April 11, 2018
OneLife was one of the sponsors of the 2018 FARAD Finance Forum that took place on March 27 in Luxembourg. This annual conference organised by FARAD, a key player in insurance and financial services, brought together more than 350 delegates from investment funds, asset management, private equity, green finance and insurance.
With “Feeding the Future” as the umbrella title, this year’s conference addressed the challenges and opportunities of the Luxembourg marketplace and its core industries from tax/regulation, product, distribution and market perspectives.
OneLife participated as speaker in two sessions on the day. One panel on the Luxembourg Private Equity market featured Wim Dieryck, Chief Commercial Officer, together with an auditor, a lawyer and a financial service provider. They addressed the significant growth of Private Equity thanks to the Luxembourg stable environment – both political and economic– and its favourable regulatory framework. Notably, the RAIF has no direct supervision from the CSSF as all parties connected to it fall under the supervision of the CSSF. This enhances efficiency and time-to-market of the RAIF.
The management of these complex assets, however, requires high skills and technical competence that cannot be automated; one challenge for companies will be to attract and retain those talents. From an insurance perspective, Wim Dieryck highlighted the increasing interests from clients in this dynamic asset class due to the increased yields it can offer compared to more traditional investments. In addition, with only periodic valuations, those assets are well-aligned with the long-term approach of life assurance contracts in terms of value creation.
OneLife also participated in a masterclass entitled “Tax Expatriates, Special Tax Regimes and Life Insurance Policies.” Gonzalo Garcia Pérez, Wealth Planner Manager for Iberia and Latam markets, discussed this topic with a mix of law practitioners and representatives of the Luxembourg life insurance industry.
The speakers spoke about the attractiveness of life assurance as one of the few estate and wealth planning vehicles broadly recognized from a legal and tax perspective in many Latin American and European jurisdictions, enabling HNWIs to transition smoothly between their jurisdictions of origin and destination. They also analysed the Swiss lump sum taxation and the Portuguese Non-Habitual residence regimes which have become highly attractive to international HNWIs, although some risks lie ahead; indeed, the countries of origin are adopting several taxation measures which might render those special taxation regimes less attractive for their citizens planning to relocate to these low-tax jurisdictions. In this sense, France and Finland were expressly mentioned as jurisdictions that have taken an aggressive stance against low-tax schemes applied to individuals in foreign jurisdictions.
More information on cross-border taxation and private equity:
Gonzalo Garcia Pérez, Wealth Planner Manager for Iberia & Latam markets
Anthony Lorrain, Director, Unquoted and Traditional Assets