The QROPS brings to six the number of Maltese schemes featured on HM Revenue & Customs list, which is available online and updated fortnightly, since HMRC recognised Malta as a jurisdiction to which UK pensions could be transferred at the end of 2009.
Westerby Group managing director Les McLintic said the company was putting the finishing touches on its marketing plans for the new scheme, but already had clients lined up and ready to transfer pensions into it.
He said the Westerby International Retirement Plan QROPS was unique in that it was the only UK trust company with a “multi-jurisdictional” QROPS product. This means that it has been set up in a way that permits clients who have left the UK for good – but who are likely to change their country of residence throughout their careers, or as they move into retirement – to be able to move easily without encountering possible tax problems due to the change in their “resident tax jurisdiction”.
The Westerby QROPS is being administered in Malta by the Maltese operation of Gibraltar-based STM Fidecs, which also has a multi-jurisdictional Maltese scheme.
Westerby was founded in 1987 in the East Midlands as an investment manager, a business that continues. It established a trustee arm in 1996 to administer pensions, and currently is a major provider of small self-administered schemes and self-invested personal pensions.
