Hansard Vantage Review

Hansard Vantage is the fourth of the offshore savings plans most heavily marketed to UK expats in the Gulf, alongside RL360 Quantum, Zurich Vista and Generali Vision. If you hold one and you're trying to work out whether to keep paying in, this review lays out the mechanics honestly. To run your own plan through the numbers, use the fee-drain calculator.

Issued by Hansard International, built like the rest

Hansard Vantage is a regular-premium offshore savings plan from Hansard International, an Isle of Man life company. As with its peers, the design front-loads charges against your early contributions. If you've read our RL360 Quantum review, the structure will be instantly recognisable.

The charge layers

• Annual management charge - 1.5% a year on accumulator, initial and bonus units.
• Initial unit charge - an extra 5.5% a year on initial units, which your premiums buy during the initial period (18 months on 10-15 year terms, rising to 24 months on terms of 24 years or more).
• Service charge - GBP 5 a month (GBP 10 once paid up).
• Underlying fund charges - each fund's own charges, on top.

Those are the published terms in Hansard's Vantage Platinum II contract summary (April 2018); check your own documents, because older Vantage versions differ. Hansard's own charges sheet (November 2015; both Hansard documents are hosted by AES International) shows the yearly growth needed just to offset its product charges: from 0.37% on a large 20-year contract to 3.14% on GBP 250 a month over 10 years. Those figures include an extra-allocation offer and are measured on unit prices already net of the management charge, so they understate the drag on fund value. A low-cost global ETF such as VWRA has a 0.14% ongoing charge. The fee-drain calculator turns that into a pound figure for your specific term and premium.

Commission and the exit trap

Hansard's contract summary does not state the commission paid, so ask your adviser to confirm in writing how much they received and when. The exit terms are published: the contract cannot be fully surrendered until two years' contributions have been paid, and after that Hansard deducts the initial-unit charges not yet applied. That is about 50% of initial units with 10 years left and about 75% with 20 years left, so your surrender value can sit well below your paid-in total.

The verdict

The plan's one real benefit is enforced discipline - the penalties make you keep paying. But you can get that discipline for nothing with a monthly standing order into a low-cost broker, and keep what the plan's charges take. For the overwhelming majority of disciplined savers, Vantage is an expensive way to do something you could do far more cheaply yourself.

If you're already in one

1. Get your paid-in total, current value and surrender value.
2. Model keep vs paid-up vs surrender in the fee-drain calculator.
3. Read what to do if you're already in a plan and surrender vs paid-up.
4. Take fee-only advice - not from someone paid commission to move you into another product.

See all four products dissected together in Expat Investment Plans Exposed.

This article is educational information, not regulated financial advice. Figures are typical illustrations, not a quote for your specific contract. Check your own key features document and take professional advice before acting.