Offshore and beyond

The international life industry has outgrown the term offshore, according to David Healy, managing director of Aegon Scottish Equitable International. In fact, if he had his way, the term would be abandoned altogether. Healy believes the word does no favours to providers and advisers offering cross border life products for genuine and legitimate tax planning purposes and says this was reinforced recently when HM Revenue & Customs in the UK increased its focus on offshore bank accounts. He explains: "Just the very word offshore does not help us, at the moment we have got the situation with...