Employee incentives

Sharing benefits worldwide

• A multi-national company wants to create a bonus scheme providing benefits in shares and cash (in multiple currencies) for some 500 employees worldwide. Our deferred bonus plan operates through a Jersey discretionary trust. We provide corporate trustee and administration services which include receiving funds from many jurisdictions, purchasing equities and vesting shares worth €10-12 million.

• A large international employer wished to provide saving benefits to their employees in over 186 countries. They wanted to offer saving benefits on behalf of those who do not have local retirement savings plan (no mandatory requirements or strong local practice). There is a mix of currencies and investments to meet members’ requirements.

Encouraging the long view

• A major shipping company plans to float in 2021. It wants to encourage founder directors and senior executives to take a longer-term view of company success. A new incentive scheme will grant shares to directors and share options to executives. Assets will be segregated to protect them from takeover. We establish a suitable trust in Malta and act as trustee and administrator. When floated, the Trustees relieve the employer of the full administrative burden, we: co-ordinate between the stock exchange, registrars, brokers, and banks; process share vesting; distribute shares and share options to employees; and even provide a one-stop vesting and settlement service for all beneficiaries, including support for tax returns and dividend distributions.

• A large UK company wished to create an international pension scheme providing benefits for employees located around Europe. The plan operates through a Jersey approved 131A trust. TMF Group provides corporate trustee, pension, and administration services which includes access to our employee incentives portal, where members have 24/7 access to view their holdings, make investment changes, and contact the team.

Building for the future

• An employer in Asia is struggling to keep its best young employees as they try to job-hop themselves onto the property ladder. A traditional pension scheme is unpopular with staff because it would lock-in almost all their benefits until they reach 55+. What else can be done? A JISP can be designed to let employees build a fund they can access after just five or ten years. If the employee decides to use their fund to purchase a home, the employer can provide an extra reward in the form of a top-up bonus.

• Large South American companies adhered to the TMF Group’s International Master Retirement Plan, a master retirement trust, to provide benefits to their South American employees. TMF Group works with the respective South American TMF Group office to provide onshore support such as language and local pension knowledge.

Security for all

• A major oil and gas employer has employees on every continent, with many travelling the world on rolling secondments. The company wants to provide secure benefits for everyone but also maximum flexibility for employees with no long-term base and an arrangement that will meet the mandatory EoSG requirements of the United Arab Emirates. Careful design creates a three-part JISP: mobile employees are allowed access to a part of their savings in the event of certain life-changing events; in line with local employment law, UAE employees receive all their benefits as an end-of-service gratuity payment; employees in South-east Asia receive a traditional pension package when they retire at 55+.

• A large international not-for-profit organisation wanted to provide saving benefits to approximately 4,000 globally mobile employees who work contracts of a varying length, ie 6 months to 2 years. Members regularly change between active/inactive, with contributions paid while they are actively working. Members have access to our employee incentives portal to view their holdings, make investment changes, and contact the team.

Compliant and flexible

An international technology company with a UAE subsidiary with 150 employees provides no pension but has an unfunded EoSG liability on its balance sheet. It wants a single solution that will achieve three things: fund all future EoSG liabilities; reduce the existing, unfunded risk; offer a retirement savings scheme (configured to encourage retention) with pre-retirement access to some of the benefits. We propose a two-part structure: one part meets local EoSG regulations; the other receives additional contributions from employer and employee. Departing employees can now depend on receiving their EoSG payment and their personal savings.

Fair at home and abroad

A UK-based international charity provides a full suite of benefits to the staff in its headquarters but has no provision at all for globally-mobile employees. Short-stay postings, unstable jurisdictions and complicated local tax regimes make an international pension plan unsuitable. International staff have been receiving an extra 7% of salary and are expected to make their own arrangements. In order to remove ongoing discrimination and harmonise benefits across the organisation, an EoSG plan could be set up which allows the employer to avoid the complexities of international pensions while still creating a secure lump sum equivalent to a pension for staff who leave or retire. Employees can also make their own additional contributions to a secure and transparent savings vehicle. The creation of an employer-sponsored scheme further improves recruitment and retention.