Yes, you should leave your base country and set up the company yourself. You need to establish business contacts by looking people in the eye. If a lawyer in another country says you don’t need to come there, he may be legally correct. Realistically — are you willing to trust your future to a promise from a slick salesman? It took a lot of work to build your asset base, don’t risk it on a hunch.
The reason you want an offshore company is to protect yourself and expand your world wide opportunities. That’s best done by getting off your easy chair and flying to the next country you will add to your own countries portfolio. If your goal is offshore asset protection you need to get eyeball to eyeball with a personally well researched service provider.
The two major distinctions in the form of offshore company you will select are between standard corporations with which you are familiar, and a less known form available in many countries. With Bearer shares ownership is not recorded on a roster in the head office but is evidenced by who holds the certificates of ownership. A bearer shares corporation has many advantages in ownership transference, and other less obvious distinctions. Bearer shares have an international flavor. Anyone can display an ownership coupon and collect accrued dividends. Corporate control is tied to the physical holders of shares.
If distinctions and benefits of standard or bearer incorporation are not yet apparent, travel to your choices of destinations and seek clarity. First find competent counsel that offers offshore services (following guidelines in that article). You want to understand what vehicles are available in each country, and of those choices which best suit your needs. Corporations, trusts, foundations, and varying combinations may be available. The choices can be bewildering if you try to understand everything available everywhere. Laws change, some countries legal structures are more stable than others, some are subject to more pressure from Big Brother than others.
For instance Panama has many powerful legal tools available. Their choices of entities and vehicles for asset management are bewildering at first glance. For many Panama is a logical choice as a place to establish their first offshore company. However:
Panama is under heavy pressure from the international big tax community. Bring recognized as a creative financial center in a reactive political world makes them a visible target. Panama seems willing to agree with providing the US IRS with information if a delayed free trade agreement is enacted. The current US administration is more interested in appeasing it’s Union Bosses than promoting open trade that would benefit everyone. How will this “shake out?” For an American citizen that properly reports their income for taxes – it won’t make a difference.
Life is much safer and less worrisome if you obey the law (even when the laws are unjust). For that reason we recommend obeying laws, and if you feel it’s needed, severing ties with tyrannies, despotisms, and over zealous extenders of their power. That of course will require some careful and well guided planning. You don’t want your personal sovereignty, evidenced by your inalienable human rights, crushed between two sovereign nation states. In fact one national sovereignty alone can crush you if they ignore their own laws yet hold to their law as above human rights. That puts your interests as a prize in a two person race. It might be time to escape.
Let’s sum this up. To protect your assets you will benefit from pursuing offshore company formation. The waters of international service providers are swarming with highly competent crooks and government informants. You therefore need competent consultants that you can trust to guide you. They exist, we can help, or you can go seek them out yourself. Don’t just respond to an enticing advertisement or web page.
Your search will involve some work on your part, but that’s better than ending up broke after years of enduring a law suit – or suits. Once one lawyer files, others may assume you are a moneyed target. Sharks are attracted to blood in the water. But that’s in your home waters. A properly structured offshore company is like an infinity swimming pool with a view of the ocean, and a wait staff to bring you drinks.
Josh Morph