Desperately seeking service

A number of factors have contributed to the growth in sales over the past couple of years. These have included the growth in wealth in the country, the arrival of new insurers in the market such as Standard Life, increased use of offshore bonds by private banks, the fact that insurance policies are not caught by the European Union Savings Tax Directive and the open architecture offered by offshore bonds. But interestingly, while the offshore market has been growing between 20% and 30% a year over the past few years, IFAs seem to struggle to find insurers with which they are totally happy. ...