International mobility, flexible and adaptable solutions, estate and succession planning: wealth management today faces increasingly ambitious challenges. In order to meet the changing needs of HNW (High Net Worth) and UHNW (Ultra High Net Worth) clients, financial advisors and wealth planners can rely on private insurance instruments, and in particular investment-linked life insurance policies. Thanks to the extensive experience gained over more than two decades in Europe’s leading insurance hubs, Octium Group is able to offer its clients and the professionals who assist them transnational expertise and solutions aimed at meeting their planning, protection and mobility needs.
International experience
Octium Group offers its services from two strategic insurance hubs, the first in Ireland (Octium Life Dac) and the second in Liechtenstein (Octium Assurance AG, with a branch in Italy). This choice is not accidental, since both countries enjoy a favourable economic and legal environment. These features are ideal for developing a dynamic and effective private insurance offering, which has made them globally renowned centres of excellence in private insurance. More than 100 professionals, located in five European offices (Dublin, Vaduz, Luxembourg, Zurich and Milan) assist the Group’s clients and its business partners. Today, Octium offers its services in several countries, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, the United Kingdom, Greece, Cyprus, Türkiye and several other International markets. In addition, Octium International Insurance Agent AG, the Group’s distribution network, consists of a team of professionals capable of moving in an increasingly regulated and competitive environment to assist families with large assets.
“Each of the clients and business partners who rely on Octium,” stresses Francesco Camerlingo, Group Head of Sales and Business Development at Octium Group, “can count on a team of professionals who have consolidated experience in the markets in which they operate and who are able to provide dedicated and personalized assistance. This is extremely significant for HNW and UHNW individuals, whose life and business usually take place in more than just one country”.
But that’s not all: being present in multiple jurisdictions offers two key advantages. First, it enables the Group to anticipate and manage the effects of any regulatory or tax changes in the relevant markets, while ensuring that clients’ wealth objectives are protected. Second, it offers the ability to easily track policy adjustment in the event of a client’s relocation abroad.
A naturally international tool
Investment-linked life insurance policies are solutions that offer several advantages to the clients who own them. This makes them a unique and irreplaceable tool for wealth advisors.
Flexibility of the available investment strategies, the freedom to choose and modify the beneficiary clause, the protection of the assets underlying the policy in case of bankruptcy of the insurance companies are just some of the most relevant advantages these instruments can offer.
Life polices also offer fiscal advantages. Firstly, the automatic offsetting between profits and losses of the various assets in which the insured capital is invested. Secondly, the taxation on profits is deferred to the moment when the insurance company pays the capital to the beneficiary. In addition, life insurance policies may benefit from specific advantages granted by national legislation (e.g., deferral of stamp duty and exemption from inheritance tax for the Italian market, exemption of capital gains on redemption for the Greek market, reduced rates on capital gains for the Portuguese market, etc.).
Finally, it is worth mentioning that life insurance policies and the insured financial assets are “portable“. This means that, in most cases, the benefits of the policies can be retained even if the policyholders or beneficiaries move abroad, without this resulting in the termination of the insurance contract. In this way, the capital insured in the policy will follow its owner without incurring taxation.
