QROPS really can make money grow on trees!

Climate change is not only a consideration for expats retiring overseas from the UK, but is also a big issue for governments and investors.

About 70% of people consider themselves as ethical or fairly green or ethical but only 8% of investors have green investments, according to a government survey.

To encourage more investors to take up an ethical strategy, this week is National Ethical Investment Week aimed at getting people to think more about how they invest ahead of the upcoming Copenhagen Summit on climate change.

British expats or anyone that has worked here that has UK pension rights can take the chance to review their green credentials if they transfer their UK pensions in to a QROPS.

The objective is making money and reducing your carbon footprint from ensuring the funds in a QROPS are helping the planet. This is a big challenge for advisors, but with the broader range of investments, currencies and opportunities available with a QROPS, everyone has a responsibility to do what they can to make an ethical choice about how to invest their money.

The principle is simple; you work out your carbon output for a year using the online calculator at http://carboncalculator.direct.gov.uk/index.html 

Next you can choose between two popular carbon offset schemes -

Buying in to a tropical rainforest by investing in a hardwood stand that ‘breathes in’ the same amount or more of carbon you output.  The advantage here is that as the stand matures, you can harvest the timber and sell it on while replanting, so your forest investment is sustainable timber.

As an example, an investment of £12,000 would more than offset a family’s carbon output and could produce a six-figure return in 10 -15 years.

The second option is carbon offset trading, which is similar to buying and selling stocks and shares. Your QROPS fund buys excess carbon offsets from individuals or organisations that have more ethical investments than they need to set off their own carbon outputs and then sell them on to other s who need to buy in more.

Other ethical investment choices are available - like green funds and directly buying shares in companies involved in reducing carbon output.