News - Press Release

March 2010

Dunstan Thomas provides provides transfer illustrations for Fraser Mackinlay’s Ventura QROPS

 Dunstan Thomas, the pensions and investment administration solutions provider, has been chosen to provide pensions transfer illustrations via its Front Office solution Imago, to non UK residents planning to consolidate existing UK onshore pension pots into Fraser Mackinlay’s own QROPS (Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pensions Scheme) called Ventura.

Fraser Mackinlay Insurance Advisors, based in Cyprus, provides financial planning advice to expatriates in over thirty countries worldwide. The Ventura QROPS, which was launched last year, is proving increasingly attractive to former UK residents that are retiring overseas. Many retirees still have a number of occupational and group personal pensions from jobs they had in the UK earlier in their careers, which they are now able to consolidate into single, much larger pots in a tax efficient offshore environment via QROPS.

Dunstan Thomas Imago provides the underlying calculation engine for the comparative quotations associated with transferring a number of different occupational or personal pensions out into either the Ventura QROPS or a SIPP.

Martin Trainor, sales director, Fraser Mackinlay Insurance Advisors Limited, explained: “We selected Dunstan Thomas’ Imago over Delta and Aquila because of the fact that it is flexible enough to allow us to customise it easily to support transfers into our QROPS. Imago’s flexibility and lack of complexity were the main drivers for selection – it simply fitted the bill. We are very happy with Imago.”

QROPSs are proving increasingly attractive to expatriates retiring overseas because they do not demand the purchase of an annuity; offer enhanced widows and dependents benefits which extend to passing 100% of benefits to the widow on death of a spouse; and also enable the surviving spouse to pass benefits onto children when they too die. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs approved QROPSs for sale in 2007 and since then they have been gaining appeal as tax rules around their use have been further clarified.

Chris Read, chairman, Dunstan Thomas, added:
“This use of Imago to support transfer illustrations into QROPS for Fraser Mackinlay shows the flexibility of the product to provide highly customised, yet completely accurate calculations as business lines grow to the point where manual administrative systems need to be automated.”