Roger Berry, managing director of Concept Group, which instigated Qrops. (0373464)
THE managing director of a licensed fiduciary firm has called for qualified recognised overseas pension schemes to be better regulated in Guernsey.
Roger Berry, of Concept Guernsey, thinks there should be a mandatory code of practice for Qrops providers.
Tax rules allow funds to be transferred from a UK pension plan to a Qrops and there are no UK tax charges on benefits from such a scheme paid more than five complete tax years after the member stops being resident in the UK.
However, HM Revenue and Customs is understood to be investigating Qrops in all jurisdictions and has shut down operations in Singapore due to abuse.
Financial advisers have raised concerns that some offshore Qrops providers are allowing the protective systems and controls provided by the UK regulatory system to be bypassed.
‘While we believe our and other local schemes are staying within the “spirit” of HMRC’s legislation, we would be very surprised if Guernsey was not part of its probing into Qrops because the island is now a major player.’
Concept Guernsey was the first firm first to launch a personal pension Qrops for multi-members in August 2007 with the Aurora scheme.
That came about through close discussion with Income Tax, but many local providers have followed and it is rapidly becoming an identifiable part of Guernsey’s fiduciary business.
‘When we established our Qrops here last summer, we went to the Guernsey Financial Services Commission and said that we wanted to agree a strong procedure to properly protect clients transferring from their UK schemes to us, not least of all if they were leaving such as a final salary scheme,’ said Mr Berry.
‘We would want to see the client taking proper advice and receiving reports just as they are required to do in the UK under FSA regulations.
‘We sought to set the benchmark in terms of Qrops compliance in Guernsey by requiring specialist FSA-regulated or equivalent sign-off on clients’ transfers that was anything other than simplistic.
‘We understand other companies joining the market locally are doing the same, but as yet there is nothing mandatory. I don’t think anyone expected Qrops to take off in such a massive way and that might be part of the problem.
‘It would be good to establish a strong jurisdictional code of practice while the genie is still in the bottle.’
Article posted on 13th August, 2008 - 12.00pm
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