Hansard International
Universal Personal Portfolio

Hansard's Universal Personal Portfolio is a whole-of-life unit-linked insurance contract that allows for the investment of lump-sum contributions.

The aim of the contract is to benefit from the potential medium to long-term increase of the value of your savings by investing the contributions you make into a wide range of assets provided and administered by Hansard International, or by external investment managers, or into a discretionary managed account.

Features of the Universal Personal Portfolio:

• Universal Personal Portfolio is aimed at high-net-worth, Malaysia resident clients, aged 18 years or older who have a lump-sum to invest over the medium to long-term to achieve a financial goal.
• The contract is available in GBP, USD or EUR, and this will determine the valuation currency, the default cash account for charging and the minimum contribution levels.
• Universal Personal Portfolio may be held by one or two contract owners. Unless otherwise instructed, they will act upon instructions from either contract holder.
• The death benefit will become payable when the life assured dies (or for joint lives assured, either the first death for joint-life first-death or the second if it is joint-life last-survivor) and at this point the contract will end.
• The standard death benefit sum assured is 101% of the contract value, but this will be reduced to 101% of the surrender value if the life assured is more than 75 years old (or for a joint-life, first-death contract if either of the lives assured is more than 75 years old or for a joint-life last-survivor contract if both of the lives assured are more than 75 years old) on the commencement date.
• As a whole-of-life contract, Universal Personal Portfolio does not have a fixed term – it will continue for as long as the lives assured are alive, or until the contract is surrendered.

You may choose from one of three different charging options, depending on how you wish your contract charges to be deducted:

The annual management charge (AMC) taken by Hansard International, differs for each charging options and for external and internal units. 

External assets:

Hansard unit funds:

Note that where the Contribution Remaining Allocated is greater than the contract value linked to that contribution, then an AMC (Annual Management Charge) will apply to the difference between the two, at the rate that applies to external assets as detailed above.

*You can find the full list of charges and costs associated with Universal Personal Portfolio in the documents section of this review.

The longer the period of time that the charges are taken over, the lower the yearly charge amount is but the higher the total cost.

Investment assets under the Universal Personal Portfolio:

• The asset categories offered include unit trusts, deposits, equities, fixed interest securities and Hansard International Limited Unit Funds (Hansard unit funds).
• This is subject to the prevailing asset acceptability criteria. Assets must be marketable and liquid for confirmation that specific external assets (assets other than Hansard unit funds) can be administered within the contract.
• There may be different minimum investment amounts for each asset, and these will be detailed in the relevant documentation for the asset.
• Your contract will hold units that represent your share of the relevant assets, but all investments are held in the name of Hansard International and they are the legal owners of the underlying assets.

Contributions to Hansard's Universal Personal Portfolio:

The minimum initial contribution of the plan depends on the charging option selected. This can be summarised below:

All cash contributions are paid into a cash account that forms part of your contract. Contract charges and withdrawals are deducted from this cash account, and all deals are placed from or into cash, depending on whether it is a purchase or sale.

Hansard says that it is your responsibility to ensure that there is a sufficient level of cash in place throughout the term of the contract to cover the regular contract charges and other associated transaction costs.

Additionally, you may make additional lump-sum contributions at any time, subject to them being GBP 5,000 or above.

NOTE:

• It is important to note that if you take withdrawals or if you surrender your contract during a charging period, then this could result in you getting back
  less than any illustrated fund value and possibly less than the total amount you have contributed.
• We would highly recommend reading the 'expert verdict' section of this review before making a decision.