Sales Navigator from LinkedIn – what better way to source new business?

OneLife likes to use a combination of traditional and digital marketing to source new business. LinkedIn is a particularly powerful tool that facilitates the sourcing of quality leads that can then be qualified by our Sales teams internally to help build new business relationships for the future.

The new way to sell is social! The OneLife Company Succeeds at Sourcing Leads with LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Did you know? In 2017, 30% of new premiums in OneLife policies were collected using this methodology. That’s almost a third of new business sourced directly – and digitally – from LinkedIn! It’s a cost- and time-efficient way to work.

The OneLife Team involved in the case study came from across a number of OneLife’s markets: Nadine Baltus, Cécile Portes, Arnaud Mezergues, Bastien Perrine, Tarja Valkeinen and André Piovezan, led and coached by Christophe Regnault, OneLife Digital Marketing Manager. Using LinkedIn’s network and process, Sales Navigator made a real difference in shortening the sales cycle and creating real business opportunities.

What did we achieve ? For this, we are pleased to say that OneLife is the first wealth management company globally to part of LinkedIn Global’s « Hall of Fame » which ranks best-in-class companies when it comes to modern selling techniques. OneLife is now recognised by LinkedIn as an expert in social selling and lead generation and sits in the prestigious company of the likes of Microsoft, Paypal, SAP ….

How did we get there ? The project was initiated in March 2017 by Christophe Regnault as part of his keynote speech at the L’Apéro des Marketers event in Luxembourg. The seal of approval from LinkedIn is indeed strong recognition that the actions put in place with the Sales Navigator tool delivered real results for OneLife. The combination of LinkedIn’s network, clear KPIs and a motivated team of people is a winning formula!

See => here for the Link to the OneLife Case Study.

Antonio Corpas, Chief Executive Officer OneLife : “We have seen the advantage first-hand at OneLife of adding the modern social selling dimension to more traditional selling techniques. The success of LinkedIn sales solutions is the ability to target contacts who have a real interest in our service offering so responding quickly and in a cost effective way to help satisfy their needs”.

Christophe Regnault, Digital Marketing Manager OneLife : “If you thought that modern selling couldn’t be applied to wealth management and life assurance, then just think again! 30% of OneLife’s assets within Europe have come from leads sourced via Sales Navigator. If this is applied to the rest of our territories, you can see that it has quite an impact!”

What’s next? With these strong foundations, OneLife is now ready to further build and expand this dynamic towards all the front-end teams @OneLife and also towards its stakeholders.

This means two main actions:

Keep on increasing the number of participants internally so as to progressively expand the brand reach on OneLife’s key differentiators;
Further Integrate our stakeholders, by organising external workshops with our partners to get a multiplier effect and alignment in terms of relay of the brand reach but also to generate value out of our leads.

OneLife will keep up its modern selling work and would like to congratulate all those involved in this experience!

#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

#Success in #Succession – Part II – Managing Succession For Expatriates

According to our research, 60% of high-net worth individuals from the UK have a plan in place for the succession of their finances. Despite the expatriate status of the Willems family, who are originally from Belgium, they are no different.

Although they have settled into life in the UK over the past years and have even begun to view it as a home away from home, recent waves in politics have caused them to reconsider.

Now with Britain’s imminent departure from the EU, they are exploring their options when it comes to creating a life assurance policy which has integrated succession planning. However, creating a plan that protects all parties involved and has cross-border capabilities can be a tricky undertaking. Complexities involving tax and domicile status throw curve balls at what should be a smooth sailing planning experience.

Existing – Meet the Willems family! Meet Belgian expats Andreas, aged 57 and Angela, aged 55. The Willems lead a comfortable lifestyle in the leafy suburbs near London after moving there 12 years ago with their two children, Conran aged 18 and Chloe aged 16.

With the advent of Brexit and the uncertainty that brings, they are starting to consider what the future might hold. Changes to residency rules in the UK are also an important factor which they need to take into account. Andreas and Angela want to ensure that as successful professionals, they can maintain their lifestyle and provide for their children’s higher educational needs as they reach university age. With a Luxembourg life assurance policy and the flexibility that brings, they can be sure that their wealth is protected and transferred to the next generation efficiently, even if they were to relocate to another country.

How? A number of benefits come into play centred around

1. Tax Efficiency – taking out a Luxembourg life assurance policy before becoming domiciled in the UK means is an efficient in terms of inheritance tax (IHT) planning.

2. Portfolio Advice – a Luxembourg policy allows for the holding of a wide range of pooled investment vehicles such as UCITS funds. This gives the Willems the opportunity to hold a diversified investment portfolio as part of their life assurance contract, allowing them to choose their risk profile and switch easily between a wide range of investment funds.

3. Joint Subscription – if both Andreas and Angela subscribe the life assurance policy, they can rest assured that the surviving spouse remains protected in the event of death of the other spouse. In the case where there is no will or the will is void in their new country of residence, this provides peace of mind for the future.

4. Portability of the life assurance policy – OneLife’s team of experts has long experience in assisting clients to manage their wealth in a secure and efficient way. Even when it comes to single or multiple relocations to other countries during the life of the policy, it remains compliant cross-border and flexible enough to take into account the changing needs of the policyholders.)

Discover it all through this video

Each family situation is unique which means that the life assurance policy also must be able to take into account the special circumstances and needs of those involved. With more people than ever relocating to live and work in other countries, factors like cross-border portability are all important. And as family situations become more complex with children also often moving abroad to study and work, finding a wealth planning tool which is flexible enough to evolve around family members’ needs is key. A Luxembourg life assurance contract is an ideal way to protect, manage and transfer wealth in a safe and efficient way.

= > Click here to find out what the OneLife solution is for the Willems family!

Source: OneLife & Scorpio Partnership

My Life. My Family. My Plans. – #Success in #Succession – Part II

With over 68% of European HNW individuals choosing life assurance as a mean of ensuring financial security for now and for the generations to come (Source: Scorpio Partnership), OneLife is pleased to announce the launch of #Success in Succession Part II.

First launched in 2016, this campaign introduced us to 3 families living in different countries across Europe who could all benefit from using life assurance as a wealth and inheritance planning tool. In Part I, we followed the Blanchet Family (France), the Peeters Family (Belgium) and the Tuominen Family (Finland).

In this second part, we meet the Willems Family (UK), The Svensson Family (Sweden), the Alvarez Family (Spain) and the Ferreira Family (Portugal). All are at different stages of their lives, all have unique wealth planning needs and all are looking to safeguard their futures whilst passing on their wealth in a safe and efficient manner to their children.

As families become more mobile and move to different countries for work, study and retirement, their wealth needs have to evolve with them. Managing this complexity is not always easy. You need a safe, flexible, efficient wealth solution that will stand the test of time and deliver to your precise demands. Life assurance is an effective tool to help you tick all these boxes. It’s well regulated with assets protected under the Luxembourg policyholder protection, one of the strongest in Europe. It’s flexible enough to allow adjustments during the lifetime of the policy depending on your and your family’s situation as well as the ability to invest in a wide range of assets according to your own preferences. It’s efficient due to the favourable tax treatment it enjoys and it allows you to designate how and when you and your beneficiaries will take advantage of its benefits.

At OneLife, we enjoy today’s complexity, because it allows us to help our partners and clients to gain peace of mind safe in the knowledge that their financial assets are well protected, managed and passed on to future generations in line with their own wishes.

So what are you waiting for? Learn more about how life assurance can work for you.

Our ebook will give you real-life case studies about how a life assurance policy can provide an ideal solution to your wealth planning needs. Meanwhile, check out our => Succession Checklist and get answers to today’s essential inheritance questions.

Our vision of tomorrow’s Customer Services

Keeping the customer experience at the forefront of its concerns, the company has launched several initiatives in recent years to improve its services and meet the evolving needs of its partners and customers. And there are many projects still to come! Firmly geared towards digitalisation, OneLife is seeking to make new technologies available to all of its partners and customers, while offering qualitative, human-based exchanges.

With 40 employees, OneLife’s Customer Service handles 22,000 phone calls, 30,000 transactions and 40,000 emails every year.

Offering a multi-channel customer relationship

In the digital era, OneLife seeks to offer communication channels that are tailored to everyone: technophobes, social media addicts, loyal customers, volatile and independent customers who prefer total autonomy, customers looking for support… A customer relationship with potentially many different touchpoints!

Letters, emails and phone calls are currently the most common communication channels. However, at the same time, our secure websites (youroffice for our partners and yourassets for customers), as well as our OneLife OneApp mobile application, already give our customers the ability to stay connected with us 24/7. These digital channels enable them to obtain information about our services, products, market and company news, as well as to perform certain transactions and consult their portfolios or the status of pending transactions.

=> Download “OneLife OneApp”!

Available on Google Store or Apple Store.

In the future, OneLife will offer even more opportunities by providing online (paperless) documents, and gradually implementing electronic and online signatures. With these new tools, the company is aiming to support its partners for whom the administrative complexity of particular files, partly caused by increasing regulations (MiFID, CRS, PRIIPS, etc.), can hinder the implementation of our solutions.

We are also considering implementing a conversational agent to enable all our partners and customers to very quickly obtain the information they need on specific issues relating to new regulations, our administrative practices or our online process, at any time and without even having to pick up the phone.

=> Are you a OneLife partner?

Consult your clients’ portfolios in real time 24/7 thanks to our secured online portal your office!

=> Click on the icon below.

Automating volume processing in order to dedicate time to human aspects

Our Customer Service employees spend a great deal of time interacting with the various IT applications. To achieve their mission, they very often have to perform various re-entries or copy-paste data from one window to another, or have to compare and verify information from multiple applications. This can cause errors and prevent them from dedicating time to their key objectives, such as providing support to our partners and customers, or undergoing ongoing training to increase the skillset of each employee and so provide a better service.

“In a few years, many volume-based processes will be automated. Serving as a single point of contact for our partners and customers, we will be able to devote more time to our relationship with them, to providing support and follow-up on files, especially for complex cases which are becoming increasingly common. In this context, our added value lies in our knowledge and our know-how.” Thomas Sainz, Customer Services Department Manager.

Therefore, OneLife has recently begun using robotic automation for certain repetitive volume-based tasks which have little added value. This initiative involves developing and implementing “software robots” to perform the process between the various systems, instead of employees, in order to save time and free up employees to focus on key transactions for our partners and customers.

= > Are you a OneLife customer?

Find out the various features of our secure portal ‘yourassets’!

=> Click on the icon below.

Continuous training of our employees

The life insurance sector is very broad. To deliver a quality service, our employees not only have to stay abreast of the latest regulations in Luxembourg, but also those at European level and in all markets where we operate.

Moreover, these activities require technical and financial knowledge that must be kept constantly up to date.

“Constant changes in regulation on a national, European and international basis, combined with the increasingly sophisticated needs of wealthy clients who are becoming more mobile, require real expertise from cross-border life assurance specialists such as OneLife.
The knowledge and understanding of our teams as well as a truly pragmatic approach to digital are the key elements of a successful all-round client experience, based on the two priorities which we value most – quality and trust.” Eric Lippert, Chief Operations Officer.

To achieve this, OneLife regularly organises trainings to ensure that its employees’ knowledge is as complete and up-to-date as possible.

Contact our Customer Services

For all new transaction requests (new contracts, additional payment, arbitration, redemption, etc.) and any administrative changes to a contract (change of beneficiary, address, etc.), click => here;

For all questions and information requests, click => here.

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

Major Shifts for Professional Secrecy in Insurance!

There has been a change in the professional secrecy that applies to all of Luxembourg’s insurance professionals, under the Law of 27 February 2018, to align itself with the country’s banking secrecy system.

It will now take greater account of the developments linked to the digitalisation and structuring of groups located in different jurisdictions.

This change was welcomed given the sector’s increasing digitalisation, as well as to ensure strict confidentiality and meet customers’ needs.

Why professional secrecy?

Professional secrecy is based on the same principle as medical secrecy, where the patient discloses confidential information to his/her confidant in complete trust. Similarly, customers have to reveal confidential financial information to their confident, be it their banker or insurer.

Professional secrecy was therefore developed for banks and insurance companies to guarantee confidentiality and gain customers’ trust in their key insurance partner.

Secrecy is also essential because of the intrinsic features of insurance contracts, especially when drawing up the beneficiary clause of which the beneficiaries may or may not be aware.

On the other hand, due to the sector’s digitalisation, it proved necessary to adjust secrecy in order to address new customer needs, for which OneLife already provides solutions (aggregators, digital onboarding, electronic documents and signing, etc).

What is professional secrecy?

Under Article 300 of the Law of 7 December 2015 on the insurance sector, professional secrecy in insurance is such that all insurance industry professionals “are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information entrusted to them during the exercise of their mandate or as part of their professional duties”.

This means that all conversations, documents, personal data and secrets disclosed by the policyholder, the insured life, the beneficiaries or any other person acting on the customer’s side of the insurance relationship, must be kept secret and strictly confidential by the professional receiving the information.

What if these professional secrets are revealed?

Any disclosure of information covered by secrecy – with the exceptions specifically provided for by law – may result in the penalties applicable under Article 458 of the Luxembourg Criminal Code. For medical secrecy, as set out in Criminal Code, the penalty is imprisonment from 8 days to 6 months and a fine of between €500 to €5000.

These penalties are relatively strict in order to deter anyone from betraying one of the most fundamental requirements of the insurance industry.

Who is professional secrecy for?

There are various individuals who are subject to insurance secrecy, as it applies to all professionals in the insurance relationship, including:

All natural or legal persons established in Luxembourg and subject to the control of the CAA (Commissariat aux Assurances) or of a foreign authority for insurance activities conducted from Luxembourg

This broad category naturally includes insurance companies, but also insurance brokers, insurance agents, branches of foreign insurance companies, etc.

Directors and members of governing and supervisory bodies
Managers and employees of the above-mentioned natural and legal persons
Insurance industry professionals experiencing difficulties and the individuals appointed to address them

Professional secrecy, geographical and temporal scope?

Secrecy applies to all insurance activities carried out either from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, or with the freedom to provide services from the same location.

In other words, an employee of an insurance company going to meet a customer or partner abroad for example is also subject to secrecy.

Moreover, Article 300(10) of the Law of 27 February 2018 establishes that “the violation of secrecy remains punishable after the termination of the mandate, employment relationship or exercise of the profession”, i.e. any disclosure of information even after the end of the person’s employment is still punishable!

Professional secrecy, exceptions prior to 27 February 2018

The exceptions laid down in the 1991 law were maintained unaltered in the 2015 law on the insurance sector, namely the following cases:

Where the disclosure of information is authorised or required by a legal provision (e.g. reporting under the Common Reporting Standard or NCD – ‘Norme Commune de Déclaration’)
To fulfil the commitments under the insurance contract in good faith
To prevent or control fraud (e.g. reporting suspicions to tackle money laundering)
To provide information to the sector’s regulatory authorities in the European Union where there are similar local professional secrecy laws to Luxembourg.
To provide information to the insurance company’ shareholders and partners to ensure it is “sound and prudent management”
To provide information between insurance companies, individuals working in the role of Insurance Sector Professionals (PSA – ‘Professionnels du Secteur des Assurances’), Luxembourg branches of foreign PSAs and individuals operating as Financial Sector Professionals (PFS – ‘Professionnels du Secteur Financier’) if said information is provided as part of a service contract (e.g. a business contract between a PSA and an insurance company)
To provide information to reinsurers and co-insurers
To provide information between entities in a financial conglomerate, although this is limited to information which must be subject to further reporting to the supervisory authorities
To provide information to approved brokers in Luxembourg, for customer data where the broker has acted as an intermediary.

New provisions and exceptions applying to professional secrecy

New exceptions are emerging, while others are being reformulated to:

align professional secrecy in insurance with banking secrecy
enable outsourcing within financial groups
meet new customer needs in relation to digitalisation

while maintaining confidentiality and the trust placed in the insurer, broker or PSA in Luxembourg as the customer’s confidant.

The new exceptions are:

A new exception which applies to reinsurers, pension funds and their employees and managers
A broader exception for insurers, PSAs and PSFs. Now all entities located in Luxembourg and regulated by the CAA, CSSF or ECB fall within the scope of exception, provided that there is a service contract between the two entities
Subcontractors of services provided by a regulated Luxembourg entity, provided that the customer has accepted the subcontracting, type of information transmitted and the country of establishment of the subcontractors, and that the provider is bound by professional secrecy or by a confidentiality agreement
A clarification in relation to the provision of information between entities in a financial conglomerate, in view of reporting to European authorities
The ability to provide information within a group to assess consolidated risks or to calculate consolidated prudential ratios

The law also provides that the provisions of Article 300 on professional secrecy are “without prejudice to the amended law of 2 August 2002 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data”.

That is to say, the information provided is subject to professional secrecy AND to personal data protection, which is changing as of 25 May 2018 following the entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The exception set out in point 3 is the most interesting, but also likely to be the most highly controlled. This exception makes it possible to meet the new needs of customers while ensuring – through professional secrecy at local level or a confidentiality agreement – that their information is kept confidential and used in complete trust by the subcontractor.

OneLife listens to all of its partners’ and customers’ questions about their obligations and rights in relation to professional secrecy and data confidentiality.

Article by Jean-Nicolas Grandhaye, Corporate Counsel at OneLife

Luxembourg’s maximum-strength policyholder protection

One of Luxembourg’s most important benefits as a domicile for life insurance products is its policyholder protection framework, one of the strongest in Europe, which is designed to offer clients peace of mind that their assets are safe no matter what happens to the insurance company, or the bank where the assets are held.

Luxembourg’s insurance policyholder protection regime is popularly known as the Triangle of Security. It requires all assets linked to life insurance policies to be held at an independent custodian bank approved by the industry regulator, the Commissariat aux Assurances, and remain legally ring-fenced from the assets of both the insurance company and of the bank itself.

The Commissariat monitors all insurance companies under its supervision to ensure they maintain legally-mandated solvency ratios. But even in the unlikely event of an insurer’s bankruptcy, the assets held at the depositary bank on behalf of clients or beneficiaries remain protected in separate accounts.

If an insurance company gets into financial difficulty, the Commissariat can freeze the accounts, ensuring that no transaction can be carried out by either the insurer or the bank without its authorisation.

Policyholders enjoy preferential rights to the assets of the separate accounts known as a Super Privilege, which places their claims above those of any other creditors of the insurer. In addition, whereas in most EU countries the Super Privilege is limited to the first €100,000 of an individual’s assets held at a particular bank, in Luxembourg there is no upper limit to the protection enjoyed by insurance policyholders.

In addition, policyholder assets are protected against seizure by creditors, which cannot exercise the policyholder’s rights to surrender, take a prepayment or pledge the policy, nor compel the client to do so. Creditors cannot seize the policy itself because it is the property of the insurance company. The only exception is where premiums paid into a policy appear clearly excessive with regard to the individual’s financial position and wealth.

Legislation due to be adopted in Luxembourg during 2018 aims to strengthen policyholder protection even further, by aligning the Super Privilege rights directly with the assets attributable to their policy, rather than the insurer’s portfolio as a whole.

Contact us to learn more about how Luxembourg life insurance policies offer the maximum protection for policyholders, wherever in Europe they may be.

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!

Iberia/Latam roadshows in Zürich, Geneva, Luxembourg: highlights – Part II

OneLife organised a series of events in March in Zurich Geneva and Luxembourg to showcase OneLife solutions for Iberia and Latin America. We were privileged to collaborate with some of the best lawyers from Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Portugal, Spain and Brazil.

During these events, there was a panel especially dedicated to opportunities and challenges faced in Brazil when it comes to holding a foreign life assurance policy, as well as the use of such a product as a cross-border solution for Brazilians relocating to Portugal. Other panels included cross-border opportunities in Portugal, due to the increasing number of expatriates moving there in the past few years due to the Non-Habitual Resident (NHR) Regime.

Brazil

Priscila Stela Mariano da Silva from Pinheiro Neto law firm in Brazil and Filipe Romao from Uria Menendez law firm in Portugal composed the Brazilian panel. The discussion was kicked off by Priscila explaining that, as a rule, individuals domiciled in Brazil are not allowed to purchase and directly hold a foreign life insurance policy.

Bearing in mind this general rule, the panel then discussed that these restrictions should be specifically imposed on individuals and legal entities resident/domiciled in Brazil. Thus, based on the territoriality principle of Brazilian law, they could not prevent foreign companies from buying insurance coverage from foreign insurance companies even if some of the risks are located in Brazil. Under these circumstances, it would be feasible that an individual contracts a life insurance policy whilst tax resident abroad and before moving to Brazil. Similarly, it would be possible to purchase a life insurance policy by a private investment company covering risks related to individuals resident in Brazil.

Moreover, Filipe highlighted the growing interest of Brazilian nationals moving to Portugal in the past years and the fact that those individuals would be able to then contract a life assurance policy as Portuguese tax residents. Filipe also drew our attention to the fact that many Brazilians moving to Portugal still hold off-shore structures in tax havens due to the lack of strong CFC and transparency rules in Brazil. However, he warned that holding such structures would be very problematic in Portugal, as any payment arising from these jurisdictions to Portuguese residents would be heavily taxed (35%). Therefore, these clients must seek tax advice before they relocate in order to assess if those structures should be re-domiciled or dismantled.

Portugal

Sara Zad from Carnegie Investment Bank in Sweden and Marta Duarte from Cuatrecasas law firm in Portugal participated in the Portuguese panel and discussed cross-border opportunities related to Swedish nationals moving to Portugal.

Sara provided input about the legal and tax framework of a life assurance policy in Sweden and shared with us her experience with Swedish clients moving to Portugal, such as the profile of clients that tend to consider Portugal as their new tax residence jurisdiction and their usual type of asset/investment portfolio. She also mentioned that in light of recent international tax developments such as BEPS and CRS, Swedish clients are favouring life insurance policies over Trusts and other offshore structures.

Finally, given the growing interest from expatriates in moving to Portugal due to the NHR regime, Marta presented the main features and framework of the regime, as well as how a foreign life assurance policy would be treated under this tax regime and what clients should take into consideration before moving to Portugal.

We would like to thank all our partners who attended this event as well as our panel of international speakers.

In case you were not able to attend our roadshows and would like information about the opportunities in Iberia and Latam, do not hesitate to get in touch with us. We hope to see you at our next events!

Taïza Ferreira, Senior Wealth Planner for Latam markets, at OneLife

Gonzalo Garcia-Perez, Wealth Planner Manager for Iberia and Latam markets, at OneLife

Read “Iberia/Latam roadshows in Zürich, Geneva, Luxembourg: highlights – Part I” => Here!