Planning your future. Preserving your wealth.
We live in a world whose main constant is change.
2 Introduction Introduction 3 Structuring your wealth in a changing world. We live in a world whose main constant is change. Domestic legislation dances to the tune of political and economic cycles. Partly as a result, people travel more widely and are relocating more than ever before. With substantial accumulated wealth, your own circumstances may too become increasingly complex. Perhaps you own several homes throughout the world and your professional, as well as your personal, finances are being exposed to several jurisdictions? Certainly, you will have unique planning requirements and the need to structure your wealth to meet them. In this situation, one of your prime concerns will be protection: for yourself and for your loved ones. To achieve this, you need a structure that complies with all applicable laws, but at the same time gives you advantages in terms of security, investment flexibility and taxefficiency. Swiss Life s offering for Private Clients combines the security and protection of a life insurance policy with the flexibility of private banking. While acting as a vehicle for efficient asset growth with important tax advantages, such a solution can also meet your succession and estate planning needs. Naturally, your objectives and circumstances will change throughout your life and therefore, our solutions can adapt accordingly. Within these pages, you will discover how our solutions can satisfy your planning needs. As one of the world s most experienced financial solutions providers, Swiss Life takes a personalised approach to growing and protecting your wealth.
4 Everyone s needs are individual Everyone s needs are individual 5 Everyone s needs are individual. So are our solutions. Asset and investor protection With market uncertainty and a tougher regulatory environment restricting investor choice, preserving and protecting your wealth is likely to be one of your greatest priorities. Estate planning Depending on your family circumstances, you may want an efficient way of transferring your wealth to later generations. Investment flexibility You may wish to have the option to choose, perhaps using trusted advisers, from a wide range of assets to achieve efficient capital growth. Asset & investor protection High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) in search of a wide range of investment opportunities and asset preservation have distinct needs and expectations. These can usually be broken down into five categories. Taxation Given the value of your assets and your exposure to tax, you will be looking for a solution that complies with legislation in your country of residence, gives due consideration to other relevant jurisdictions and secures more favourable fiscal treatment for your portfolio. Compliance Wherever you live, it is essential you select a solution that complies with the regulations of the applicable jurisdiction. Compliance Taxation Client Estate planning Investment flexibility
6 How can our solution work for you? How can our solution work for you? 7 How can our solution work for you? What is our offering? Our carefully tailored life insurance solution permits greater flexibility in the management and safe custody of policy-linked assets. As the policyholder, you transfer the assets you wish to invest* to a dedicated account, effectively making Swiss Life their legal and beneficial owner. Working with us At Swiss Life, we understand that our success depends on our relationships with both you and your personal advisers. Whether working with an asset manager, private bank, law firm, family office, independent financial adviser or accountant, our commitment remains the same. In this way, policy-linked assets are able to grow in a tax-advantaged, secure environment with proceeds available to carefully controlled beneficiaries. However, this protected environment does not come at the cost of reduced flexibility or continuity of important professional relationships. You can continue to work with financial advisers and institutions, such as custodian banks and asset managers that you already know and trust. We value long-term relationships built on an in-depth understanding of your needs to support you with exceptional solutions and expertise. With a transparent approach, our unique and flexible wealth planning solutions enable you to maintain your personal relationships with your chosen advisers. We understand that our success depends on our relationships with both you and your personal advisers. How we work 1. Client relationship 2. Insurance contract 3. Distribution agreement 4. Custodian 5. Investment management 1. Client Intermediary 3. 2. Insurer 5. Asset manager 4. Applies for a policy Decides on the investment strategy Pays the premium Custodian Administers the policy (including account opening and instructions to asset manager) Provides client with reports Advises, supports and represents client Fills out the application form and sends to the insurer Invests the assets according to the investment strategy chosen by the client Opens dedicated fund Deducts charges Transfers assets Informs insurer about account positions *Subject to jurisdiction the method of premium payment may be limited in some countries
8 Putting your mind at rest Putting your mind at rest 9 Putting your mind at rest: Compliance at every level. Life insurance policies are fully recognised, and often advantaged, in the legislation of most jurisdictions. When finalising life insurance contracts for our clients, we guarantee transparency and enlist stringent management and control mechanisms to ensure compliance with the applicable regulations and requirements. Special asset solutions When you opt for a Private Placement Life Insurance policy with Swiss Life, you can choose from several ways of funding your investment. The most conventional of these is the payment of a single premium, frequently consisting of listed securities and other marketable instruments. However, our Wealth Planners focus on the establishment of special investment structures, developing individual planning strategies and tailor-made solutions with a wider range of assets in order to maximise the efficiency of the life policy environment. Therefore, by combining our know-how in private banking with our multijurisdictional insurance background, we strive to provide an enhanced service to policyholders, always supported by true operational excellence. Structuring to meet your individual needs In order to optimise your benefits from the solution designed to meet your needs, it is important to understand the choices available to you and the consequences of the options that you take. These will vary with, among other things, your nationality, your current country of residence, where you may live in the future and where those that you wish to benefit in the future are resident. It is important, therefore to take expert advice when taking these decisions on structuring your life policy solution. At Swiss Life Luxembourg, our experience in working with planning professionals who have proven expertise in their specialist fields leaves us uniquely placed to answer these questions and meet your international wealth planning requirements. Questions to ask Who will own the policy? You directly, through a structure, or is it better gifted to a family member, for example? Whose lives will be assured? Could it be of benefit to leave an ongoing policy to the next generation rather than ending the policy on your death? What level of life assurance cover should you opt for? The minimum required for your country of residence or a higher figure to suit your estate planning requirements? Who should benefit from the proceeds of the policy? Do you want to make a fixed choice or would you prefer to have the power to vary this decision in the future? Might you need access to the value of the policy during your lifetime? How should the policy be structured to maximise the efficiency of any future income that it generates? Who should act as custodian bank for the policy-linked assets? Which investment managers should be given discretion to select those assets and based on what mandate? What range of possible investments should be linked to your policy? Are there local restrictions within your country of residence that need to be followed to maximise your net return from the policy?
We value long-term relationships built on an in-depth understanding of your needs, providing you with personalised solutions and expertise. With a transparent approach, our unique and flexible wealth planning solutions enable you to maintain your personal relationships with your chosen advisers.
12 Why Luxembourg? Why Luxembourg? 13 Why Luxembourg? Luxembourg is one of the major international financial centres and the world s second-largest investment fund centre, after the United States. It is also the European Union s premier captive reinsurance market and the Eurozone s leading private banking centre. The country s success is founded on the social and political stability of the Grand Duchy, and a modern, continuously improving legal and regulatory framework. Investing in a favourable environment Interest, dividends and gains linked to life insurance policies in Luxembourg are reinvested gross of any tax.* Luxembourg does not tax insurance premiums, capital gains on the surrender or maturity of insurance contracts, or death proceeds paid to beneficiaries. Ensuring investor protection Luxembourg is home to a strong culture of security, with a commitment to protecting investors and preventing fraud, and has a long tradition of financial expertise through meeting the various needs of international clients. To guarantee maximum security for Luxembourg life insurance policyholders, the assets of the policy must, by law, be held by a custodian bank approved by the Commissariat aux Assurances (CAA). Insurance Company CAA Luxembourg Triangle of Security Custodian Bank The mechanism of this Tripartite Agreement, also known as the Triangle of Security, ensures that the deposits in respect of policyholder liabilities are clearly segregated from the company s other assets and are held in separate bank accounts. It also provides for the legal separation of the client s assets from those of the life company s shareholders and creditors and therefore offers optimum investor protection. *Taxation will apply according to the law of the country of residence of policyholders and beneficiaries
14 About Swiss Life About Swiss Life 15 About Swiss Life. Swiss Life Group The Swiss Life Group is one of Europe s leading comprehensive life, pension and financial solution providers. In its core markets of Switzerland, France and Germany, Swiss Life offers individuals and corporations comprehensive and individual advice plus a broad range of owned and partner products through its sales force and distribution partners such as brokers and banks. Swiss Life Holdings Ltd, registered in Zurich, was founded in 1857 as Schweizerische Rentenanstalt. The shares of Swiss Life Holdings Ltd are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (SLHN). The Swiss Life Group employs a workforce of about 7,000, with approximately 4,500 certified financial advisers. Our market organisation: Swiss Life International Swiss Life International comprises three segments. Each focuses on particular solutions and clients: Private Clients provides structured life and pension products for international HNWIs. The segment serves the European and Asian markets through insurance carriers in Luxembourg and Singapore. Corporate Clients provides multinational corporations with employee benefit solutions together with the Swiss Life Network and offers expatriate products through its insurance carrier in Luxembourg. Independent Financial Advisory offers life, pension, risk solutions and financial advice through Swiss Life Select Austria, Czech Republic and Poland, and Chase de Vere in the United Kingdom. Swiss Life Group Swiss Life Luxembourg Founded in 1985, Swiss Life Luxembourg is an international life insurance company comprising a large team of local experts, including wealth planners, country specialists and lawyers. With over 9 billion assets under management, the company s distinct business lines are Corporate and Private Clients. Swiss Life s award-winning corporate business has been recognised as the year s leading group and risk solutions provider in Luxembourg. Also, among the leading providers in its field, the Private Clients business of Luxembourg offers solutions for wealthier private clients for Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Finland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Germany, United Kingdom and Russia. The Private Clients offering from Swiss Life Luxembourg combines the flexibility of a private banking approach with the protection and security of a life policy issued by a large and stable institution offering particular expertise in cross-border solutions for wealthier clients. Please ask your financial adviser for further details or contact: Swiss Life (Luxembourg) S.A. 23/25 route d Arlon 8009 Strassen Luxembourg Swiss Life Switzerland Swiss Life France Swiss Life Germany Swiss Life International Swiss Life Asset Managers T +352 42 39 59-1 F +352 26 43 40 private.clients@swisslife.com www.swisslife.com/international/privateclients
This document is produced by Swiss Life and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Swiss Life. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure the facts stated herein are accurate and that the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, this document is selective in nature and is intended to provide an introduction to, and overview of, the business of Swiss Life. Where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source, such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed by Swiss Life as being accurate. Neither Swiss Life nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisers nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained herein, whether they relate to insurance, assets or tax, are as up to date as is reasonably possible and may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Swiss Life nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisers nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document. This document might contain forward-looking statements about Swiss Life which involve certain risks and uncertainties. The reader should be aware that such statements represent projections which could differ materially from actual outcomes and results. All forward-looking statements are based on the data available to Swiss Life at the time this document was compiled. Swiss Life does not provide tax advice. Any comments contained in this communication (including any attachments) are not intended to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties imposed under the United States Internal Revenue Code. You should consult your independent tax adviser.
Swiss Life (Luxembourg) S.A. 23/25 route d Arlon 8009 Strassen Luxembourg T +352 42 39 59-1 F +352 26 43 40 private.clients@swisslife.com www.swisslife.com/international/privateclients