Thai pensions

[pitrevie]

Not sure if anyone will be able to help on this but I have a Thai friend who needs to set up his own pension, he is employed in Thailand as the representative of a UK company and they cannot arrange this for him. Does anyone know of any companies that can provide him with some sort of pension fund?

[fletchsmile]

If I were him I'd check whether he needs to set up a pension fund. He may be able to agree with his employer that he receives cash each month, or that he sets up some form of long term savings plan - doesn't need to be pension. I've done both these in the past, by negotiating that I may not want to be in Thailand until retirement age, but should still be entitled to some long term savings equivalent to pensions I used to get.

If he really wants to have a pension/provident fund etc and the company doesn't offer one, but requires that to receive the money he pay into some form of private pension fund he could look into Thai RMFs. RMF = Retirement Mutual Funds, and simply mutual funds that have a tax wrapper for retirement. He can invest in a reasonable range of RMFs such as Thai equities, international equities, bonds, gold funds etc. He would received tax relief at his marginal rate in Thailand like a UK pension - assuming he pays tax here and its all legitimate.

RMFs usually require regular contributions and to be held until 55 years, so are not always suitable for foreigners here, especially if they wish to move on. Hence negotiating cash or other savings route. As you mention he's a Thai national it's less easy to argue that, but his overall remuneration package might be negotiable as to how they split it.

RMFs are similar in nature to buying your own unit trusts as part of a private pension plan/ SIPP in the UK. He can invest up to the higher of 500k or 15% of his income per year

Some examples of RMFs from reputable providers, listed under the relevant sections in the tables below. They would also be able to explain to him further how the products work

http://www.aberdeen-asset.co.th/aam.nsf/thailand/funds&pricesprices

http://www.uobamth.co.th/EN/MutualFunds.asp

http://www.tmbam.com/v5/en/mutual-fund-nav.php?accept=1

Cheers

Fletch:)

Edited December 31, 2013 by fletchsmile

[pitrevie]

Many thanks for your reply, I think that he has been told that he will get his salary every month in cash paid into a Thai bank account and that he has to deal with his tax and any pension he may wish to set up.