It will list QROPS schemes and their providers for free, and include links to their websites.
Matthew Nash, technical and marketing director at Bristol-based Cradle Overseas Pensions, one of the website’s backers, said the cost of running the comparison website will be borne by the listed companies rebating a percentage of the value of any business they get through the site to its owners.
He noted that this is a standard system used by other price comparison websites.
“We are doing this because there is nothing out there like it now,” Nash added.
“While it will not reduce the number of permutations in a market with nearly 3,000 different QROPS offerings, it will help to identify the most compatible QROPS for a particular individual.”
Online questionnaire
The way comparetheqropsmarket.com, or CTQM, is designed to work is that consumers and advisers fill out an online questionnaire, in which they state what they are looking for in an international pension. The website will use their information to generate a list of QROP schemes that “most reflect their requirements”, according to Nash.
These individuals and advisers “would still need to obtain their own due diligence,” Nash added.
“We would always suggest that clients need to take advice from a professional firm that understands both UK pension and QROPS legislation. These firms should undertake the due diligence on behalf of the client or introducing adviser."
This story first appeared in the April 2011 issue of International Adviser.
