LG 181
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Finance<br />
Luxembourg life insurance<br />
The ideal cross-border<br />
wealth management tool<br />
Major insurance companies from around the world have chosen Luxembourg as a base for<br />
launching their products throughout Europe under the EU freedom of services provision.<br />
The sector works with internationally mobile clients who can benefit from Luxembourg's<br />
unique level of investor protection and expertise in wealth and estate planning.<br />
Luxembourg insurance companies do more than 90% of their business outside the<br />
country, the bulk of which is in life assurance. LFF spoke with Marc Lauer, Chairman of<br />
the Luxembourg Association of Insurance Companies (ACA) and CEO of the Foyer<br />
Group, and with Claude Marx, former CEO of Lombard International Assurance, and to<br />
find out how cross-border expertise is enabling the sector to expand into new markets.<br />
Marc Lauer<br />
Claude Marx<br />
With a small domestic insurance marketplace,<br />
Luxembourg specialises in providing life insurance<br />
solutions under the EU Freedom to<br />
Provide Services. It's life assurance contracts<br />
offer some distinct advantages including<br />
flexibility in contract design and asset allocation,<br />
fiscal neutrality and a unique level of<br />
investor protection. Luxembourg law provides<br />
life assurance policyholders with full asset<br />
protection as Marc Lauer, Chairman of ACA<br />
and CEO of the Foyer group explains.<br />
«Luxembourg's laws and regulations aim to<br />
ensure maximum protection of policy-holders<br />
on several different levels. The cornerstone<br />
of Luxembourg's investor protection<br />
regime is the legal requirement that all<br />
clients' assets must be held by an independent<br />
Custodian Bank approved by the<br />
Luxembourg state regulator, the<br />
Commissariat aux Assurances (CAA)».<br />
These features make life assurance one of<br />
the best asset management and estate planning<br />
tools designed for sophisticated<br />
European – and international clients.<br />
«A typical client we work with is the internationally<br />
mobile high-net-worth individual. For example,<br />
a businessman living and working abroad for<br />
most of his professional life who wishes to ensure<br />
his retirement protection when he returns to his<br />
country of residence», points out Lauer. «What is<br />
so unique in Luxembourg is that we offer tailormade<br />
solutions within an open architecture. So in<br />
an insurance contract you have a wide range of<br />
assets within the contract that you can invest in.<br />
The insurance company appoints in most cases an<br />
investment manager, who invests the assets<br />
underlying the insurance contract along the<br />
investment guidelines defined by the client».<br />
Portable and efficient solutions<br />
Insurance companies in Luxembourg have built<br />
up significant legal and wealth management<br />
expertise. The industry works with an increasing<br />
number of internationally mobile families facing<br />
challenges related to different tax regimes and<br />
inheritance rules, with family members spread<br />
across multiple jurisdictions.<br />
24<br />
<strong>LG</strong> - Novembre 2015
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