OneLife – Digital Personality of the Year

For the first time in eight years, the Gala Marketers committee has named a Digital Personality of the Year. Christophe Regnault, Digital Marketing Manager of the OneLife Company was presented with the honour on 24 November.

Christophe Regnault, Digital Marketing Manager, accepts the award. © Lorène Paquier

He met the challenge of launching a digital dynamic and successfully building a three-step action plan entirely around the HUMAN: holding workshops for teams to explain the impact of digital, creating a user-oriented digital ecosystem (internal and external) with interesting and relevant content, and the last step, developing a mobile app.

Step 1:

The first major step was leading some 24 workshops to raise awareness so all employees readily understood digital and how the process could change both their careers and homes lives, all without forgetting to have a little bit of fun in their work! This greatly contributed to the success of the project. The end result was OneLife’s highest SSI (Social Selling Index) industry ranking on LinkedIn.

Grateful thanks are due to everyone who created new profiles, who faithfully updated them and to all employees who shared them.

Step 2:

The second major step involved our rebranding. We took the opportunity to turn this project into a platform to introduce and integrate all the tools our teams needed to start moving forward. Our partners played a critical role, especially since we kicked off everything at once: a CRM system linked to a campaigning dynamic (with the Néréa Company (link)), a new website (with the e-Proseed Company(link)), with all the content, SEO (with the Vanksen agency(link)), social networks and more … all with a new image and feel that allowed us to integrate a much more digital approach.

Step 3:

The third big push in the plan was officially launching our mobile app at the InsurTech Summit (link) in October.

Once again OneLife worked in a very agile mode, that is to say, with three people internally in ongoing contact with our partner (Ainos (link) ) to deliver a mobile app in less than three months … then we spent a lot of time involving our colleagues who to helped refine the tool with all the teams. This way, everyone could test the app and make comments. The Customer Services team was heavily invested and even changed its operating procedures to incorporate the added value sought for our brokers. And that’s only the beginning … because as I have said, we have other ideas for the next versions and our colleagues have given us so many more.

In the end, the desired dynamic has been achieved, that is to say, a real substantive change that went so far as to even change our teams’ ways of working, another form of added value. Through these measures and our teams’ hard work, we (digitally) transformed testing.

Read more:

“LUXEMBOURG MARKETING & COMMUNICATION AWARDS: MEET THE WINNERS” >>> Here.

C. REGNAULT: “BUILDING MOMENTUM AND DYNAMICS IN DIGITAL” >>> Here.

OneLife – Finance Team of the Year

On November 15^th 2016, OneLife was awarded the Finance Team of the Year, for the agility of the project management, creation and successful launch of its new App.

Christophe Regnault, Digital Marketing Manager, and Eric Lippert, CIO, receiving the trophy. © Dominique Gaul

It all started from our employees

Our Digital Marketing plan initiated last year started with our employees, encouraging them to come to us with any ideas they would see or have as digital should be first and foremost seen as a business enabler.

While the app was a key milestone to us, it is one of our employees, Valérie Vaes, who really triggered this thanks to a great example she saw during a meeting with one of our business partners. It then quickly became a cross department teamwork (wealth structuring, tax and legal, IT, client services, etc…).

« CR: Digital is a business enabler creating value by contributing in a tangible way to the whole business. Digitalization also creates a new mind-set and dynamics that enables a company like ours to move forward in terms of innovation. »

A digital dynamic …

As a result of stepping into a digital approach, the first key challenge was speed of delivery. In the end, we had the business case validated by our executive committee in a week. And our App finalized in 3 months.

The second was to find the right partner. And we found an amazing one. We chose Ainos (link) for their involvement and commitment. We felt like being part of the same team throughout this project and I think this is just the beginning of a very interesting collaboration. We also had to choose the development platform. We were convinced by Xamarin, recently bought by Microsoft, that enabled us to develop native App for each OS we selected (iOS & Android).

Another key factor was the way we integrated the workflows into the App. For this critical part, our Architect, Marc Leoka, and our internal teams played a key role.

“EL: In the case of the App, this is the perfect example that demonstrates how we have both worked together to link the workflows and the web services to feed the App with the information we wanted to provide to our business partners.”

… worked in a phased approach

OneLife has taken a phased approach, building momentum internally by engaging our employees in the digital and social media dynamics. Then, we moved on implementing CRM and campaigning softwares all linked to a brand new and disruptive website launched at the time of our rebranding in June this year. Then came the mobile part focused on reinforcing our relationship with and creating value to our business partners.

Two years ago, we started a huge project which resulted in the complete overhaul of our infrastructure and the implementation of new SOA software architecture. The foundations were ready to further develop our digital strategy, enabling it to build upon top notch foundations. In the case of the App, this is the perfect example that demonstrates how we – with our partner – have both worked together to link the workflows and the web services to feed the App with the information we wanted to provide to our business partners.

Read more :

“A TEAM IN THE RACE FOR INNOVATION AND ENGAGEMENT OF OUR EVER-CHANGING CLIENTS” >>> Here.

AVEC AINOS, ONELIFE ENCLENCHE UNE NOUVELLE ÉTAPE DÉCISIVE DE SA TRANSFORMATION DIGITALE >>> Here.

Preparing to welcome the KID

It’s now almost a decade since the European Commission began thinking in 2007 about a way to present the features of complex investment products to retail investors in a clear, concise and non-misleading way. That initiative led to the introduction of the Key Investor Information Document (KIID) for funds through the UCITS IV directive. However, European policy-makers wanted to extend the idea to other types of investment to enable investors to compare them.

The result is the Key Information document (KID) created by EU Regulation 1286/2014 on Packaged Retail and Insurance-Based Investment Products (PRIIPs). Although similar in its presentation to the UCITS KIID, the information contained in the PRIIPS KID is very different in approach, prompting the fund industry to obtain a ‘grandfathering’ period during which it could retain the (itself recently-introduced) KIID before having to switch to the KID.

Along with other providers of retail investment products, insurers were originally required to implement the regulation by 1 January 2017. However, in response to industry criticism, the European Parliament called on the Commission to revise details of how the regulation is to be put into effect, resulting in a decision to delay its application until the beginning of 2018.

PRIIPs distinguishes between two models, the single investment option and the multiple investment option (sometimes referred to as MOP). The MOP approach will apply to products such as those offered by OneLife, which can include a combination of external and internal funds (collective, dedicated and model portfolio).

This involves a two-level KID – one for the contract and one for each of the various investment options. Because PRIIPs requires full transparency, asset managers will be asked to provide standardised investment models that use or reference a benchmark. This approach will be followed by all Insurers in Luxembourg.

In addition, asset managers will be requested to provide information to enable the calculation of performance scenarios. Asset managers working with OneLife are already familiar with the KIID approach that we implemented more than three years ago, confirming the wisdom of our choice of strategy at the time.

We have also joined forces with Lombard International Assurance and ABN AMRO Life to share resources and avoid the need for asset managers and custodian banks to provide the same information several times, and the three companies will draw on the expertise of KNEIP Communication for KID production.

We will soon contact our asset managers and custodian banks to ensure they understand the challenges of the new regulation and what the insurance companies expect from them. OneLife is committed to assisting its partners to meet this challenge, which represents a step change in the way financial products are marketed to retail clients.

>>> For more information on PRIIPS please contact our Tax and Legal specialists here.

>>> This article is part of the November 2016 edition of our monthly newsletter Life Insights. Click here to subscribe.

Portugal : a sunny jurisdiction for life assurance policyholders

The attraction of Portugal as a tourist destination is well known – its magnificent landscapes, cultural heritage and gastronomic delights have made the country a popular choice for holidaymakers for many years.

Hard hit by the European sovereign debt crisis, Portugal suffered a substantial economic downturn in 2011, resulting in a wave of austerity measures to restore the country’s financial stability. The country’s inhabitants were faced with high unemployment, a significant drop in income and increased healthcare costs.

In response to these problems, Portugal has succeeded in stabilising its finances, and growth has returned, although it’s still too early to talk about a genuine recovery of the country’s economy.

A holiday destination with a 10-year residence option

The Portuguese government has strengthened its tourism industry, reflected by the tertiary sector employing almost 65% of the working population. Furthermore, it has introduced fiscal measures to attract new residents, particularly retirees, including tax breaks on their pensions and offshore investments.

This attractive regime, combined with affordable property prices and a relatively low cost of living, has lured many European retirees to settle in Portugal and benefit from the Non-Habitual Resident status. They may continue to enjoy this status for 10 years.

To boost investment in the country, the government has also introduced a residence permit allocation scheme involving so-called ‘golden visas”, which are available to non-EU citizens that invest in property, create jobs or transfer part of their assets to Portugal.

An attractive jurisdiction for life assurance

Among the many asset management tools available to investors, life assurance offers various advantages, including an attractive fiscal regime thanks to the exemption from tax of capital gains earned on the financial assets underlying the contract. Owners of life assurance contracts can therefore manage the underlying funds without worrying about the tax impact of their transactions. Only in the event of withdrawals may taxation apply.

This is because withdrawals are subject to the ‘First In, First Out’ principle, whereby capital is redeemed first and any capital gains taken into account only afterwards. At this point gains are taxed on a flat-rate basis or according to a sliding scale depending on the system chosen by the taxpayer.

Another advantage of life assurance contracts from an income tax perspective is a tax reduction depending on the length of time the contract has been held. This reduction may be as high as 60% for term contracts, that last longer than 8 years.

These advantages are NOT offered by traditional investment portfolios, even for Non-Habitual Residents, who at most can obtain an exemption on interest and dividends if permitted by the double taxation avoidance treaty between Portugal and the country where the assets are located, e.g. in Luxembourg.

With regard to inheritance rights, all amounts invested in life assurance contracts are completely tax-free when the contract reaches maturity or when it is terminated by death of the insured person. They are also exempt from stamp duty on inheritances and legacies bequeathed to heirs other than the spouse, descendants and ascendants of the deceased.

The OneLife strategy with its new Wealth Portugal solution

With Portugal being a favoured location for many foreign nationals looking to relocate, notably – but not only – Brazilians, OneLife sees the importance and potential of the Portuguese market and has included it in its European development strategy.

In terms of financial diversification, the new Wealth Portugal solution allows policyholders to invest in a range of external funds, distributed by fund companies of international reputation, as well as in internal funds. The internal funds may be collective funds available to all OneLife policyholders or dedicated funds tailored to match the policyholder’s investor profile.

External and internal collective funds with daily valuation may also be accompanied by automatic investment options such as the “Stop Loss”, “Save Gains” or “Drip Feeding” mechanisms, giving policyholders tools to react swiftly to market developments. These investment options may be activated or deactivated at any time during the lifetime of the contract.

Depending on the policyholders’ investment strategy, they may consider a dedicated fund with discretionary management entrusted to an investment manager of their choice or should policyholders be interested in selecting the investments themselves with a view to a long-term holding, there is the option to invest in a specialised insurance fund.

The flexibility of Wealth Portugal makes it possible to include any of the fund types mentioned above at the same time and even to hold several in the same category, provided that the investment limits imposed by the Luxembourg Commissariat aux Assurances are respected.

Policyholders of a Wealth Portugal contract have the option to select an additional death cover. If there are two or more insured persons, a choice of first or last death basis is also available. Furthermore, the product allows policyholders to designate the beneficiaries that best suit their needs. In addition to this, there is the added benefit of a succession planning mechanism. The contractual rights may be passed on to the surviving Policyholder(s) or to any other third party designated by the Policyholder(s), where a policyholder dies before the insured person.

Valérie Vaes, Senior Wealth Planner

Andre Piovezan, Regional Sales Director

>>> For more information on our new Wealth Portugal solution, please contact our specialist Andre Piovezan at: andre.piovezan@onelife.com

>>> This article is part of the November 2016 edition of our monthly newsletter Life Insights. Click here to subscribe.

RAIFs and SPIFs – the best of both worlds

On 14 July 2016, legislation took effect in Luxembourg introducing a new type of investment vehicle, the Reserved Alternative Investment Fund or RAIF. The RAIF is regulated under the EU Alternative Investment Fund Managers (AIFM) Directive (2011/61/UE of 8 June 2011) and is not supervised by the Luxembourg regulator, the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier (CSSF). Sufficient protection and oversight comes from management of the RAIF by an authorised external AIFM.

Historically, Luxembourg’s regulatory approach has been based on product regulation, in this case the supervision of funds. This has led to the creation of a range of regulated investment funds including:

UCITS subject to Part I of the legislation of 17 December 2010 on Undertakings for Collective Investment;
Part II funds subject to Part II of the 2010 legislation (non-UCITS funds);
SIFs subject to the legislation of 13 February 2007 on Specialised Investment Funds, as amended, restricted to well-informed investors; and
SICARs (risk capital investment companies) subject to the legislation of 15 June 2004 on the SICAR, as amended, covering risk capital investments.

Wealth managers now have the choice, depending on the investor’s preferences and profile, between setting up alternative investment funds as Part II Funds, SIFs or SICARs which are subject to direct supervision by the CSSF, or RAIFs, which are more attractive from a time-to-market perspective.

The Luxembourg insurance regulator, the Commissariat aux Assurances or CAA, permits a wide range of investments in the form of an Internal Dedicated Fund and/or Specialised Insurance Fund (SPIF).

At OneLife, these investments may include notably unquoted/unlisted assets, depending generally on the investment strategy of the life assurance policy.

While Internal Dedicated Funds offers discretionary, mandated management, the SPIF, a recent solution introduced by the CAA in Circular 15/3, enables policyholders to select the underlying asset(s) of their policy independently from a list of assets predefined by the insurer. The SPIF is aimed at a ‘buy and hold’ strategy.

This low-cost solution, which does not involve an investment manager, can be used for investors in private equity or other long-term assets, such as real estate or securitisation instruments.

While the RAIF is available only to well-informed investors, the SPIF is aimed at Category D investors (category C in certain cases) as defined by the CAA. The admissible underlying assets of a Luxembourg life assurance policy are determined according to the regulatory classification of the policyholder, in principle based on the amount of the initial premium as well as the policyholder‘s total wealth and their investment profile, which depends on their risk profile.

Combining the RAIF and the innovative SPIF solution clearly enhances the efficiency of investment transactions involving real estate, private equity or securitisation instruments by offering a low-cost solution for the policyholder, due to the absence of an investment manager and other intermediation.

The aim is eventually to create an investment option tailored to the policyholder’s particular objectives and needs.

UPDATE : Interest on RAIF “OneLife” solutions strongly increased since few months. Since RAIF launch in July 2016, the interest shown by the alternative investments industry to the Reserved Alternative Investment Fund (“RAIF”) is real and concrete. Indeed, at the end of February 2017, we counted up to 53 RAIFs distributed on the European market.

Anthony Lorrain

Director – Unquoted & Traditional Assets

https://lu.linkedin.com/in/anthony-lorrain

>>> For more info on RAIFs or other underlying assets available within our life assurance contracts, please contact our Investment specialists at: Users_IFS@onelife.com

>>> This article is part of the September 2016 edition of our monthly newsletter Life Insights. Click below to subscribe.

The multitude of benefits a Life Assurance contract can bring

One wealth transfer plan. Four key benefits. You guessed it – it’s an OneLife Life Assurance contract.

Not only can a life assurance contract meet cross-border requirements in case of relocation to another country, providing you with favourable tax regimes, it also offers a gateway to a whole world of investment opportunities.

And it doesn’t stop there. A life assurance contract with OneLife means you are protected within the Triangle of Security – which in a nutshell, means that in the case of a default, you will have preferential rights over all other creditors on the entire pool of assets invested in various segregated accounts.

It sounds pretty good to us, but why don’t you see for yourself?

>>> Click here to learn more about the ways in which a OneLife life assurance contract has benefitted families just like yours…

(Click below to download our e-Book.)

Put yourself in their shoes…

In today’s consumer culture, we are all bombarded with information about seemingly exciting new products and services. Life assurance isn’t right for everyone but it is a flexible solution that can adapt to the needs of different individuals and families. OneLife’s Succession e-Book demonstrates how some families have filled the gaps in their wealth transfer planning by leveraging this tool.

Perhaps the experience of Martin, a French retiree concerned about giving enough money to his two daughters from his first marriage, resonates with you… or maybe Timo and Anna Tuominen with their dual objectives of supporting their children’s careers while saving an inheritance for their two grandchildren, strike a chord?

Whether your situation places you as the benefactor or beneficiary in any of these scenarios, our family case studies clarify exactly how life assurance can help you as well.

Why not see for yourself? Click below to download our e-Book.

Which OneLife family are you? Reap the benefits of life assurance contracts, as they did.

The Blanchet family. The Peeters family. The Tuominen family.

Three families living in different countries, with varying family structures and very diverse requirements.

So, what do they have in common? Life assurance. A Luxembourg life assurance contract to be exact. And this contract has lived up to its promise of being an ideal solution for each and every one of these families, due to the high level of customisation and flexibility it provides.

Click below to learn more about the ways in which these three families have reaped the benefits… (Click below to download our e-Book.)

OneLife activates its digital transformation on basis of new app developed with Ainos

With the collaboration of Ainos, the specialist in life assurance for asset management has equipped itself with a new mobile application. OneLife now offers its partners the possibility of accessing relevant business information and tracking their transactions at any time. This solution, which is a communication and working tool, reinforces the existing relations between the company and its partners.

OneLife proposes life assurance solutions facilitating the protection, structuring and passing on of assets. The company, which now comprises all the NPG Wealth Management entities under a new branding, is particularly attentive to developments in the market. “Our wealthy clients are people who are increasingly mobile. More international and more demanding, they are keen to access data relating to their assets when they want, where they want, from any device” Marc Stevens, CEO of OneLife explains. To meet their expectations we have decided to invest in the future, with the introduction of new communications tools, at various levels, for the benefit of our partners and our clients”.

In autumn of this year OneLife thus presented a new application made available to its partners who use OneLife products in order to manage and structure their clients’ assets. “Using this application, accessible from any mobile device, our partners can access comprehensive information on the assets under management contained within our contracts. They can view their positions and their performances at any time. They can, for example, also better track ongoing operations and the progress of compliance or anti-money laundering administrative procedures related to their request (set up tracking), Marc Stevens adds.

Johann Blais, Ainos – Eric Lippert, OneLife – Marc Stevens, OneLife

An application to reinforce the relationship

The new application constitutes a communication tool for the benefit of the client relationship. This means OneLife’s partners can interact with the company and find answers to their questions more easily. “By using it the work of all parties is facilitated but, above all, it is the partnership relationship, which is strengthened, in a long-term approach”, confirms Christophe Regnault, OneLife Digital Marketing Manager. The idea of developing such an application arose both out of a study carried out by OneLife on partners’ digital maturity and workshops held with the internal teams on the opportunities to innovate within the business. “In lots of respects, and to our great surprise, many of our partners were well ahead of us in terms of digital transformation and the use of digital devices and their daily use. There was, therefore, a genuine opportunity to facilitate working better together and exchanging information on a daily basis”.

For two years OneLife had been carrying out a profound IT transformation, equipping itself with a new information infrastructure and architecture. “To be able to offer such tools it is essential to be able to rely on high-quality, centralised information. The complete reworking of the infrastructure and the introduction of an open architecture constituted a prerequisite for any more advanced transformation. At the outset of this open architecture we now have the possibility to feed into a multitude of channels”, Eric Lippert, CIO of OneLife, explains.

Christophe Regnault, OneLife – Eric Lippert, OneLife – Aida Espinosa, Ainos – Marc Stevens, OneLife – Johann Blais, Ainos – Lorène Paquier, Ainos

Ongoing development and enhancement

OneLife was keen to be assisted in developing this application and turned to Ainos, a company specialised in technical development for the benefit of business transformation projects. “We needed a partner who, on the one hand, can demonstrate great maturity with regard to this type of development and which can also interact easily with our team”, Eric Lippert explains. Ainos won us over in the way it took our requirements onboard and demonstrated genuine proactiveness.

The challenge was to be able to develop, in a relatively short space of time, an application taking into consideration the many content, design, development, user experience (UX) and quality requirements. The project was implemented by a small committee composed of Marc Leoka, Christophe Regnault and Eric Lippert, on the OneLife side, and of Johann Blais, Head of Software Solutions at Ainos. “In view of the lead-times we opted for an ongoing development and deployment approach, relying on the strong commitment of our development teams. Ainos has devoted significant resources to this project, which corresponds to our raison d’être: accompanying the digital transformation of business players”, comments Johann Blais.

From the outset the determination was to be able to present a finished application in six weeks. “Ainos helped us throughout the project, from determining the requirements , technological design, the establishment of the wireframes, development and testing to putting into production. We worked at the pace of the releases proposed. And there could be several of them within a single day. To every proposal it was easy to react and make the necessary adaptations”, comments Eric Lippert. There was incredible commitment from the Ainos teams, composed of enthusiastic technicians, with whom we were permanently in contact”.

New developments to come

In October OneLife presented its application to its leading partners. “We can see that technology is a strong vector for transforming the relationships we have with our partners and clients”, comments Marc Stevens. We are the first player to offer such a tool in a Luxembourg-based cross-border approach. It enables partners to become ambassadors for our brand. And thanks to information sharing we can maintain a link with every one of them”.

Christophe Regnault, OneLife – Johann Blais, Ainos

OneLife continues to invest in its application. New developments are envisaged, still in conjunction with Ainos. In the future OneLife imagines being able to make it directly available to the final beneficiary of a life assurance policy. The possibility of being able to directly onboard clients is also being studied. “With Ainos we benefit from a relationship of trust, which gives results. We particularly appreciate the teams’ responsiveness and rigour, confirms Christophe Regnault. On the strength of these good foundations, with numerous ideas already on the table contributed by our colleagues and partners, we are going to pursue our transformation and the opportunities this represents”.

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Interviewed by Sébastien Lambotte

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= > Download the reference case by clicking on the link below.

No matter your stage of life, be prepared with our checklist.

Life – the long and winding road, full of exciting possibilities, diversions, and sometimes even big and unexpected bumps.

But, no matter what stage of life you are in, we have expert advice ready for you. To get you started, take a look at our Succession planning check-list.

Have you asked all of the right questions?

Click below to download our Slide Share.