I received well over 100 email responses to this topic and not one of them was in defense of PayPal’s business practices.

Roger said, “Our company processed tens of thousands of transactions with PayPal over several years with only 3 charge-backs and 2 of them were reversed.  After all of these years they decided to close our account and froze access to our funds from dozens of clients without any written notice.  PayPal is illegally holding people’s money.”

Jeannette said, “I hate PayPal in every way.  I am looking forward to Visa coming out with their competing service this summer.”

Lisa said, “I used to sell items on EBay as my business. Small ticket items under $100.  Two months ago PayPal determined that my wares were too risky and without notice or warning they shut down my account and froze my funds for 180 days.  This has effectively closed my EBay business until I find another payment method that EBay will accept.”

I could go on and on.  There were dozens of stories like these.

I tell you this for three reasons:

1. I am pissed. I wanted to vent my frustrations and get my revenge.  I am sure my thousands of readers can put a microscopic dent in PayPal’s more than 200 million customer base…
2. I want my subscribers to be alerted to the pitfalls of relying on PayPal.  Find another resource for payment processing if your business demands it.  I did.  I actually set up 3 merchant accounts over the past week.  Overkill?  Maybe, but I don’t want to deal with this issue again.  I hope you are at least aware of the potential problems from using PayPal and give yourself options.
3. Most importantly, I want you to be aware that once a great company loses its way; the doors of opportunity are opened wide.  PayPal’s insistence on providing terrible service and alienating 100’s of thousands of customers per year has given opportunity for competitors to jump in this game.  When PayPal first started, they were cutting edge.  No one offered anything like it.  It was a great solution for millions of people.  But now with their complete lack of interest in taking care of their customer, they have opened the door of opportunity for American Express, Visa, Alert Pay, Google Checkout, Square, Intuit, and hundreds of others looking to take on this market.

For you, this may have little direct meaning.  Most of us aren’t interested in or capable of taking on the giant – PayPal and creating a competing business model.

But the idea is the same and can be observed all around you every day.  Have you ever used a product or service and thought, “This is really irritating, if they could just do X it would do well.”

Where turmoil persists, opportunity exists.

Some entrepreneurs are excellent inventors and creators.  They have the ability to create things from their own sheer brilliance.  We know of these visionaries because they make the headlines; Steven Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bernie Marcus and many others.

But many entrepreneurs take good ideas and make them great.  Ray Kroc didn’t invent the hamburger, the restaurant, fast food, or even McDonalds.  But he did take the concept and turn it into something amazing.

Oprah Winfrey was certainly not the first media personality and talk show host.  But she took the concept and grew it into something no one had ever seen before and became a billionaire in the process.

You could even say the visionaries like Jeff Bezos recreated the way books were sold or Steven Jobs reinvented the personal electronics sector.

Everyday you will encounter businesses that provide some product or service that fills a need, but could use improvement in its current state.

As an entrepreneur your eyes should be constantly open looking for inefficiencies in the marketplace or needs that are not even met.

Many young entrepreneurs are so money focused; they forget the most important thing;

Deliver value to your customer and they will deliver money to you.

Unfortunately most get it backwards and focus on the money, which is egocentric and they forget that in order to reach real professional (and personal for that matter) success, you must first deliver value.

I make an effort to deliver value to you every week through my newsletters.  Maybe I enlighten, sometimes entertain, and occasionally anger, but my goal is to provide real value to you every week.

For my clients, I provide value to them by helping them achieve their goals of protecting their assets and keeping what is rightfully theirs.  What value do you provide to your clients?

The past few months have gotten increasingly busy here at Global Wealth Protection.  We have seen a lot of new clients as well as an increase in traffic on our monthly Ezine – EscapeWealth.

In addition, I have also started hosting a weekly radio show every Monday from 3-4pm EST on the Overseas Radio Network called, “Global Escape Hatch“.  ORN is now completely free.  I encourage each of you to tune in and listen to my show where you can call in and get your questions answered live.

Last week a lot of things came to a head all at once.  As you may imagine from the title, one of them was a battle with Paypal.  I don’t normally accept Paypal for client payments unless the total is small, but I had 2 clients who really preferred that method so I agreed.

The problem is that Paypal decided I actually charged too much money (do they really want smaller fees?) and my account was closed because it was considered high risk.

No problem Paypal.  Close the account.

As it turns out though, when Paypal closes an account, their policy is to hold the funds for 180 days!!!  Who among you is willing to wait 180 days to receive payment for a completed project?  Not I.

So this is my way of blowing off steam and informing you, my dear reader, beware of Paypal.  After researching this issue, it seems there are 100′s of thousand of people in a similar position.  Don’t be a sucker like me.

Ok, moving on.

As previously mentioned, we have seen a huge increase in traffic for our EscapeWealth Ezine and last week we published our January edition.  This was by far our best issue yet.  So instead of continuing my Paypal tirade, I want to direct you to these articles.

Each and  every one of them are worth the read.  They all offer an enormous amount of information and value to you, the reader.

Below are the article titles with links.  Feel free to click on the ones that interest you the most.

Private Trust Banking – 21st Century Offshore Banking

What to do with Your Cash When the Financial System is Broken

(The Easiest) Way to Get a Second Passport? (Plus, How It Can Save Your Life When Things Go Wrong!)

Mike the Good Ole Country Boy vs. Lester the Scoundrel

Three Numbers that are Essential to Your Wealth

Who Really Owns Your Stocks?

Passive Real Estate Investments…For Real!

The Corruption of America

Conversations with an Idiot

Don’t Frack Me Up

The Weekly Jobless Claim Blockbuster

More IRA Restrictions Coming…

When Will Silver Reach a New High?

Can YOU Get in the Global Macro Game?

Call today for your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.  Until next week, live well.

For many of you reading this, you may already have an offshore bank account and possibly an offshore company in a place like Seychelles, Belize, Nevis, Cook Islands or Hong Kong.

However, there are clearly a large number of you still sitting on the fence and unsure of why you would ever want an offshore bank account.  There is also quite a few of you who aren’t even sure if it’s legal for Americans to set up an offshore company or offshore bank account.

To respond to the second question first, the answer is simply – yes.  There is a lot of fear propagated from big brother and the media intent on scaring you out of moving money offshore.

This is primarily for two reasons;

1. This is protectionism at its finest and big brother wants to control your money and forcibly take 30-50% of your income through taxation.  If your cash is held offshore, they fear you won’t pay and they won’t be able to collect.
2. With the fractional reserve banking system, for every $1 you take out of a US bank, that removes $10 from the money supply in the US economy.  No politician or central banker wants that.

To answer the first question, I will illustrate with two stories.  Both stories are factual with only the names and some details changed for privacy reasons.

Mike called me a few weeks ago to discuss his financial problems.  You see Mike is facing a $1.2M IRS tax lien.  This may or may not sound like a lot to many of you, but for him, this is a very big deal.

The trouble started over 10 years ago.  Mike was a good ole country boy.  He owned a small house on a couple of acres, a 50 acre farm left to him by his parents, and for income he owned and managed a small used car lot.  His wife worked as a school teacher and their combined income at the time was around $75,000 per year.

Mike and his wife were frugal people and never spent more than they earned, were debt free, yet lived a good comfortable life.

The problem arose from the operation of his used car lot.  Mike’s business was a typical used car lot selling clean, well maintained Japanese cars that were between 3-7 years old.  It was a good niche because the new car dealerships would take them on trade, but wouldn’t sell them on their own lots.  So they went to auction where Mike would pick them up at wholesale prices.

As with most ‘buy-here-pay-here’ used car lots, Mike offered his own financing to his ‘less than credit worthy’ buyers.  If properly managed this can be a pretty lucrative business as they charge exorbitant interest rates, require 30% down payments, and the buyer pays weekly.

If the buyer misses a payment, you shut the car down with a hidden electronic shut off switch and repo in the middle of the night only to resell the car again next week.

In this business it is typical for people like Mike to run into cash flow problems.  If tight on cash, they are unable to restock their lots, so they go to lenders who specialize in buying the book of notes from used car dealers.

This is where Mike’s troubles began.  The ‘businessman’, who agreed to buy Mike’s notes, also took it upon himself to start a new company using Mike’s personal information – social security number, date of birth, etc.

This scoundrel, Lester, was gracious enough to offer Mike a good deal buying these notes at a discount allowing Mike to increase cash flow for buying more cars.

Of course Lester also used this same company he created using Mike’s personal information to buy notes from many other used car lot owners.  After a couple of years, Lester was earning a very nice profit, but as you may imagine he was not reporting any of this to the IRS.

After a couple of years, Mike received a letter from the IRS saying he owed $500,000 in back taxes from his note buying business.  Good ole country boy Mike hadn’t earned enough to owe that kind of money in taxes over the past 10 years combined.

Knowing he was innocent and convinced this would be easy enough to prove to the court, Mike showed up defending himself against the IRS.  Long story short, Mike lost his temper in court and was sent to jail for 6 months for contempt.

During this time, Mike’s bank accounts were seized by the IRS and tax liens were placed on both his house and his farm.  The bank account seizure and property liens were completed before Mike was even found guilty and convicted of tax fraud.

At the direction of Mike’s lawyer, he plead guilty and was released from jail for time served and was required to submit himself to psychiatric evaluation which resulted in a permanent criminal record with an insanity plea.

This record along with the insanity plea prevents Mike from ever getting a US passport and makes it very difficult to find reasonable employment.  Ten years later, Mike is still fighting this battle.

My second story involves a friend of mine, Steve.  Like Mike, Steve was just a normal guy living a normal life.  He was married with 3 kids, nice house, nice cars, and good job in the IT sector with a good low 6 figure income.

Steve was also a frugal guy and had saved up a pretty decent nest egg.  Everything seemed to be going well for him.

Unfortunately Steve did not realize that his wife, Matilda, was not nearly as happy as he was with their normal suburban life.  Matilda was a nurse and happy with her career, but very unhappy with life at home.

We don’t really know what happened, but either she was bored with Steve or was just swooned by Sylvester, but either way she was receiving the majority of her affections from outside the boundaries of her white picket fence.

Sylvester was a sly cat.  He convinced Matilda that she deserved a better life and he was the one to provide that for her.  Together they devised a scheme to boost their own nest egg by depriving Steve of his lifetime of hard work.

Once the timing was right, Matilda registered a complaint with the police department against Steve for spousal abuse (completely false charges) and shortly thereafter filed for divorce under those grounds.  Matilda was a great actress and the police took the bait – hook, line and sinker.

Steve was arrested and hauled off to county jail.  He was held without bond because Matilda convinced the court that if released he would unleash his violent urges in retaliation against her and the children.

During Steve’s ‘vacation’, Matilda maxed out each and every credit card they held jointly.  Most of them were just cards tied to Steve’s credit, with Matilda as a secondary card holder.  She also wiped out their joint bank accounts and in the divorce settlement, Matilda was awarded the house, the cars, and an alimony payment that was 75% of Steve’s previous income.

I say previous income, because as you can imagine once Steve was in county lock up, his old job fired him.  After all, who wants a wife-beating criminal on the payroll?

In just a matter of a few months, Steve went from a happy husband and father with a sizable savings account, great job and nice house to an unemployed, penniless criminal that cannot see his own children and more debt than he can ever possibly pay off.

I am certain many of you are saying to yourself, “Nice stories, but that kind of thing would never happen to me.”  I can tell you that Mike and Steve said the same thing right up until the time it was too late.

Back to the original questions, “Why would you ever want or need an offshore bank account?”  For Mike and Steve, an offshore bank account held in a private offshore company name would have been an excellent insurance policy against the problems that eventually befell them.

Mike could have set up an offshore Seychelles IBC and opened an offshore bank account in the company name to use for his savings account.

This offshore savings account could have been the nest egg he kept outside of the reach of the US court system allowing him a financial backdoor in the unlikely event that he is ever a victim of identity theft.

Steve could have done the same thing setting up a Cook Islands LLC and offshore bank account for his savings and investment portfolio.

This offshore bank and brokerage account could have been Steve’s “Global Escape Hatch” in the unlikely event that his wife went off the deep end with Sylvester the cat.

These are but just two stories I could give out of countless tales from people who thought, “This would never happen to me,” until it did in fact happen to them and they wished they had already set up an offshore company and offshore bank account as a means of financial insurance.

I wrote a recent article titled, “Svetlana Takes Victor to the Cleaners” that discusses a unique opportunity to set up an offshore Seychelles IBC and European bank account.  This is a very low cost way to begin setting up your own asset protection plan.

Call today for your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.  Until next week, live well.

In future articles I will discuss some of the opportunities that arose from these meetings, but in the meantime, if you have interest in 2^nd passport opportunities, anonymous merchant account services, or private offshore banking and money management services, please send me an email and we can schedule a call to discuss your personal situation.

For those of you not aware, I now host a weekly radio show every Monday from 3-4pm EST on the Overseas Radio Network.  My show title is, “Global Escape Hatch”.  On the show we will discuss various topics ranging from privacy issues, offshore banking, taxation, investments, economics and more.

This week on “Global Escape Hatch”, my guest was a good friend of mine, Roger Arnold.  Roger is the chief economist for ALM Advisors, Inc. – a CA money management firm specializing in income portfolios.  He is also an economics columnist for The Street and has previously hosted his own nationally syndicated radio show called, “The Roger Arnold Show” for 15 years.

On the show this week Roger and I discussed the current state of the world economy and where he thinks things are headed.  He has been very prescient in the past having predicted the housing market crash and the following stock market tumble.  Below you will find the interview from the radio show.

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Bobby – What do you think is the general direction for global economic activity?

Roger – The US and Europe will continue to slow with both heading into a recession.

Bobby – Where do you see interest rates heading over the next couple of years?

Roger – The long yields in Germany and the US will converge with Japan with 10 year sovereign yields at about 1%, 30 year sovereigns at 2%, and 30 year fixed mortgages in the US at 3%.

Bobby – What about oil and gold?

Roger – Oil and gold could drop by as much as 50% before the end of 2012 as the global recession takes hold – they won’t stay there long and will provide the buying opportunity of the decade if not longer, especially for gold.

Bobby – What about US equities?

Roger – The S&P500 could drop by 30-50% because of the steepness and depth of the recession.  It may catch investors and traders unprepared.

Bobby – What about the Euro, does it survive long term?

Roger – The Germans, Brussels and the ECB are now committed to it.  They are very late in the acting, but the ECB will commence a quantitative easing program similar to the US Fed’s this year.  Yes, I think the Euro survives.

Bobby – What do you think will be the impact of the ECB printing Euros on the global economy?

Roger – The greatest beneficiary of the ECB printing Euros will be the eastern member states; Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, etc.  The eastern states rely on exports to the US for about 3 times as much of their GDP as do the western member states – so a falling Euro is a real benefit to them.  It makes their goods less expensive in the US and boosts their exports.

Bobby – Who is hurt by the falling Euro and the ECB printing?

Roger – Two main areas hurt by it are Chinese exporters to the US and US exporters to Europe.  Chinese exports to the US will become relatively more expensive versus European exports.  Some manufacturers will even switch from China to Eastern Europe.

Bobby – Could China choose to float their currency to compete against a falling Euro?

Roger – Probably not, but maybe.  We are watching very closely.  If history repeats itself, China will become increasingly antagonistic toward foreign governments and investors causing investors to flee China.  It could be disastrous for them.

Bobby – It seems you are fairly gloom and doom for the short term at least.  With interest rates so low, US equities at risk, gold and oil setting up for a fall, where should someone place their money these days?  Maybe you can offer me and my readers 5 or 6 ideas on how to make money in this environment.

Roger – I have only one investment suggestion right now.  Cash.  Short term money market accounts and cold, hard cash.  Just sit and wait for the fall.  The global recession is already underway and it will cause a rush to safety, which means US or German treasury bonds.  Whether or not you feel these are good investments is irrelevant.  When there is a recession and fear in the marketplace, people are ‘risk-off’ and go to cash and treasuries.  Be patient and wait for the drop.  You will likely see ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ investment opportunities very soon.

Bobby – Thanks for your time Roger.

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There you have it folks.  I don’t necessarily agree with everything Roger is saying here, but he has been very good at predicting this type of thing and it is very possible he will be right this time.

The main point is that right now is a very difficult time to make a decent return on your investment.  As Roger told me, he is now focusing on a return of investment instead of a return on investment for his clients at ALM Advisors.

From my perspective, I wouldn’t recommend liquidating your entire portfolio, but I would certainly put in some automatic trailing stop losses or buy some protective puts as insurance.  In addition, you may want to consider keeping a lot of cash in various currencies like Canadian dollars, Australian dollars, or Norwegian kroners as a way to hedge your country risk.

If you are interested in joining me – and 40 other radio show hosts – on the Overseas Radio Network, please click the link below to register for your free trial subscription.

Overseas Radio Network – “Global Escape Hatch”

Call today for your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.  Until next week, live well.

These 2 sub-sections deal with the detention of terrorism suspects.  The NDAA grants the president the authority to detain anyone, “who was part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners,” or anyone who commits a “belligerent act” against the U.S. or its allies, “without trial, until the end of the hostilities granted by the authorization for use of military force.”

The big controversy here is that the 2012 NDAA gives the president the authority to indefinitely detain American citizens without trial or even any proof of wrongdoing.  Go back and reread the previous paragraph and piece the puzzle together.

The president now has the power to use military force to detain American citizens indefinitely without trial for committing a “belligerent act”.  If I could embed a music file here it would be – “dom, dom, dom…”

Folks, wake up and smell the gun powder.  The United States of America is rapidly becoming the United Socialist States of Amerika.  Yes, I am well aware this is not a popular viewpoint and am 100% certain there will be lots of hate mail and notifications of un-subscribers in my inbox Thursday afternoon.

For many of you though, I am certain you are gradually (or possibly rapidly) awakening to the reality.  While I don’t agree with the OWS crowd, they are right to be angry with the current state of affairs in the US.

Some people claim the right thing is to stay and fight the good fight.  My question to you is how long will that take?  Are you willing to wait 5 years?  10?  30?  More power to ya…

We could also discuss the new FATCA (foreign account tax compliance act) that takes effect in 2013.  This little gem was slipped in to the HIRE (hiring incentives to restore employment) act as a means to track down and punish offshore tax cheats.

In reality it was created to shackle you and your money to a broke nation run by politicians who have no intellectual ability or desire to maintain sound fiscal policies.

If you are unfamiliar with the details, you can read my article over on EscapeWealth to learn more.

Essentially though what you need to know is this piece of legislation is going to make it much more difficult and costly for you to bank, invest, or do business offshore.

These laws are created for the sole purpose of controlling the citizenry; controlling your movement, your capital, and ultimately your tax dollars.  Ironically the unintended consequences will produce the exact opposite effect.

Obviously there will be many sheeple that remain holding fast to the belief that the ship can be righted, but the most productive citizens will move some or all of their business and investment assets to a friendlier environment.  Some will even move their own ass to a friendlier environment.

This will only serve to increase the velocity of the downward spiral.  Over the past couple of years the number of people moving out of the US has increased dramatically – even according the US Dept. of State’s own records.  While this number still remains relatively low, it only takes a few of the next Steve Jobs’, Bill Gates’, or Sam Walton’s to have a huge impact on the economy.

How would the current business landscape look if only these 3 visionaries were born in Sweden or Australia?  Would the US still have a dominant world position?

I’ve spent the last several days on a road trip through several Eastern European countries.  I’ve been in Lithuania, Ukraine, Serbia and now Bulgaria.  Tonight I had dinner at an amazing traditional Bulgarian restaurant and the tab for a 3 course meal for 5 came to be a whopping $34, including service charge.  The same mean in Austin, TX would have been over $100, minimum.

The income tax rate is a flat 10% and you can earn 8% on a 12 month CD at a major bank.  Sofia is a very nice city and there are beautiful mountains with great skiing nearby as well as exceptional beaches on the Black Sea just a few hours away.

Tomorrow I will be in Hungary for a few days then on to Poland.  With the exception of Ukraine, I could easily live very well in any of these countries.  Ironically many of these are former soviet countries with long histories of communism but they have somehow broken away from that mold while the western world is falling into the same trap they escaped from.

I am not proposing that you pack up and move to Bulgaria or Serbia per se, but you may want to consider finding your own perfect haven sooner rather than later.

With US politicians bankrupting the country, inflation driving up the cost of living and some of the highest tax rates in the world (at least for producers), now may be the ideal time to craft your own ‘Global Escape Hatch’.

Regardless of your reason for celebrating, I encourage you to take some time away from the pressures of your job or business to spend with family and friends and to remember the things that are important in life.  And of course, eat yourself into oblivion as this is a winter holiday requirement.

I want to keep this issue short and sweet and address two things I am very excited about.  The first item of interest is the launch of the Overseas Radio Network.

A few months ago I was asked if I wanted to have my own weekly radio show.  Having no radio experience whatsoever, I was a bit skeptical, but agreed to discuss the possibility.  The more we talked about it, the more excited I became.

The Overseas Radio Network is a brand new online program with 40 radio show hosts from around the world.  The shows have some pretty unique titles with incredibly qualified hosts.  Some of them are;

• Global Escape Hatch – yours truly
• IRA Choices – Thomas Phelan
• Food Pilgrimage – Sage Russell
• Girls Guide to Paris – Doni Belau
• Mike’s Gringo Life in Nicaragua – Mike Cobb
• Live and Invest Overseas – Kathleen Peddicord and Lief Simon
• Investment Postcards – Prieur du Plessis
• Expert Expat – Robert Culpepper
• Escape to Mexico – Henry Altman
• Truth and Lies – David Finzer
• Wine Line – Robert Scott
• Yachts: The Perfect Escape Vehicle – Gary Fretz

This is just a few on the schedule, but the others are equally as unique and interesting with very qualified experts in their respective field.  Personally I feel this is an exciting endeavor as I get to be part of a group of like-minded experts discussing issues that are important to us and spreading the word about living an extraordinary life.

For you, this is a fantastic opportunity to listen and interact with each one of us on a weekly basis and get your most pressing questions answered.  Each and every one of us will be hosting a live radio show giving callers the ability to dial in and ask questions about any topic they wish.

Many of you subscribe to my newsletter because you are interested in protecting your assets and have an interest in offshore investments and internationalizing your life.  But many of you are still sitting on the fence and have yet to make the leap.

The Overseas Radio Network presents you with a unique opportunity to engage myself or any of the other show hosts directly and get your questions answered.

Do you want to know how to privately move assets offshore?  Interested in moving abroad but not sure how you would educate your kids in a foreign land?  Does the idea of living in Mexico excite you but you fear the news headlines and think the country is entangled in a drug war?  Do you want or need a 2^nd passport?

Everyone one of the radio show hosts have lived in at least one country outside of their birthplace.  Most of have lived in several places and have travelled extensively around the world.  Each one of us has tackled many of the obstacles that you feel are holding you back.  You can easily tune in to your show of choice (preferably to mine every Monday from 3-4pm EST) and ask the most pressing questions.

The show has its official launch in mid-January.  If you are interesting in learning more about the Overseas Radio Network and want to be updated with information regarding the show hosts, schedule, call in numbers and other information please click the link below.

Overseas Radio Network
Escape – Retire – Live

The last item that may be of interest to many of you is opening an offshore private bank account in Europe without the need for a personal visit.  Many of you may be aware that opening an offshore bank account is becoming increasingly difficult with countries around the world cracking down on ‘tax cheats’ and ‘criminals’ in an attempt to regain control of the world’s financial system and tax you into oblivion.

Earlier this week I had a face-to-face meeting with a private bank that I feel is an excellent option for many of you looking to establish your own ‘Global Escape Hatch’.  This bank has many benefits to offer including;

• Low set up cost
• Low fees
• No minimum deposit
• Private debit card
• Online brokerage account with stock and derivative trading on many world exchanges
• Wealth management services
• Multi-currency account with 30 different currency options
• No account reporting requirements to your home country
• 2.5-3% interest on cash accounts
• Deposit guarantee of 100,000 Euros
• Very safe bank with 17% capital adequacy ratio and 58% liquidity ratio
• Zero toxic mortgages on the balance sheet
• No branches or offices within the US

The preferred method for opening the account is through an offshore company.  This gives you the utmost privacy and eases the account opening process.  We can assist clients opening an offshore company in Seychelles or Belize (and others) to facilitate the account opening.

With the new FATCA rules enacted as part of the HIRE act in 2010, opening an offshore bank account will get much more difficult for Americans beginning in 2013.  Having an offshore bank account is one of the most important steps you should take in asset protection planning.  I would encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity while you still can.  No one knows how much longer it will remain possible for Americans to open an offshore bank account.

Call today for your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.  Until next week, live well.

This week I felt it would be important to address the topic, “What is Asset Protection?”  While you clearly have some idea what is involved in asset protection planning, I frequently get this question or some derivation thereof.

The quick and simple answer is that asset protection is a means of protecting your assets from future potential creditors or claimants.  From this perspective, a better definition may be that asset protection is a systemic approach to pre-litigation planning to deter lawsuits and encourage out-of-court settlements.

Another explanation may be that asset protection planning involves minimizing your personal and financial risks.  At Global Wealth Protection, we accomplish this with a 2 step process;

1. Create a veil of privacy for you and your assets
2. Create legal structures to segregate you from your assets while maintaining maximum control

By doing these 2 steps, we have accomplished the goal of making you appear unattractive to potential future creditors and claimants as well as provided you with the legal protections for those assets in the event that your veil of privacy is pierced.

Of course many people believe that they are not a target for litigation.  I have talked to enough people (read about  Susan and Frank – “Oh Good, the Government is Here to Help”), to know that lawsuits can come from nearly any source; tenants, credit card companies, friends, family, neighbors, contractors, coworkers, employers, employees, customers, and the list goes on and on.

There are many tools that can be used in asset protection planning.  One of the most basic tools is a Wyoming Limited Liability company (LLC).  A properly structured Wyoming LLC can offer you privacy (ownership is not disclosed to the state) and legal protections (Wyoming does not allow foreclosure of business assets) for your real estate, investment portfolios, private business interests, intellectual property, or nearly any other category of valuable asset.

Land trusts when combined with one or more Wyoming LLC’s can also be a very cost effective structure for protecting your real estate assets.  I work with many real estate investors who like this method as it offers them complete anonymity as well as legal asset protection from potential creditors.

I wrote a newsletter a couple of weeks ago titled, “Protect Your Assets Like the Uber-Rich” that addressed the specific topic of real estate asset protection.  After writing this article I had a couple of calls from friends of mine who are real estate investment professionals.  One has been in the business for over 10 years and another for over 30 years and both of them said this was the only method they use for protecting their real estate assets.

I am a firm believer in diversification of your assets among various investment categories as well as geographical diversification, or what I call ‘geo-arbitrage’.  This is effectively a ‘don’t put your eggs in one basket’ strategy from a global viewpoint.  I highly encourage clients to implement an offshore strategy as part of their asset protection planning.

At a minimum, clients should have an offshore bank account with some funds set aside for a rainy day.  You can grow your offshore presence with precious metals storage, brokerage accounts, or even managed accounts for the wealthier individuals.  The offshore world is the ideal scenario for web-based entrepreneurs.

For our online entrepreneur clients, we typically help them establish a Seychelles or Belize offshore company, offshore bank account, and offshore merchant account.  This gives online entrepreneurs an excellent opportunity to diversify geographically as well as lower his cost of doing business.

For those of you not up to date on US news, the FATCA requirements that are part of the HIRE act will make it much more difficult to set up and maintain offshore bank accounts and investments after 2013.  You have a very short window of opportunity to escape the draconian reporting and withholding requirements and establish your own offshore asset protection plan.

For those of you interested in developing your own private offshore asset protection plan, I can work with you one-on-one to formulate a strategy that works for your specific situation.

I will summarize by saying the 2 biggest mistakes people make are; 1- assuming they aren’t wealthy enough to need asset protection planning, and 2- waiting until it’s too late.

If you have a level of wealth that you cannot afford to lose, you need to minimize your risk.  And you need to do it before you have already been sued.  It will be much easier and cheaper to do it before it becomes necessary.

Call today to schedule your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.  Until next week, live well.

Now is the Time to Develop your own Asset Protection Plan Before it’s too Late

This week I want to stress the importance of developing your own asset protection plan now as opposed to later when it can potentially be too late.  In last week’s article, “Svetlana Takes Victor to the Cleaners”, we discussed Victor’s problems and how they could have been avoided if he had set the structure in place before his divorce.

For the past couple of days, I have been working with 2 clients who also wished they had a properly structured asset protection plan in place before they were sued.  I won’t get into the details, but Susan and Frank now have a $1.4M judgment against them in relation to a real estate deal that unexpectedly went bad.

I got the call earlier this week from Susan who explained the issues to me.  Basically there were some major, undisclosed problems with the property as well as partnership issues.  This lead to a default and foreclosure on the property giving them a total loss of several hundred thousand dollars.

Now Susan and Frank are looking at a $1.4M judgment which will completely bankrupt them both.  They had been working with lawyers who misguided them through this process and gave them bad advice.  Of course the lawyers can walk away happily with their fees while Susan and Frank are looking at financial destruction.

All hope is not lost here as we are working on an asset protection plan to help them salvage some of their wealth, but this would have been much easier, cheaper, and less risky had it been done one year ago.  Of course one year ago, Susan and Frank thought they were operating risk free.  Are you operating risk free?  Are you sure?

Of course potential future litigation is but one threat to your wealth.  In reality, the government is most likely your biggest threat.

Just this week, an article by Federal News Radio titled, “Library of Congress to Receive Entire Twitter Archive” was published discussing Twitter’s decision to release all old Tweets from all public users.

The privacy of the American people is rapidly deteriorating.  From last week’s article you may remember that the Senate recently passed a bill allowing the military to detain and imprison American citizens both in the US and abroad without trial for ‘suspicious activity’.

Now the Federal government is going to be privy to all of your Tweets including all of the previous years’ messages.  At what point does this madness end?

Much like the ‘war on drugs’ and the ‘war on terror’, these new measures are sold to the public with the message of protection of the American people.  In reality, it is nothing more than another power grab meant to criminalize normal behavior allowing the government to enslave and impoverish the American people while the ruling class (politicians) gets to live high on the hog.

This destruction of privacy allows the government another way to tap into your private and business communications looking for signs of ‘suspicious’ activity.  Quite frankly, if you follow me on Twitter (@gwpro) you have read articles about offshore banking, offshore companies, tax minimization and other topics that could already be construed as ‘suspicious activity’.

Considering the vagueness of the ‘destruction of privacy agenda’, who’s to say that you aren’t already being watched?  Normally I try to be positive and optimistic about the future, but this news story about Twitter really scares me.

I hope you don’t just dismiss this and think, “Oh good, the government is here to help”.  Now is the time to develop your own offshore asset protection plan.  At a minimum, you need to have an offshore bank account.  This would allow you to keep a portion of your cash outside the reach of US jurisdiction.

Consider this your starter kit towards developing your own ‘Escape Hatch’.  If you are unaware, you should know that under the Patriot Act, the government has the ability to freeze all of your US bank accounts without due process or even charging you with a crime for nothing more than ‘suspicious activity’.

Of course, it’s highly unlikely that any of you would have concern over this, but it only takes one wrong move and voila, you lose access to your money.  Considering there is no downside to having an offshore bank account, this is an easy low-cost way to begin your own offshore asset protection plan.

Contact us today to schedule your free 30 minute asset protection consultation

Asset Protection Planning Could Have Saved Victor a lot of Trouble

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend of mine about offshore asset protection planning and the PT lifestyle.  He didn’t understand why anyone would want or need a 2^nd passport, a Seychelles company (IBC), or offshore bank account.

Understandably, this is a common concern for many people, and you may not know the reason for establishing this type of financial and life planning.  Clearly, the majority of you reading this understand the need or else you probably wouldn’t be reading my newsletter, but many of you are still reluctant to pull the trigger.

There are many reasons one may consider this type of offshore asset protection planning, but ultimately they all come down to privacy and wealth preservation.

I recently had a call from a guy; let’s call him Victor, who had been through a nasty divorce.  Like many people over the past few years, Victor had been significantly impacted by the current economic situation in the US.

Before 2008, Victor earned a fairly large income well into the mid 6 figures.  He had a nice, big house, expensive cars, country club membership, and all the other trappings of wealth that keep you competitive with your neighbors.  He also had a wife; let’s call her Svetlana, who very much enjoyed the expensive lifestyle.

Fast forward to 2011.  Victor’s business took a dramatic hit (real estate), as did his income.  He had to liquidate many of these symbols of wealth and cut back expenses.  He had to get a job, but now earns around $80,000 per year.  Luckily, Victor was wise enough to save some money during the boom times as well as the cash he got from selling his expensive house and toys.

Unfortunately, Svetlana was just not willing to accept this reduced standard of living.  She was very unhappy now that she was unable to have expensive 3 martini lunches with her gal pals, tennis lessons, or free-for-all shopping trips on a weekly basis.

To cut to the chase, Svetlana left Victor and took him to court for alimony support.  In court, the judge awarded Svetlana 50% of all marital assets, which Victor was fine with.  But the kicker was when the judge ordered Victor to pay $8000 per month in alimony to poor, little Svetlana.

Remember, Victor didn’t even earn that much.  Regardless, the judge didn’t believe Victor’s hard case story and somehow figured he could find a way to earn the difference.  Now he is in a difficult situation, both from a financial and personal perspective.

Victor cannot afford to pay, but if he doesn’t he risks going to jail.  His assets will be immediately frozen and his ability to work will be cut off thus digging him even deeper in the hole with his ex-wife.

Victor does have a few options here, but unfortunately his situation would have been much better had he taken the precautions before his assets and his freedom were at risk.

If Victor had done some very basic asset protection planning like setting up a Seychelles company (IBC) and offshore bank account, he could have moved his liquid assets outside of the jurisdiction of the US court system.  This would have given him a financial ‘escape hatch’ and prevented the judge from freezing his assets.

Keep in mind, offshore jurisdictions like Seychelles respect your privacy and do not recognize foreign judgments except in very rare, extreme cases.  In other words, your Seychelles company (IBC) and offshore bank account would be completely safe and outside the reach of poor, little Svetlana.

Another step Victor could have taken was to establish residency and/or citizenship in a foreign country which would have given him the ability to leave the US for the new country of residence and potentially get a passport.

While this may seem extreme for someone like Victor during his happily married, and much wealthier years, there are also various other benefits for establishing residency and/or citizenship in another country aside from the ability to run and hide from a future, potentially vicious ex-wife.

Please keep in mind, I illustrate Victor’s dire situation merely as an example of one reason why someone may want to seriously consider offshore asset protection planning and foreign residency and/or citizenship.

I am not advocating that anyone shirk their marital responsibilities, but in Victor’s case he is facing serious, long term negative consequences because he did not take necessary precautions to mitigate his risk.

For those of you that disagree with me and feel that your privacy is still intact in the US, take a look at the following articles and associated videos;

“Senate Moves to Allow Military to Intern Americans without Trial”

“DHS Video Portrays Average Americans as Terrorists”

“Senators Demand the Military Lock Up of American Citizens”

“License Plate Readers:  A Useful Tool for Police Comes with Privacy Concerns”

These issues are becoming more and more prevalent every day.

You can now be spied on, have your asset seized, and be imprisoned for the mere appearance of guilt.  The rule of law is no longer a necessity and innocent until proven guilty is no longer a reality.

Contact us today to schedule your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.

Time for a Golden Turkey – Asset Protection Planning

First of all, I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American readers.  I hope you all have a very enjoyable holiday filled with friends, family and tryptophan induced comas.

I will keep this newsletter short and sweet.  Quite frankly there are probably only 3 of you reading it anyway while the rest of you are eating pecan pie and watching football on the couch.  So there’s not much use in spending a lot of time wowing you with my mediocre writing ability.

Thanks to those of you that correctly submitted your CV last week for the job posting.  I am reviewing all of the submissions and will contact you if there seems to be a possible fit.

This past week has been exceptionally busy as we have been in the middle of a long needed website upgrade.  As I mentioned in a previous newsletter, the old website was cutting edge…in the ‘90s.

It also did not truly reflect our service offerings.  I would appreciate it if you would please visit the website and give me any feedback, good or bad, on what you see.  The entire site has been redesigned as well as updated services and bio pages.

The site still does not reflect all service offerings, but frankly, there are some things I’m not willing to advertise.

I have had the pleasure over the past couple of weeks of speaking to several PT’s.  For those of you unaware of what this means, a PT stands for perpetual traveler or perpetual tourist.  Essentially this is more of a mindset and a lifestyle than any concrete life plan.

A PT lives his life in a very peaceful, low key manner and plants multiple flags to ensure his or her freedom.  You have read my newsletters many times about planting multiple flags, or what I call geo-arbitrage.

Basically this means arranging your life in such a way that you have minimized your financial and personal risk with multiple passports, residency outside of your  home country, investments in one country, business in another country, bank accounts in another country, etc.

Certainly this seems to be very James Bondish and maybe even a bit overwhelming, but in reality it is not as difficult as it sounds and can be a very rewarding lifestyle.

Some of you are probably aware of these tactics and clearly many of you are living this lifestyle already while others of you are very curious, but skeptical.  My recommendation to you is to go one step at a time.

The first step I recommend is to have an offshore bank account.  This gives you a bit of financial security knowing a portion of your savings are outside of the US legal system.  There are way too many examples of people having their accounts frozen or seized for no good reason.

One unique opportunity I have found is to set up an account with GoldMoney.  While this is not a traditional cash bank account, it nonetheless offers a great first step towards your geo-arbitrage strategy.

If you have been reading my newsletters for awhile now (see; ‘Unreportable Real Estate and Precious Metals’), you will know that offshore precious metals need not be reported to the US government unlike bank accounts over $10,000.

GoldMoney was founded by James Turk and his son Geoff in 2001 and held the patents for the use of gold as an electronic currency.   This gives account holders the unique ability to pay and receive payments with goldgrams giving you complete privacy of financial transactions.

GoldMoney provides a secure storage of physical metals (not paper gold like with ETF’s) in Zurich, London, and Hong Kong.  You can take delivery of your precious metals at any time.

There are many options available for holding precious metals, but few offer the same benefits as GoldMoney with the same ease of account set up.

Contact us today to schedule your free 30 minute asset protection consultation.