Scottsdale director David Wallis-Powell said the company believed the portfolios are a first for the Spanish market, because they invest “solely in Spanish tax compliant collective investment schemes” on a “global and multi-asset basis”.
The funds in which the portfolios invest are accessed through Skandia’s Spanish Collective Investment Bond, and are being managed on the Praemium custody platform to reduce costs to the client. This means an annual custody fee of 0.35% on top of an annual management investment fee of 0.40% plus 20% UK VAT, Wallis-Powell said.
Scottsdale clients initially will be offered a choice of three investment strategies designed to meet a range of financial objectives based on their goals and attitudes to risk: Defensive, Conservative and Balanced.
The Skandia Ireland fund range, from which the Verdant portfolios are constructed, currently encompasses more than 500 Spanish tax compliant funds from major global fund houses, according to Scottsdale.
Because the Verdant portfolios do not “unitise” investors within a single large portfolio, Scottsdale Overseas clients will be able to monitor their exposure to each fund they are invested in, “making it simple for [them] to switch from one strategy to another, as their circumstances and attitude to risk evolves,” Wallis-Powell said.
“With the changes to the tax on savings income in Spain, which took effect from January this year, the use a fully tax-complaint investment bond is now more important than ever to reduce unnecessary taxation and maximise returns in the current climate,” Wallis-Powell added. Using tax-compliant bonds means investors do not need to report annual gains realised within them to the Spanish tax authorities, and permits them to roll up untaxed until they are withdrawn or the policy is cashed in, Wallis-Powell said.
Scottsdale Overseas was founded a year ago by three partners of UK-based Scottsdale Consulting, and two Spain-based advisers. It is regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, through its membership in the Nexus Global IFA network.
As reported last year, the Nexus network was launched by Gibraltar-based Blacktower Financial Management Group to enable other European advisory companies to handle their growing regulatory and compliance requirements.
Scottsdale is affiliated with Scottsdale Consulting, which has offices in Milton Keynes and London, and which is regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority through the Intrinsic advisory network, based in Swindon.
Quilter is a British wealth management business which claims that its roots date back to 1777. In January, it was announced that Bridgepoint Capital would buy it from its current owners, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.
