Winners of International Adviser Life Awards 2017
By Mark Battersby, 13 Sep 17
The International Adviser International Life Awards 2017 were announced on Thursday at London’s The Langham Hotel during a dinner held after our flagship life industry conference, the Fund Links Forum.
Outstanding contribution
Rachael Griffin
Rachael has worked within the insurance sector for over 20 years. Starting as a junior technician in 1996, she is responsible for a 13-strong technical team across Old Mutual Wealth and Old Mutual International.
Rachael and her team are committed to making tax planning and technical support more accessible, providing practical help to advisers and their clients struggling to make sense of the latest tax policy.
Rachael specialises in trust and estate planning and was responsible for the design and launch of all OMI trust propositions, including the successful discounted gift trust, loan trust and more recently Lifestyle trust.
Some key highlights in her career are:
Closed Ended Funds – when HMRC issued guidance that holding closed ended funds, would cause a bond to be regarded as highly personalised and this was identified as an issue for the industry, Rachael was a key contributor to HMRC which led to a negotiation of settlement.
Qrops – Rachael was technical lead as Old Mutual International was a first mover in forming a partnership with a Guernsey based QROPS provider. Rachael produced technical documents, brochures and presentations to educate the international market. This led to a significant increase in offshore bond sales across the industry.
Industry contributor – Rachael has been chair of the AILO Legal & Regulatory Committee and is now deputy chair of the AILO Tax committee. Rachael was technical lead in negotiations with HMRC as part of the first offshore chargeable event audit conducted. This led to a change in HMRC’s approach to tax loss settlements on chargeable event audits, extending this to the self-assessment period.
Industry Commentator – Rachael is a frequent commentator both in the trade and consumer press on taxation and financial planning matters. She contributes to policy discussions, educating advisers and clients through case studies and informative commentary.
Giving something back – Rachael has qualified as a Chartered Financial Planner and has attained the STEP qualification of a Trust & Estate Practitioner (TEP). She has recently completed the STEP Advanced Certificate in Will preparation and has been an exam writer and contributor to the STEP Certificate for Financial Services, Trust and Estate Planning.
Tags: Fund Links Forum
