The Luxembourg-based life in-surer, Lombard International Assurance, has opened a branch in Helsinki and has launched an executive pension contract for the Finnish corporate market.

Lombard's general manager for Finland, Ken Swain says: We believe it is the first time a unit linked corporate benefit plan has been offered in Finland." The pensions contract has been developed in conjunction with Aon Finland and is targeted at the management of companies. It will be distributed only through insurance brokers.

The aim, says Swain, is to attract sen-ior company staff using the plan to provide supplementary pension benefits. The defined contribution contract is linked to two unit-linked insurance funds, which will initially have two Finnish investment managers as advisers to the funds.

One fund is advised by Carnegie As-set Management and will invest solely in FM-denominated equities, bonds and money securities, through three of the manager's investment funds. "The aim is to outperform local market indices and to produce higher aggregate returns than domestic pension funds through superior performance and and asset allocation," adds Swain.

The other fund, advised by FIM In-vestment Management, will have a higher equity content and include ov-erseas equities and bonds. Fennell Betson"

Topics