A stream of mainly young Irish expatriates will pass through the annual Recruitment Fair at Jury's hotel, Dublin, on December 28th, testing the home employment waters before returning to their current homes in New York, London, Paris - or wherever.

The fair has become increasingly important for Irish companies, suffering in recent years from a dearth of talent in many sectors. It gives employers the chance to entice emigrants, who have flown over for the Christmas holiday, to make their trip home a permanent one. Some do take the bait; others keep their options open for another year.

One life assurance company that is counting on many expatriates to remain indecisive, as well as on those who must fulfil existing work contracts for a few more years, is Eagle Star International, which two years ago this month launched an investment product called The International Investment Plan. It is solely available to the expatriate market and is only sold from the International Financial Services Centre in Dublin.

Financial advisers have been singing this product's praises and one such firm, Moneywise Financial Planning, will be attending the fair on the 28th and holding two seminars in conjunction with Eagle Star (at 2.30 p.m. and 4 p.m.) in a bid to fully explain a product which is both tax and performance driven.

The International Investment Plan is designed for Irish people living abroad who intend to return home sometime in the future.

It allows for tax-free growth - there is no internal taxation of the investment fund - and full tax-free access to the money when the expatriate returns.

To qualify for the policy, which can be invested in the Eagle Star International Dynamic Fund, its Stable Sterling Fund or a mixture of both, the investor needs to have been based outside the State for just six months after the first contributions.

It allows for either designated regular contributions or a lump sum instalment and is denominated in sterling. The minimum monthly contribution is £100 sterling (£112) or $150 (£101) and the minimum lump sum is £5,000 sterling or $7,500.

Once the investor returns to the Republic, the fund can be cashed in with no tax liability. If he or she decides to keep it going in the form of a retirement benefits policy, only 75 per cent of any growth achieved while resident will be subject to the standard 24 per cent tax, and only payable at maturity.

If someone decides to keep the fund going after their return but doesn't treat it as a retirement benefits policy, all the growth achieved by the fund while resident in the State will be liable to standard income tax at 24 per cent, deducted at source by Eagle Star. In either case, there will be no tax liability on any growth achieved by the fund while the investor was resident outside the State.

If the investment is encashed while living abroad, it will not be subject to any Irish tax, but it may have a liability in the investor's country of residence. Moneywise chief executive Mr Owen Morton recommends professional tax advice before taking out this policy.

He also notes that before someone comes back to Ireland they will have to choose whether to increase their regular contribution in line with inflation since it cannot be done later.

Additional lump-sum contributions cannot be allowed after a person has returned so the higher the initial amount the better in order to maximise both the growth potential of the fund and the tax advantages.

A disproportionate (to income) contribution is possible because the funding limitations set by the Revenue that normally apply to retirement contracts (i.e. 15 per cent of net relevant earnings) do not apply to this product.

Moneywise notes that between 1990 and 1998, aggressively managed tax-exempt funds, such as pension funds, have performed twice as well as taxed funds. The International Investment Plan has produced a 50 per cent growth rate since it was launched in December, 1996, and the equivalent domestic pension fund - the Eagle Dynamic - has had a cumulative growth performance of more than 450 per cent since 1990, leading the market in aggressively managed funds.

The effects of up-front and ongoing management charges on regular premium contracts will have an effect on returns in the early years. Moneywise projects a return of £22,370 after five years on a £300 a month contribution into a fund with a steady, gross annual return of 9 per cent, but a £27,944 return if the investor makes an initial lump-sum investment of £20,000. Moneywise will arrange the contracts on a fee basis and will produce charts to show the impact of charges and fees on the growth of the funds.

Because the funds are sterling-based (though contributions can be made either in pounds or dollars) there will be a sterling/euro and dollar/euro currency risk from next year. It will certainly be one point worth raising directly with Eagle Star at the seminar.

For more information about the seminar or the product, contact Moneywise Financial Planning at (01) 670 5937 or by e-mail: moneywise@indigo.ie