Elian’s move comes more than a year after Vantage launched a Jersey Qrops on the back of the crown dependency’s amended legislation which came into force on 1 January 2015 for overseas clients.
HM Revenue & Customs regularly updates a list of recognised overseas pensions schemes (Rops), formerly labelled as Qrops, in jurisdictions around the world.
Associate director Meeku Patidar said the reasons why Elian was entering this marketplace were “pretty straightforward”.
“Pensions are a natural extension to our existing trust administration business. Going forward, we see it as a growth area”, he said.
Patidar added: “I’m very confident that Jersey has the will, at various levels across government and industry, to develop a pension regime and infrastructure to cater for an ever-growing defined contribution marketplace that’s going to grow significantly in the next 10 to 20 years.”
A ‘sophisticated approach’ to retirement planning
Elian has launched the Qrops alongside five new master trust structures that Patidar said would provide employers and individuals with a flexible and sophisticated approach to retirement planning, focusing on income replacement.
Two of these master trusts are Guernsey rather than Jersey registered.
The use of master trusts is expected to grow, he said citing a survey by Aon Hewitt, with employers forecasting an increase from 4% currently to 13% in 2020 and a rise from just under four million members in 2015 to around six million members in 2030.
“Our holistic ‘income replacement’ approach takes into account a wide range of factors including age, inflation, interest rates, mortality, wage inflation and investment risk, enabling participants to target an income replacement rate suitable for them.
“Using financial modelling and technology systems, we can help employers and individuals work toward this, helping reduce the degree of uncertainty around the level of income individuals will receive in later life.”
Establishing a Rops framework for non-Jersey residents has been in the pipeline for some time, with Jersey Finance having set up a working group to explore international pensions more than four years ago.
On this working party, the Jersey Pension Association, are representatives from a number of pension trustees, including, Vantage, RBC and Fairway Group; and law firms Carey Olsen, Bedell and Ogier.
