Generali Vision Plan Savings Review
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TailorMade Ratings:
Fund Access 1.5 / 5
Charges 1.5 / 5
Accessibility 1.0 / 5
Pros
- Widely available and sold
- Offers some tax protection in certain jurisdictions
- It could be considered for a 5 years investment term where no withdrawals required
- If kept running to original planned term then may promote savings concept
Cons
- No flexibility of full withdrawal or full access in the early years without penalty
- Many countries do not recognise any tax concessions
- Commission wipes out all initial investments made making this an extremely expensive option
- Does not provide full access to lowest cost funds and passive trackers
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Generali Worldwide is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Generali Group. Founded on the strength of this international presence and wide-ranging expertise, Generali Worldwide specialises in offering life-insurance-based wealth management and employee benefit solutions to a global audience, including multi-national organisations, international expatriates and local resident populations in licensed territories. This review is focused on the Generali Vision Plan.
The company’s head office is based in Guernsey, a premier international financial centre, and is a Registered Insurer under the Insurance Business (Bailiwick of Guernsey) law, 2002 (as amended). It is also an authorised insurer in the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Jersey and Singapore.
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Most helpful Generali Vision Plan Savings Review| Policy Currency: The Generali Vision Plan may be denominated in US dollar, GB pound, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen or Euro. Benefits will be paid in the plan currency. |
| Why choose the Generali Vision Plan: Leading Fund Houses offer a wide choice of investment funds. Investment choice through a selection of more than 200 top performing investment options, from leading fund houses, to match a wide variety of investment profiles. Over 750 funds, external funds can be selected for additional fees. |
| Generali Vision Plan promotion: What does Generali write about their own Generali Vision Plan? Whatever you plan for your future, you will need financial resources available at the right time to be able to achieve the things you want. Vision is a regular premium investment solution that is designed to meet your changing needs throughout your life.So, if you are interested in building a brighter future for you and your family, look no further than than the Generali Vision Plan. |
| Eligibility: Generali Vision Savings Plan is a regular premium, whole of life, life assurance contract issued by Generali International. It is available to most international investors outside of main regulated territories such as the UK, the U.S.A. and Australia. Generali also offer a range of individual unit-linked regular and single premium-based savings, retirement and investment plans and an open-architecture portfolio bond along with Group retirement and savings products, Group Life and Disability and Healthcare products. |
| Minimums: The minimum regular premiums for terms of more than 10 years are USD150 monthly, USD450 quarterly or USD1,800 annually. The minimum premiums of the Generali Vision Plan for terms of less than 10 years are three times these amounts.For Singapore residents the minimum premiums increase to USD417 monthly, USD1,250 quarterly, or USD5,000 annually. For a Generali Vision Plan with a premium payment term of less than 10 years the minimum annualised regular premium is USD50,000 divided by the premium payment term. The payment term is selected at outset for a minimum of five years although contributions may be continued after this time. |
| Charges: This will depend on the type of plan you take out from Generali as they offer different charging structures largely linked to the amount of commission or earnings being taken by the third party salesman or adviser.
Initial Period: The Initial Period is determined by the Premium Payment Term of your Plan. It is the period after Plan commencement during which Initial Units are allocated. The Initial Period (in years) is equal to the total administration fees due over the Premium Payment Term (see “Administration Fee” in section 10 “Fees and Charges” for further details) divided by the initial annualised Regular Premium. (If the premium payment frequency of your Plan is monthly, your annualised Regular Premium is the monthly premium multiplied by 12.) In summary, Initial Units incur additional charges at commencement, and then throughout the term and may be worthless if you cancel the policy early. Where a Premium Payment Term of five years or more is selected at Plan commencement: Where a Premium Payment Term of ten years or more is selected at Plan commencement: Are charges explicit: Well, if you can understand all of the above, then yes! The issue is that a bit like a new mobile phone contract, there are so many options then it becomes information overload. |
| Surrender of the Generali Vision Plan: A partial surrender on your Generali Vision Plan may be treated as a one-off withdrawal. Further details on how it is treated is available in the relevant brochure. A full encashment results in penalties being applied through surrender charges linked to the term of the policy. In essence, all your premiums are forfeited if surrendered during the initial period. For a 25 year plan, this period would be 23 months.
It is important to be aware that the Generali Vision Plan is a long term savings plan, if you decided to cancel the plan early you could lose a large proportion of the money you have saved, we have heard that as much as 50% of the value of the plan value can be lost by surrendering the Generali Vision Plan early. Documents Generali International Vision Savings Plan Brochure |
Quick Summary from TailorMade
We think that this product is summarised by understanding that, in essence, all your premiums are forfeited if surrendered during the initial period. For a 25 year plan, this period would be 23 months. So if you are recommended to take out a 25 year policy, and then attempt to access your money after 2 years, you will receive back nothing.
As these types of plans go, the Generali Vision Plan is similar to many in the offshore market place. In the 1990s this may have been a top option but in 2016 it lacks the transparency of the latest plans available from territories such as the UK, the USA and parts of Europe; ultimately, the Generali Vision Plan is an expensive option when compared with a pure platform plan. The standard Generali Vision funds have high ongoing fees when directly compared to platform or direct offerings from fund houses via the UK or the USA.
There is no doubt that a Generali Vision Plan will do exactly what it says it will do if held to maturity, but any attempt to take proceeds early in the plans life, or make it paid up, will result in access penalties or higher charges on the remaining invested funds, or both.
However, some people require help when making disciplined decisions and will welcome the fact that a plan is written to a set target date and cannot be accessed; some people wish to deliberately lock-up their funds. Therefore, potential investors have to weigh up the benefits of locking up their investments and not having the flexibility to access their investment earlier without surrender charges applied.
NOTE: The Generali Vision Plan provides the option of lump sum commission to its distributors ( in the industry this is called indemnified or up-front commission) and it has a successful network of distributing agents throughout the world excluding the main regulated territories. Not all distributing agents have regulation or financial qualifications and may not be aware of the other saving plan options available.
WARNING: Costs and information is correct as of July 2016. Please refer to a brochure from the company for current up to date information and any changes on costs or information. You should not buy based purely on information contained within this article and EME do not accept liability for purchases. If you have any doubts then please speak with your financial adviser or a representative of the company for further advice.
If the provider improves or amends its terms then EME would like to hear from them to amend the review page accordingly, and providers are encouraged to comment on errors or omissions to ensure that readers have the latest and correct information.
You can view the details of the Generali Vision Plan and other plans here at an independent website.
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