Insurance Wrappers
Pixelupixel selects and structures insurance wrappers on a fully independent basis — no commission, no provider affiliation.
The legal and tax efficiency of an insurance arrangement depends almost entirely on how it is structured, not which provider is named on the cover.
Insurance wrappers — portfolio bonds, life-of-another arrangements, annuity structures, and related instruments — can provide powerful legal separation between a client's assets and estate or creditor claims. But their effectiveness depends on the rigour of the design, not the marketing language of the product brochure. Pixelupixel advises clients on wrapper selection, provider due diligence, and structural integration with existing trusts or holding entities. Because we operate on a fee-only basis and receive no remuneration from any insurance provider, we can assess the Kenyan and cross-border market with complete independence. Clients come to us after receiving recommendations from commission-based intermediaries and frequently find that the recommended product solved only part of the problem — or introduced a surrender-charge structure that was incompatible with their liquidity timeline.
We cover the principal categories of insurance-linked capital protection instruments relevant to Kenyan-based high-net-worth clients.
Offshore and onshore portfolio bonds that hold diversified underlying investments within an insurance wrapper, providing potential estate-planning and asset-separation benefits. We review the underlying fund range, charging structure, and custodian arrangements before any recommendation.
Structures in which the life assured and the policy owner are different parties — commonly used in business succession and estate equalisation. The legal precision required is considerable; we work alongside qualified legal counsel to ensure the arrangement performs as intended.
For clients requiring a guaranteed income layer in later years, deferred annuity wrappers provide actuarially priced certainty. We model the break-even period, inflation sensitivity, and counterparty risk of each provider before presenting options.
In certain Kenyan and cross-border jurisdictions, insurance-linked structures offer statutory protection from creditor claims. We assess applicability, legal opinion requirements, and the ongoing compliance conditions that must be maintained for the protection to remain effective.
When no provider pays us, the shortlist contains the most suitable options — not the most profitable ones.
Our insurance wrapper advisory process begins with a scope document agreed in advance with the client, defining the protection objective, the asset amount in scope, the applicable jurisdictions, and the liquidity constraints. We then canvas the relevant provider market, apply our due-diligence framework, and produce a written comparison of shortlisted options — including their weaknesses. The final selection is made by the client, with our recommendation clearly stated and our reasoning documented. Ongoing review is available on an annual retainer basis, covering provider financial-strength monitoring and structural compliance checks. Clients who engage us for this work typically hold wrappers worth between KSh 20 million and KSh 500 million, though our process scales to larger or more complex arrangements.
“We engaged Pixelupixel to review a portfolio bond recommendation we had received from a bank-linked adviser. Their independent analysis identified a surrender-charge cliff at year seven that would have trapped approximately forty percent of the portfolio's value at exactly the period when our family trust was due to be wound up. We restructured on their recommendation and avoided a significant and entirely avoidable loss.”
— James O., Nairobi
We will assess your current or proposed insurance arrangements against your actual protection objectives — in writing, with no obligation.