The research, which has been published in NewDawn’s ‘The QROPS Report’, revealed that over 95% of QROPS were sold via an increasingly sophisticated network of international IFAs.
Rex Cowley, NewDawn founder and author of the report, compiled the total remuneration figure from analysis of 76 IFA firms, covering 63 countries in 149 cities with a global footprint of 288 offices.
These firms have a specific business focus on retirement, with QROPS being a core part of their advice proposition, the top ten of which represent 51% of the total market coverage due to their office and branch networks, he said.
“The pension transfer market has been unaffected by the global economic downturn and this opportunity has clearly not gone unnoticed by the international IFA, as it provides access to a source of significant stored client wealth which had until 2006 not been accessible to this sector.”
The research also revealed that QROPS and retirement planning now forms a central part of a growing number of IFA firms’ strategic proposition and is fuelling expansion in all the expatriate hot spots and new territories like Africa and North and South America.
Cowley added that the baby boomer generation, increased longevity, the demise of the defined benefit pension and growing expatriation create a “once in a generation opportunity for businesses and with the QROPS market expected to grow at circa 35% to 45% annually, until 2015, the revenue potential from the QROPS markets alone looks ever increasingly attractive and should exceed £500 million of fees for the life, pensions, IFA and investment industries by then”.
