15 March 2006
Winterthur Life’s new offering contains a distinctive range of products to meet all retirement planning needs post A-Day. The offering reflects the best of its current product range with all the flexibility that A-Day will bring; it includes a range of additional features and enhancements and is being promoted under a dynamic new brand. The range is available from April 6 2006, with transitional arrangements in place until May 6 2006.
The Winterthur Life A-Day individual pension range includes:
- The Winterthur Life Personal Pension – with simplified transfer process to full self-investment
- The Winterthur Life Self-invested Personal Pension – new portfolio managers added to panel
- The Winterthur Life Executive Pension Plan – for employers needing scheme administration support
- The Winterthur Life Trustee Investment Plan – offering access to Winterthur’s Tailored Selection range of quality investment funds
- The Winterthur Life Section 32 – available for scheme transfers and for clients wishing to protect Tax-Free Lump Sum; self-investment available
- Income Withdrawal – offers all the flexibility possible under Unsecured Pension and Alternatively Secured Pension (USP and ASP) including zero income.
Other new features:
USP and ASP will be available on new and existing pension products priced at £125 per annum for first tranche in advance and £125 one off charge for each subsequent tranche. Communication to advisers about the transition from Income Drawdown to USP/ASP starts March 17 2006 with the transition period starting May 18 2006, with all policies due to be converted within one year.
Flexible Adviser Remuneration1 can be arranged monthly2 , half yearly or annually
No administration charge on the unit-linked products if investment £100,000 or more
Tax-free lump sum will be available on FSAVCs and Protected Rights.
Fast-Track - The Winterthur Personal Pension offers a quick and easy route to Winterthur Life’s Self-invested Personal Pension post A-Day and is competitively priced and transparent – clients only pay for self-investment when they need it.
An enhanced Tailored Selection fund platform will be available with 100 funds from leading investment houses, offering greater asset class coverage. Popular Elite Fund of Funds range enhanced with nine hand-picked managed and sector funds with a quality track record.
A new online adviser services facility drawing together existing stand-alone online services and tools together with enhanced features and functions to create a cutting edge integrated adviser extranet. The service provides detailed product and portfolio analysis for Winterthur Life products with the ability to add and analyse third party product and assets.
David Thompson, distribution director for Winterthur Life UK, says, “Following the new A-Day changes, Winterthur has updated its range of A-Day compliant individual products. Within what will be an extremely cluttered marketplace Winterthur is differentiating itself around three core elements – a relevant pension product range incorporated into a simple and transparent charging structure with no commission built into product, a fund platform which is hand-picked and rigorously monitored, and a cutting edge online services proposition.”
1 Winterthur Life gives all financial professionals the opportunity to determine their own remuneration on all our products. Our charges remain transparent and the remuneration is simply an additional and open cost. Our Flexible Adviser Remuneration is just that – flexible. Advisers are not restricted to a menu driven selection and the facility allows:
- INITIAL PAYMENT - A CASH SUM OR PERCENTAGE OF THE INVESTMENT AND/OR
- RECURRING PAYMENT – A CASH SUM OR PERCENTAGE OF THE INITIAL INVESTMENT OR A PERCENTAGE OF THE FUND VALUE.
2 Not available on Self invested products
For further information:
Paul Riddell Winterthur Life, Press Office +44 (0)1256 798099
Sandra Fulton Winterthur Life, Press Office +44 (0)1256 798310
Christine Wood Financial Dynamics +44 (0) 207 269 7253
Notes to Editors
About Winterthur Life UK Limited
Winterthur Life UK Limited is part of Winterthur Group, which is part of Credit Suisse Group, a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich.
Winterthur Life UK offers pensions and investments for high net worth clients distributed via top tier IFAs and is renowned for its innovative approach to financial products. Its philosophy of transparent product propositions offers advisers a range of retirement and investment solutions with an open charging structure.
Winterthur Life UK is one of the UK’s top 10 providers of single premium personal pensions, trustee investment plans and corporate pensions via IFAs and a leading provider of self-investment retirement plans like Self Invested Personal Pensions (“Sipps”).
Any opinions expressed in this media communication are made as at the date of publication but are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not a guide to the future. The value of shares/units and the income from them can go down as well as up. Exchange rate fluctuations may cause the value of underlying investments to fall as well as rise. Yields are not guaranteed and may fall or rise.
Winterthur Life UK Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
www.winterthur-ifa.co.uk
Winterthur Group
Winterthur Group is a leading Swiss insurance company with head office in Winterthur. As an international company, the Group provides a broad range of personal, property and casualty insurance products, as well as insurance solutions in life and pensions that are tailored to the individual needs of private and corporate clients. Winterthur Group has approximately 19,000 employees worldwide. The company achieved a total business volume of CHF 28.3 billion in 2005 and reported assets under management of CHF 153.3 billion as of December 31, 2005.
Credit Suisse Group
Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company headquartered in Zurich. Credit Suisse, the banking business of Credit Suisse Group, provides its clients with investment banking, private banking and asset management services worldwide. Credit Suisse offers advisory services, comprehensive solutions and innovative products to companies, institutional clients and high-net-worth private clients globally, as well as retail clients in Switzerland. Credit Suisse Group also includes Winterthur, a Swiss general insurer with a focus on international business activities. Credit Suisse Group is active in over 50 countries and employs approximately 60,000 people. Credit Suisse Group’s registered shares (CSGN) are listed in Switzerland and, in the form of American Depositary Shares (CSR), in New York. Further information about Credit Suisse Group and Credit Suisse can be found at www.credit-suisse.com. Further information about Winterthur can be found at www.winterthur.com.
Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information
This press release contains statements that constitute forward-looking statements. In addition, in the future we, and others on our behalf, may make statements that constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements relating to our plans, objectives or goals; our future economic performance or prospects; the potential effect on our future performance of certain contingencies; and assumptions underlying any such statements.
Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,” “expects,” "intends” and “plans” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements. We do not intend to update these forward-looking statements except as may be required by applicable laws.
By their very nature, forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include (i) market and interest rate fluctuations; (ii) the strength of the global economy in general and the strength of the economies of the countries in which we conduct our operations in particular; (iii) the ability of counterparties to meet their obligations to us; (iv) the effects of, and changes in, fiscal, monetary, trade and tax policies, and currency fluctuations; (v) political and social developments, including war, civil unrest or terrorist activity; (vi) the possibility of foreign exchange controls, expropriation, nationalization or confiscation of assets in countries in which we conduct our operations; (vii) the ability to maintain sufficient liquidity and access capital markets; (viii) operational factors such as systems failure, human error, or the failure to properly implement procedures; (ix) actions taken by regulators with respect to our business and practices in one or more of the countries in which we conduct our operations; (x) the effects of changes in laws, regulations or accounting policies or practices; (xi) competition in geographic and business areas in which we conduct our operations; (xii) the ability to retain and recruit qualified personnel; (xiii) the ability to maintain our reputation and promote our brands; (xiv) the ability to increase market share and control expenses; (xv) technological changes; (xvi) the timely development and acceptance of our new products and services and the perceived overall value of these products and services by users; (xvii) acquisitions, including the ability to integrate successfully acquired businesses; (xviii) the adverse resolution of litigation and other contingencies; and (xix) our success at managing the risks involved in the foregoing.
We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exclusive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and events, as well as the risks identified in Credit Suisse Group’s most recently filed Form 20-F and reports on Form 6-K furnished to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cautionary statement regarding non-GAAP financial information
This press release contains non-GAAP financial information. A reconciliation of such non-GAAP financial information to the most directly comparable measures under generally accepted accounting principles, is posted on our website at http://www.credit-suisse.com/sec.html.
