Highlights and Features for Bullet Proof Asset Protection Plan
Don't settle for an immature asset protection package. An offshore corporation, trust or foundation by themselves will not do a good job. Sadly most companies and law firms providing offshore asset protection services fail to understand that a good asset protection structure requires attention to detail when it is being setup if it is going to be effective. A good asset protection package will give you advanced warning before any of your money or assets are at risk.
Advanced Warning of an Attack on Your Assets
Each layer of an asset protection structure should provide both warning if an attack is underway and protection. The outer layers of a good structure are designed to provide a warning signal, without allowing the attacker to gain access to any of your assets. The outer layers should provide at least 1 to 3 months protection, giving you ample time to make any changes to the location of your assets, long before the attacker gets through the outer layer.
Avoiding a Frozen Bank Account: Immature Asset Protection Structures do not give Advance Warning !
The outer layer should provide protection, WITHOUT requiring you to provide a legal defense. A simple corporation, trust or foundation owning a corporation package that most law firms provide does NOT meet this requirement. If your first layer is an offshore corporation, you will learn about the attack FAR TOO LATE. Typically, when a lawsuit is filed with an offshore court, or worse, the attacking entity provides false evidence to an offshore court without your knowledge, that shows your corporation has been involved in money laundering. Foreign governments often try to change a tax related case into a money laundering case because they know offshore jurisdictions are not interested in hearing about foreign tax cases. In these situations, by the time you realize you are under attack, your assets are already at risk of being frozen! This is a sign of an immature asset protection structure. Now you are faced with a large legal bill to defend your assets with no guarantee of success. In our books, this is not asset protection at all. It is a self made trap setup by unknowledgeable lawyers who do not really understand asset protection. Avoid law firms that try to sell you a simple corporation, trust or foundation as an asset protection package. We provide our clients with several sophisticated asset protection structures that provide early warning.
Ease in Tracing an Asset Protection Structure
A good asset protection structure has multiple layers that are difficult or even impossible to connect to each other. An attacker, even after overcoming an outer layer, should not be able to easily move on to the next layer. Each layer should be expensive for the attacker to penetrate, without requiring you to defend the layer. If you have to mount a defense, it means your asset protection structure has failed, and your privacy is destroyed. The very fact that you are mounting a defense means you are connected to and have a vested interest in the assets in question. Your privacy is destroyed and now you are left fighting for your assets. This is a sign of an immature asset protection strategy. If you deal with a law firm that thinks a corporation, trust or foundation in itself is an asset protection strategy, you are wasting your money and setting yourself up for disaster.
Asset Protection Structures that Break the Law: You need to consider a more sophisticated asset protection structure that is 100% legal even if there was no bank secrecy in your offshore jurisdiction!
Many countries require their citizens to report ownership of foreign corporations if they own 10% or more. Although offshore law firms realize this, they lack the moral integrity to tell you this important fact. Many unsuspecting people, interested in asset protection, buy an offshore company without realizing they are getting themselves into hot water. They fail to report their ownership. When an angry spouse or friend reports them, they end up in hot water. Just relying on bank secrecy to protect your assets is not enough. You need to consider a more sophisticated asset protection structure that is 100% legal even if there was no bank secrecy! In other words, bank secrecy is not enough, a good asset protection package must be completely legal according to the laws of your home country.
It all comes down to Ownership
When it is all said and done, every asset protection package comes down to ownership. Generally people are looking for a way to protect assets, by disassociating the assets from themselves. Lawsuits and other attacks come against a person, or company, not the assets themselves. An attack on you should not result in an attack on your assets. The only way to make this possible is to legally separate you from your assets, yet leave you in complete control of the assets. Most offshore law firms have no idea how to get this done. INSTEAD THEY SELL YOU A CORPORATION, TRUST, OR FOUNDATION AS THE PANACEA OF ASSET PROTECTION. THEY FAIL TO TELL YOU THAT IF YOU ARE THE BENEFICIARY IN SUCH AN ENTITY YOU ARE DEEMED TO OWN THE ENTITY BY MOST ONSHORE COURTS. Yes bank secrecy protects you, but wouldn't you sleep better at night knowing that your assets are protected by not just bank secrecy, but a proper, legal, structure that won't get you into hot water if your secrets are somehow revealed.
Individuals worth hundreds of millions of dollars, are surprisingly poor on paper. They use sophisticated techniques to separate themselves from their assets, while retaining all the benefits of ownership. We have taken the same sophisticated strategies and adapted them to be affordable for those wishing to protect their assets properly. Call to discuss a custom asset protection plan for you.
