Leading QROPS provider Boal & Co today announces the launch of a “Spousal Bypass Trust” to significantly enhance the IHT tax-efficiency of benefits payable to members of “Trinity” and other Boal & Co QROPS schemes. With Boal & Co having recently been recognised with an industry Special Award for QROPS Technical Innovation1, the development of a Spousal Bypass Trust enhances Boal & Co’s QROPS proposition across all of the pension firm’s schemes, including the highly innovative “Trinity” 50C QROPS scheme. Managing Director Gary Boal explained: “One of the many benefits of QROPS (overseas pension transfer schemes) compared with UK pensions is the ability to bestow a pension fund on death. Scheme members who retire abroad are not2 subject to the 55% UK tax charge which applies to members with UK pension schemes. “Whilst it is true to say that QROPS funds are also free of inheritance tax (IHT) on a member’s death, payment of a member’s QROPS fund on death – to, for example, his or her spouse – could nonetheless create an IHT liability on the eventual death of the spouse. Use of a Spousal Bypass Trust can ensure that QROPS death benefits are instead paid out to a trust, completely separate from the spouse’s taxable estate, taking IHT out of the equation not just on the death of the member, but also on the subsequent death of the spouse.” Boal & Co’s QROPs proposition now includes provision of specimen trust wording to establish the Spousal Bypass Trust, and links to (optional) professional trustee services. Sales director Paul Forman added: “One of the ground-breaking features of our Trinity 50C scheme is its ability to pay members a retirement lump sum significantly in excess of the 30% level to which other, lesser QROPS schemes are restricted. The result can be highly tax-efficient in many cases, as it reduces future income tax liability on pension payments. For any Trinity clients who are concerned about their future IHT situation, the use of the Spousal Bypass Trust can enable them to pay not just their death benefits, but also some or all of their retirement lump sum benefit into the Bypass Trust, so keeping it outside of the IHT net as well. “At Boal & Co we firmly believe that we lead the QROPS provider business – a fact borne out by our recent award for QROPS innovation. In the same way that Trinity has redefined the QROPS market, Boal & Co continues to relentlessly set the professional standards for the QROPS industry. New, and existing, Boal & Co QROPS clients can all benefit from this important trust enhancement, further details of which are available now exclusively to advisers registered on our QROPS extranet at www.trinity.im.” ENDS