Societe Generale Will Offer Offshore Life Assurance

Caroline Maxwell, Tax-news.com, London

25 January 2001

The Societe Generale group will shortly become the first company to provide offshore life assurance products to European retail investors, it was announced recently. The specially created Dublin-based subsidiary of the French company, Inora Life, will provide the product to the public through independent financial advisors, and will initially target the UK, moving on to European countries such as France, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Benelux countries at the end of the second quarter.

The investor's money will be passed through Inora Life to the parent company, which will then invest the majority in a guaranteed return zero-coupon bond, and the remainder in a derivative instrument linked to a market index.

The head of UK liaison at Inora Life, Dean Marriott, detailed the advantages of the offshore product as opposed to its conventional onshore rivals: 'Investors get a lower-risk product, with a fixed maturity and fixed terms, offering tax advantages because it is offshore.'

It seems that the life assurance market in general is beginning to open up, with the plans to offer life assurance over the internet recently announced by Swiss Re, and the advent of low margin stakeholder pensions. Mr Marriot believes that when this sea change occurs, Inora Life's position as a 'niche product provider' will be assured.

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