BLBA has been set up with the intention of representing brokers interests at a grass roots level and aims to deliver more income opportunities for every member firm. There will be a new chairman every year, voted for by members and quarterly business update meetings in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

BLBA aims to become the leading referral partner to other sectors of the finance industry and will work closely with lenders and other product providers to develop bespoke products and services.

Spokesperson for BLBA, Steven Reeves says: “Whilst there are other trade bodies who serve the broker market, our objectives are very different. We are not interested in lobbying government or trying to change legislation, our aim is simply to deliver greater value to brokers by identifying and developing new income opportunities.

“All brokers who join BLBA will have to meet our rigorous standards and adhere to our guidelines so that being a member of BLBA will become a benchmark for quality, ethical and professional standards in the world of loan broking, ensuring that consumers, lenders and product providers who deal with our members, receive only the very best service”.

More details at www.blba.co.uk

News of his appointment was made public at the BrokersLink annual conference in Portugal

Battifarano will be responsible for the international development and management of the network. He joins from Chartis International where he was as a senior vice president.

QROPS are relatively new and relatively complicated; this has allowed product providers and salesmen to deliberately obscure the true facts or just to give false information because they don’t understand their product.
This article covers the frequently told lies, and uncovers the truth.

New Zealand & 100% Cash Out
In Guernsey, where most QROPS providers are based, only 25% of the fund can be paid in cash. In New Zealand 100% can be! Many Guernsey Trustees and their salesmen will tell you this is illegal – well, if it is then HMRC don’t agree with them!! If set up properly a NZ QROPS can totally legally, and with the full agreement of HMRC, provide 100% Cash to someone who is 5 yrs+ non UK-Resident. Could it possibly be that some Guernsey QROPS providers are attacking this because they can’t offer it? Incidentally, it is illegal to cash out before 5 yrs+ non UK-Residency, so companies who offer this are promoting a different type of lie.

Charges – how transparent are they?
You pay for the product and the service, and if the service is poor you can move elsewhere, right? Wrong! Almost all QROPS providers have an exit penalty. So if they provide poor service so you want to move away it is you who has to pay for their shortcomings. No ethical company should have an exit penalty! One company in Guernsey goes even further by making it virtually impossible to transfer away from them – amazingly their behaviour is not illegal in Guernsey, but it would be in the UK.

55 is the earliest possible retirement age – or is it?
Most QROPS providers will tell you that apart from ill-health or special occupations (e.g. footballers), 55 is the earliest allowed retirement age. This is perfectly true in Guernsey! But, if you’ve been outside the UK five years then you can possibly retire, and take 100% cash, before this in NZ where local rules often permit it.

A QROPS is for Life
You have your pension for the rest of your life, so you will stay with a QROPS (even if you move to a different provider) for the rest of your life, right? Wrong!
You absolutely should move out of your QROPS once you’ve been 5 yrs+ non UK-Resident. If you don’t you risk losing all your benefits!
If you return to the UK with A QROPS, even if just for a year, your QROPS is now under UK rules, so you lose all the benefits!
What you should do is transfer your QROPS to a QNUPS, a Qualifying Non UK Pension Scheme. This works exactly the same as a QROPS, but if you return to the UK it isn’t hit by UK rules so you keep all your benefits. Lots of people return to the UK, often without prior planning. It is essential that they are protected if this happens.
Most QROPS providers don’t have a QNUPS. To sell a QROPS to a client without having a QNUPS is risking the client’s financial health!

So, Guernsey is not a good place to have a QROPS?
No, this is not true at all. Guernsey is an excellent location for a QROPS, as is New Zealand. An independent QROPS provider will offer the choice of both locations, as which is best depends totally on your circumstances. Any provider who says that one is better than the other is telling lies or doesn’t understand the product.

How do I find the right QROPS provider
Whether you are dealing with a QROPS provider direct (and truly independent providers don’t deal direct, but will refer you to an independent adviser), or through an adviser, ask them all these questions. If you aren’t satisfied with every answer don’t deal with them. It is your money, don’t let someone take it off you unless they deserve your trust.

For more information please contact
Keith Boniface on keith@brooklandspensions.com

The 2.25p per share offer, which has been agreed by the Braemar board, is at a 63.6% premium to Braemar’s closing price last night.

Its Securities operation designs, promotes and manages structured products and promotes its funds to high net worth individuals, via IFAs and other regulated parties.

Braemar, through its Securities and Estates core divisions, manages a range of investment products and property funds.

Braemar’s range of investment funds comprises three Oeics investing in agricultural land, student accommodation and ground rents.It also has nine closed-ended residential property vehicles and the value of funds under management stood at about £44m at 31 March 2010.

Wealth management group Brooks Macdonald, which had £2.05bn under management as at 31 March, believes the Braemar acquisition is key to their ambitions to strengthen its scale and distribution in the UK retail market.

Brooks Macdonald has received irrevocable undertakings equating to 68.1% of existing issued Braemar ordinary shares.