Questions & Answers

The Veritas Offshore Life Bond is an investment linked whole of life assurance policy issued by Veritas Life Guernsey. Veritas Life Guernsey is registered as a long-term insurer under the Insurance Business (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law 2002 and regulated by the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.

The Veritas Offshore Life Bond is not available to citizens or residents of the United States or to residents of Guernsey. (United States means the United States of America, its territories or possessions.) You are obliged to notify us of any change of address, residence or citizenship.

The Veritas Offshore Life Bond can be owned on a single or joint basis. It can also be owned by companies, partnerships and trustees. Up to ten lives assured can be named.

The minimum initial payment is GBP/USD/EUR 25,000. There is no maximum payment. The payment of any initial advice costs (Initial Adviser Fees) you have agreed with your Financial Adviser will be deducted from the amount you pay prior to investment in the Plan in order to maximise the availability of the 5% tax deferred allowance. The payment of any ongoing reviews and services fees (Ongoing or Ad-hoc Adviser Fees) you have agreed with your Financial Adviser will be paid from the Plan and will be treated as a withdrawal for tax purposes with a corresponding reduction in the available 5% allowance.

Investments held within a Veritas Offshore Life Bond are not normally subject to any tax on gains within the funds, apart from any withholding tax. Available investment options depend upon whether you wish to choose The Veritas Offshore Life Bond portfolio, Model Portfolios, Funds, Discretionary Portfolios or Fixed Term Deposits. With certain exceptions, it is possible to select multiple investment options within your Veritas Offshore Life Bond. Please refer to chart on the Investment Options insert for a full explanation of which options can be included within the same Plan.

This will depend on the amount you invested, the performance of the assets or funds, you have chosen over the lifetime of your Veritas Offshore Life Bond and, in addition, the fees and charges and any withdrawals you may have taken. If a Plan with a Fixed Term Deposit is surrendered prior to the end of the Fixed Term, the Fixed Term Deposit Provider may apply an interest rate adjustment upon surrender, which may be positive or negative. The Illustration sets out how this might work.

You can pay more into your Veritas Offshore Life Bond at any time. The minimum additional payment amount is GBP/USD/EUR 5,000. There is no limit to the number, or amount, of additional investments you can make. Veritas Life Guernsey reserves the right to change the terms upon which an additional investment may be accepted.

Depending on the investment options chosen, additional investments may require the creation of a separate plan. Please refer to the chart on the Investment Options Insert for details.

Yes. With the exception of Fixed Term Deposits and Discretionary Portfolios, you may invest in multiple options and switch among them.

All switch requests are subject to the minimum value of no less than GBP/USD/EUR 1,000.00 per switch instruction. A minimum value of no less than GBP/USD/EUR 1,000.00 must remain in the relevant fund after a switch has been executed. Plan holders are entitled to submit 4 switch forms a year without incurring a fee. After that, a fee of 50 USD/GBP/EUR per switch form processed will apply. Veritas Life Guernsey reserves the right to vary this fee or limit the number of switches per year.

If you are the sole investor and life assured, your claimant will receive 100.1% of the value of your Plan (the death benefit) following your death.

If there are two or more lives assured, payment of the death benefit would be made following the death of the first or last life assured, depending on whether the Plan was established on a first or last death basis.

Yes, you can take some or all of your money out at any time in the following ways:

Regular withdrawals

You can choose to take regular withdrawals from your Plan (which you can start or stop at any time), subject to a maximum of 7.5% each year of the value of the initial investment amount. Regular withdrawals can be taken from your Plan on a monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly basis. Withdrawal amounts exceeding 5% of the investment amount may be a chargeable event and subject to tax. As the payment of Ongoing or Ad-hoc Adviser Fees will be treated as withdrawals, there may also be tax implications should the total of Adviser Fees and withdrawals exceed the 5% allowance. For details, go to the “Tax” section, under “Further Information” below. Regular withdrawals can be set up when you apply for your Plan, or at a later date.

One-off withdrawals

You can choose to take one-off withdrawals at any time. Please note that Regular or One-off withdrawals are not permitted for Plans with Fixed Term Deposits.

Surrender

You can choose to surrender your Plan at any time, simply by returning your Veritas Offshore Life Bond Confirmation to Veritas Life Guernsey along with a completed full surrender form.

All costs with regard to the holding, buying, selling and transferring of assets in a Discretionary Portfolio managed by a Discretionary Investment Manager, as well as any statutory charges, will be recovered by the Discretionary Investment Manager from the market value of the assets under management and therefore these charges will be reflected in the Plan value.

The payment of any Initial Adviser Fees or Ongoing or Ad-hoc Adviser Fees to your Financial Adviser must be agreed to between you and your Adviser. Fee payments to your Financial Adviser can be facilitated from your Plan in respect of the services you receive from your Adviser as set out in the Adviser Fee Instruction Form. Fee payments will either be made prior to investment in a Plan or will be deducted from your Plan, and will be paid to your Adviser accordingly. Please refer to your Financial Adviser for further information on your agreement with them in respect of their fees.

Although you may authorise adviser fees to be deducted and paid from the money you invest, you will remain responsible for the payment of the fees. Only you may authorise any increase to Adviser Fees. You may also instruct us to cease payments to your Financial Adviser. Adviser fees may be set up to pay for both initial advice costs (Initial Adviser Fees) and ongoing reviews and services (Ongoing or Ad-hoc Adviser Fees).

This document contains the Key Features of The Veritas Offshore Life Bond. For more detailed information on the contractual terms and conditions, please refer to the Veritas Offshore Life Bond “Terms and Conditions”, which is available from your Financial Adviser if not already received. The information contained in this leaflet is based on rules and regulations current at the time of publication.

You will have access to comprehensive, daily reporting, as well as annual valuations, at: www.veritas-life.com.