The Essential QROPS, which is administered by FSA-regulated and UK-based Stadia Trustees, is Guernsey-domiciled and is available to FEIFA members through ATSG. In a statement, the three organisations said its position as a Guernsey-domiciled QROPS with an FSA regulated administrator made the scheme, as far as the organisations were aware, unique.
The scheme has no establishment charge and, for a single regulated investment choice, charges a flat annual fee of £360. ATSG said this single flat fee would also apply to an offshore bond, irrespective of the number of underlying funds.
ATSG said that, in conjunction with Stadia, it sought to offer a low cost, open architecture scheme with minimum fund value so that “investors living abroad with small pension funds have the same access to a QROPS as those with larger funds”.
“I am confident that the factory gate pricing makes this the cheapest QROPS on the market – and by some way,” said ATGS’s John Ferguson. “For smaller funds that have traditionally been ignored this is an ideal, cost-effective solution.”
