Is there a ray of hope in the offshore bond sector?

Offshore bonds have swung in and out of favour with professional advisers over the years prompting providers such as Aviva and, more recently, Scottish Widows via its CMI business to pull out of the market. A longer than expected period of economic difficulty, as well as uncertainty in the run up to the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) has added further pressure leading to a decline in sales recently. The latest statistics from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) based on sales figures from the main offshore bond providers to the UK market show that single premium sales, which m...