Simplifying complex international regulations to make global retirement plans truly accessible.
As more companies embrace global hiring, offering equitable benefits across borders has become a defining challenge, and opportunity, for HR leaders. Salaries may be localized, but expectations around benefits are rapidly becoming global. Yet when it comes to long-term financial security, a massive gap remains: retirement.
For employees based in the U.S. or other developed economies, employer-sponsored retirement plans are often a core part of the compensation package. But for global team members based in countries without strong pension systems, or those who fall outside local schemes due to expat status, contractor classification, or startup agility, those same benefits are often absent.
This “global retirement gap” is one of the most overlooked yet impactful divides in modern work. It’s not just about fairness. It’s about retention, compliance, and the ability to build a long-term employer brand that truly transcends borders.
Why do so few companies offer retirement benefits to their international teams? In a word: complexity.
Retirement systems are inherently local. They’re shaped by tax law, labor codes, cultural expectations, and regulatory agencies that rarely speak to each other. A retirement plan that works in Germany doesn’t translate to Brazil. A tax-advantaged contribution in the U.S. may be taxable income elsewhere. Even within a single country, rules can vary depending on employment status, residency, and local reforms.
This makes designing a compliant, scalable global retirement offering daunting. For most HR teams, especially at fast-moving startups or mid-sized firms, it’s often easier to offer nothing at all. But that decision, however understandable, is no longer sustainable in a competitive global market.
Employees are paying attention.
Failing to provide a retirement path for international employees doesn’t just create inequity. It introduces real business risks.
On the employee side, it signals that some team members are worth long-term investment, while others are merely temporary contributors. That kind of message leads to disengagement and churn, especially among experienced global talent who are actively comparing offers that include pensions, equity, and other forms of deferred compensation.
In short, the global retirement gap is no longer just a missed opportunity. It’s a looming liability.
Solving the compliance puzzle doesn’t mean setting up dozens of local retirement plans. Instead, leading companies are turning to International Pension Plans (IPPs), a modern solution that delivers long-term retirement savings options without entangling the business in the legal frameworks of every employee’s country of residence.
An IPP is a trust-based retirement plan, typically domiciled in a neutral and regulated jurisdiction like the Isle of Man. These plans allow companies to contribute on behalf of international employees in a legally secure and tax-efficient manner. Employees can save and invest in a stable, often dollar-denominated plan, and maintain continuity even if they relocate or change jobs within the global workforce.
The Isle of Man, in particular, has become a favored jurisdiction for IPPs due to its robust legal protections, pension-friendly regulations, and track record of financial services oversight. It’s trusted by multinational corporations, governments, and professional trustees, and it’s increasingly being adopted by remote-first companies that want to offer real retirement benefits to globally dispersed teams.
What makes IPPs particularly powerful is how they resolve the two major pain points of international retirement planning: regulatory compliance and scalability.
Instead of navigating 20+ national retirement regimes, employers can operate a single, centralized pension plan that adheres to the Isle of Man’s regulatory framework, one designed specifically for international use. At the same time, contribution structures can be flexible, meaning companies can vary benefit levels based on region, role, or tenure while still maintaining plan integrity.
By partnering with experienced trustees and platforms, employers can also ensure they’re meeting their fiduciary obligations. This includes safeguarding employee contributions, offering diversified investment options, and delivering transparent reporting.
Crucially, IPPs don’t seek to replace local mandatory pensions (where required). They complement them, often serving as an additional layer of savings or a parallel plan for contractors and mobile employees who don’t qualify for national schemes. This layered approach makes them versatile for global teams while still defensible from a compliance standpoint.
For a retirement plan to truly support a global workforce, it has to do more than comply, it has to be accessible.
That means:
These features aren’t just conveniences; they’re core to closing the retirement gap. Accessibility ensures that international workers don’t just have a plan. They use it, understand it, and benefit from it.
Financial inclusion on a global scale requires breaking down both regulatory and usability barriers. International pension plans with smart, tech-forward interfaces are the key to doing just that.
At Redii, we’ve built our platform around a single mission: make international retirement benefits simple, compliant, and meaningful.
Our international pension plans are administered through a licensed trust in the Isle of Man, giving employers a secure legal structure that’s purpose-built for global workforces. Contributions are processed automatically through integrations with top global payroll providers. This means you can extend benefits to international teams without adding administrative burden or compliance risk.
But the real magic happens in the employee experience. Redii uses AI to help plan participants understand their savings, track performance, and receive personalized guidance, all in real time. It’s retirement, redesigned for the modern workforce.
By removing borders and barriers, Redii enables your company to do more than check the box on global benefits. We help you build trust, retain top talent, and future-proof your HR stack, starting with retirement.
Close the gap. Bring global retirement into reach with Redii.
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