Investors Trust Evolution is The Lowest Cost Savings Plan in the market.
Although there are many providers of savings plans in the UAE, Investors Trust Evolution savings plans shine apart from them.
Investors Trust call their Evolution range of savings plans - ‘the new generation of savings plans’.
If you are trying to invest money in a regular savings plan, the Investors Trust Evolution Savings Plan, is the cheapest and best performing (because of low-cost ETF investment options) savings plan in the market.
Minimum Contributions & Investment Terms
- Minimum Contributions - USD 100 per month / USD 1,200 per year
- The Evolution Savings Plan offers the following terms - 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years.
- I don’t recommend savings plan terms longer than 5 years, unless the savings plans offer capital and/or returns guarantees.
Capital Protection
- The Investors Trust Evolution Savings Plan is not ‘Capital Protected’ regardless of the term selected. While this is true, other mutual fund based savings plans in the market are not capital protected as well.
- Investors Trust offers a range of ‘Capital Protected’ savings plans called the S&P500 Index which invest in the S&P500 index.
Investment Options (Where the money can be invested)
- The Evolution Savings Plan offers around 150 investment funds including 17 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), apart from mutual funds to choose from.
- Some of the fund managers include - Alliance Bernstein, BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, GAM, Henderson, Investec, iShares, Invesco, Man Investments, MFS International, Morgan Stanley, Pictet International, PIMCO, Schroders, etc…
- Warren Buffet recommends investing in low cost index-funds. The Evolution Savings Plan offers 17 low-cost iShares ETFs which allow you to invest in various index funds with very low costs.
Some of the ETFs offered have annual charges as low as 0.1% per annum.
Charges
- Annual Administration Charge - 1.9% p.a. from years 1 - 10, and 0.35% p.a. from years 11 through the Term of Plan.
- Bid/Offer Spread - Nil
- Policy Fee - USD/EUR 7.00 (GBP 4.5) Monthly
- Asset Management Fee - 0.125% monthly of fund balance
- The Investors Trust Evolution savings plan offers bonuses and enhanced allocations, based on the total amount of annual premium paid. Personally I consider this a marketing gimmick.
Having said that, the Evolution savings plan is still the cheapest 5-year savings plan in the market.
The simplest way to understand charges is to see what you would end up with - at a certain level of monthly contribution, and assumed growth rate, and net of all product charges. See the section below.
What you would end up with if:
- You save - USD 1,000 per month, for 5 years,
- You paid - USD 60,000 in 5 years,
- You get at the end of the term - USD 73,169 with an assumed growth rate of 8% (net of charges).
What an actual quote looks like:
Click on the images below to magnify them.
Jurisdiction - (Where client's money is held)
Investors Trust Assurance SPC (“ITA”) is an international insurance company licensed and regulated by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority.
The Cayman Islands is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom recognized as the world’s sixth largest international banking centre and one of the top 10 international financial centres in the world, with over 40 of the top 50 banks holding licenses here.
Regulated banks in the Cayman Islands represent some 45 countries from around the world. This global representation proves that the Cayman Islands is widely acknowledged as one of the leading offshore financial centres.
While the financial services chapter of the Cayman Islands dates back 40 years, the seeds of it were sown as early as the 1700s. Two important legacies of history remain from that era – English common law and tax neutrality (The Cayman Islands has never had a system of direct taxation and instead employs an indirect, consumption-based taxation system). The Cayman Islands has always been an open, free market economy, and from the 1960s onwards, successfully invested its “historic capital” to the benefit of the financial services sector.
Cayman Islands is a British Offshore Territory, just like the Isle of Man and Guernsey, which are the base for Zurich International Life, Friends Provident International, Generali International, etc…
Investors Trust uses Merrill Lynch Bank of America or other secure and large custodians globally, and keeps client’s money in a ‘Trust’ account that is isolated from the liabilities of the Bank, or Investors Trust itself.
Which means - even if both the bank and Investors Trust were to go bankrupt, the client’s money is safe.
CONCLUSION
Would I buy this savings plan myself, and recommend to others?
Yes
Disclaimer: This article is assumed to be accurate at the time of publishing, and represents the personal opinion of the author. If you wish to correct/contest any of the following, please do so in the comments below. I am open to correcting errors if any. All opinions are welcome.
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