SCOTIA Insurance will host a 360-degree perspective seminar on Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) to provide education on the benefits of this investment plan to consumers — business owners, professionals and companies without a pension plan. An IRA provides either a tax-deferred or tax-free way of saving for retirement and is considered relatively new to the local pension market.

The seminar to be held on Wednesday at the Hilton Kingston Hotel will be jointly presented by actuary, St Elmo Whyte of Actman International; Tax Specialist, Ethlyn Norton Coke of the University of Technology and Nicolette Jenez, senior director of pension, Financial Services Commission (FSC).

This 360-degree perspective seminar is the first such seminar for Scotia Insurance following on the launch of its IRA – ScotiaBRIDGE in March 2009. ScotiaBRIDGE as at the end of February 2010 had a net asset value of approximately $328 million. The current pensions market is approximately $206 billion with approximately 61,000 members.

ScotiaBRIDGE enables Jamaicans who are not currently participating in an approved pension arrangement to save towards retirement and reap tax savings. Plan holders can contribute up to 20 per cent of their annual income, make tax-deductible contributions, and receive accumulative tax-free earnings.

The FSC reveals that there is a need for continued education on individual retirement plans to provide greater understanding of the benefits, as when IRAs were re-introduced into the local pension market in late 2008, they were greatly out-numbered by the superannuation (company owned) plans. At the end of June 2008 there were approximately 500 superannuation (company owned) plans compared with only ten individual retirement schemes.