The first major difference is that each individual savings account is held in its own, legally separated, segregated portfolio. This means that your assets are completely separated from the assets of other savings plan owners and company assets, eliminating any risk of your savings value being affected by the actions or inactions of any other person or entity. Many savings plans providers combine the assets of all savings plans and their owners, which often works just fine, but in some cases has led to serious problems and a reduction in the asset values when something somewhere doesn’t go to plan. Being fully segregated prevents a low-probability/high-impact event of this type from even being a possibility for your savings.
Secondly, unlike the vast majority of savings plans worldwide, this one is multi-jurisdictional and fully globally portable – you do not have to be a resident of any specific country to have this savings plan, and you are not forced to stop paying into it if and when you move countries. Since inception, Investors Trust have been 100% focussed on providing market-leading financial products to international expatriates (originally) and digital nomads (Investors Trust have been around since long before being a “digital nomad” was a thing).
Finally, a less important but still highly valuable difference for digital nomads is that the full end-to-end process is 100% online, without any physical paperwork required. No “wet ink” signatures, no documents to get stamped and couriered somewhere – everything is done digitally, unlike the vast majority of savings-related banks and insurance companies worldwide – even the ones which say they are focussed on international expatriates, somewhat incredibly. In addition to the obvious cost savings, environmental benefits, and ease of setting up and operating your savings plan, we think that the track record of Investors Trust - which has consistently demonstrated a desire to build fantastic innovative products, backed by world-class technology with regular upgrades as new technology emerges, AND always delivered in a (digital) way which makes it easy for both their customers and the financial professionals helping them – is a very good endorsement of their commitment to the global nomadic expatriate community and a good indicator of how they will continue to operate in future, which is a very important thing to consider when choosing a company to do business with for your medium-to-long term financial planning. Some of the SavingsForNomads team have been recommending this savings plan and other products from Investors Trust to their private clients (and colleagues!) for nearly a decade.
So yeah, we think it’s better than the others :-)