife for their clients via a complete end-to-end digital on-boarding process.

First “Matinée d’Affaires” event held in Paris

A first event took place on 12^th April in Paris, gathering a panel of well-known speakers for a morning of insights and debate:

Benoist Lombard, President, Chambre Nationale des Conseils en Gestion de Patrimoine (CNCGP) and President of Witam Multi Family Office
Philippe Parguey, General Director of Development, Nortia, and,
Marc Stevens, CEO, OneLife

The discussion started with an overview of Luxembourg’s investor protection regime, one of the most robust in the EU. Through the Triangle of Security and the notion of ‘Superpriviledge’, investors are fully protected in Luxembourg when holding a life assurance policy in the case of bankruptcy or other failure of the insurance company.

Marc Stevens indicated:

“Wealthy, international families are very mindful of risk and what it means for their wealth. That means that they carefully consider the aspects of a life insurer’s solvency and liquidity. Professional secrecy and data protection are also important factors which families are sensitive to”.

Benoist Lombard added that:

“In the case of bankruptcy or failure of the insurance company, the regulatory authority in Luxembourg ensures that the assets are returned to the policyholder … This protection is the ultimate guarantee. It’s also up to the client – and his intermediary – to study other elements such as the insurer’s solvency ratios”.

‘Portability, simplified’ was the second subject of the morning explaining the increasing mobility of financial assets in an ever-evolving regulatory and digital context.

Marc Stevens said:

“Portability is centred round the local laws in force within the client’s country of residency. Any move from one jurisdiction to another therefore can have a consider impact on how a life assurance policy is treated from a legal, tax and inheritance perspective. But do partners have the ability to follow all their clients as they move across the world? To be able to do that, they have to have the necessary controls and expertise in place.”

On the subject of IDD, Philippe Parguey commented:

‘In Europe, IDD will allow a policy to be more easily transferred between one intermediary and another. It will also be of interest in allowing the transfer of accumulated savings from one life insurance company to another’. He went on to say: ‘And, still on the subject of policy transfer: in the case where we will have transfers of clients to intermediary companies with whom we don’t yet work, then we will need to put in place a distribution agreement’.

The final theme of the morning was wealth transfer in a cross-border context. With more and more individuals and families moving abroad, how can wealth be transferred successfully taking into account often complex situations and a multi-jurisdictional approach?

Marc Stevens continued:

“Digitalisation provides the opportunity to create optimal interaction between the partner, his client and the insurer. This ‘communication triangle’ can work quite spectacularly, especially when supported by internal processes. Digital tools allow us to be more efficient, to avoid errors and to provide total transparency to the client”.

For further information, follow us on LinkedIn!

Success for OneLife’s first roadshow events!

OneLife’s team of experts partnered with 17 speakers of international acclaim to present the advantages offered by life assurance for Iberian and Latin American clients to over 150 attendees (bankers, asset managers, financial advisers …).

The first roadshow was held in Zurich on 13 March 2018 and the second in Geneva on 14 March 2018. Following an introduction by Wim Dieryck, Chief Commercial Officer OneLife, the day was split into different panels by market. The morning session dealt mainly with Latin America with Abril Rodriguez of EY, Eduardo Valenzuela of Chevez and Abel Francisco Mejía of Sanchez Devanny presenting the specificities for Mexico.

Camilo Cortes of Dentons, Juan David Velasco of Posse Herrera & Ruis and Lucas Morena of Brigard & Urrutia then gave their overview for Colombia.
Robert Jarvis of Charles Monat Associates, Fernando Núñez of Hernandez & Cía and Roberto Cores of EY spoke about solutions for Peru.
Spain and Portugual were next up following the break, with a number of specialists for the Iberian region: Javier Seijo (EY), Enrique López de Ceballos (Eversheds Sutherland Nicea), Carlos Ferrer (Cuatrecasas), Fabricio González (Anaford), Filipe Romão (Uría Menendez), Joao Espanha (Espanha Associados), Sara Zad (Carnegie) and Marta Duarte (Cuatrecasas).

A panel dedicated to Brazil concluded the day with the expert insights of Priscila Stela Mariano da Silva (Pinheiro Neto) and Filipe Romão (Uría Menendez) who gave practical examples of how life assurance works cross-border such as a family moving from Brazil to Portugal and then returning to live in Brazil again.

The third roadshow was held in Luxembourg on 15 March 2018 and provided insight into solutions for Spain and Portugal. Carlos Ferrer of Cuatrecasas and Joao Espanha of Espanha Associados were once again present to explain with real examples the situation for wealth management in these two countries and the advantages of a Luxembourg life assurance policy for clients living in Spain and Portugal.

For Marc Stevens, Chief Executive Officer OneLife, also present: ““The following have changed over the years: families, the composition of these families, the different geographical places where the members of these families live and the nature of their wealth. These changes will continue in the future. This means that asset management and protection require a different approach and different techniques and that flexibility and internationalisation are becoming increasingly important. Managing this complexity can be achieved through a multi-disciplinary approach between bankers, lawyers, tax experts, family offices, brokers, insurers and others. Life assurance is a solution for these families to manage their wealth and to have it well protected.”

Want to find out more?

OneLife’s team of experts and its speakers invite you to attend our 4th and 5th roadshows (the last ones of this series): 10 April 2018 in Lisbon to find out all you need to know about life assurance solutions for Portuguese residents and 11 April 2018 in Madrid for Spanish clients!

For further information, follow us on LinkedIn!

Real Estate funds: an asset in wealth management

OneLife is participating in the MIPIM (“Marché International des Professionnels de l’IMmobilier”) in Cannes this week. This is a world leading property event where the most influential international property players come together for 4 days of networking and learning.

From an investment perspective, the real estate sector has become very attractive in today’s economy. As part of the so-called “non-traditional assets”, real estate proves to be a key strategic element against a backdrop of low interest rates.

Since the early nineties, Luxembourg has become a key location for international real estate investments. After the reform of the specialised investment fund (SIF) act in 2007 which marked the starting point for a new dimension growth, the RAIF structure launched in 2016 allows real estate fund issuers to set up Luxembourg-domiciled funds that are not subject to regulatory approval by the Luxembourg supervisory authority (CSSF). This option significantly enhanced the time-to-market for new fund launches.

Conscious of this potential and the increasing demand of sophisticated investors in their wealth management strategies, OneLife values and has enhanced its solutions on non-traditional assets as part of a life assurance contract. This includes unregulated real estate, private equity, securitisation and alternative funds. Non-traditional assets require specific procedures in terms of both acceptance and valuation in order to offer a secure framework: this is where expertise is paramount. Our dedicated teams are here to advise and support clients in global wealth solutions no matter how diverse the portfolio, providing a clear overview of their portfolio as a combination of both traditional and non-traditional asset classes.

Should you need additional information, do not hesitate to contact:

Anthony Lorrain, Unquoted & Traditional Assets Director, at OneLife