The Benefits Of Banking Overseas

Going Offshore, Step #1

June 1, 2010, Panama City, Panama: Plant your first offshore flag by opening a bank account in an overseas jurisdiction you're comfortable with. Two top options are Panama and Belize.

Dear Live and Invest Overseas Reader, 

Many of the questions we're receiving from readers right now have to do with how to "go offshore." We're all concerned these days with finding ways to keep our money safe. 

Relocating your assets to another jurisdiction can seem a big, intimidating, even frightening idea.

But it doesn't have to be. 

First, what does it mean, exactly...to "go offshore"? 

Strictly speaking, it means simply to do something in another country. For an American, going offshore means investing, banking, or doing business outside the United States. If you're British, going offshore means operating beyond the United Kingdom. Etc. 

Nothing so scary about that.

Just as I recommend you start small with your retire-overseas thinking and planning, so, too, should you start small and simple when it comes to moving your assets offshore. 

You don't have to figure out an umbrella strategy of corporations and holding companies straightaway. In fact, most of the complex structures many offshore attorneys promote aren't necessary for most people, not immediately and not long term. 

In fact, maybe all your going-offshore plan will ever require is an overseas bank account. So start there. 

Plant your first offshore flag by opening a bank account in a jurisdiction you're comfortable with. 

Keep in mind that the country where you choose to do your banking need not be the country where you're living, where you're doing business, or where you hold citizenship. These are all separate agendas. 

Two top banking options right now are Panama and Belize. 

I also personally like Andorra. 

Kathleen Peddicord

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This Is Your Final Call

Uncle Sam is working quietly, behind the scenes, to put obstacles in place that will make it more difficult for you to broaden your horizons overseas. And much more difficult for you to be in the driver's seat of your own future.

It's not just the banking arena that's under threat.

In 2008, changes to the Veterans Act allowed for an "exit tax" on U.S. citizens who choose to leave the country and end their citizenship.

What other countries have done this in the past? Nazi Germany. Communist Russia. Apartheid South Africa...

This is your civil liberty at stake. How long before you just won't be able to get your assets out of the States?

I'm not an alarmist. I'm a pragmatist. And, as a pragmatic investor, I've seen the writing on the wall for some time. I've worked all these years and with an added sense of urgency more recently to take control of my own life, my own financial future, and, most important to me now, the future of my family.

Now I'd like to offer you a chance to do the same.

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