The major difference is the guaranteed minimum return, which uses the mechanisms more commonly used by private banks to fix a minimum future value, and through the use of technology makes it available at a much lower entry level than would be offered by a private bank. The vast majority of savings plans available today do not offer a guaranteed minimum future value.
There is a trade off with this – to be able to offer a guaranteed minimum future value, it has to be invested into something which international banks and insurance companies are able to underwrite and insure at a cost which is not prohibitively high. This does limit the investment options considerably – most savings plans offer the ability to invest into a wide range of investment funds, but these cannot be used to guarantee a viable minimum return at a reasonable cost, in part because the performance of managed investment funds can be quite volatile and can sometimes see significant changes to their investment strategy due to changes in management personnel. With the S&P500 being a mathematically-driven index with high diversification and a strong track record since its formation in 1926, international financial institutions are able to contractually deliver future-value contracts at a low cost, making it possible to offer the guaranteed minimum return on this pension plan – at the expense of being able to pick your own investment funds or create a bespoke investment portfolio.
If you want to save and invest money into something which accepts smaller regular monthly amounts, and self-manage an investment portfolio in the same way as you can with large one-off deposits into a fund trading account, check out www.SavingsForNomads.com. It features a different financial product, also from Investors Trust, which is a lot more flexible, has a wide range of possible investment fund choices from major international fund managers such as BlackRock, Schroders, PIMCO & more, as well as wider range of currency options and durations – but no minimum guaranteed future value.
In our opinion, this pension plan via www.PensionsForNomads.com is perfect for pension planning over the medium-to-long term – you shouldn’t really prioritise flexibility over guaranteed future values for your pension planning, it’s too important – and the savings plan via www.SavingsForNomads.com is perfect for general savings and investments over the short, medium, and long term – because it has the flexibility to adapt if and when your circumstances change, and can be used for a variety of purposes across all your general savings and investment needs. And you can have a go at being an investment manager, if that’s what you want to do :-)
Have different solutions in place for your different requirements rather than lumping them all in together – don’t compromise your finances, optimise your finances!