| The Sovereign Society - Some of the world's
best known investment & privacy advisors have teamed up to provide
advice on asset protection. Having the Sovereign Society on your
side is like having the world's best investment advisor multiplied.
A perfect concept from an excellent team. |
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| Index
of Sovereign Society Articles |
| Six Important Reasons You Should
Own Non-U.S. Investments In Your Retirement Plan |
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| Contrary to what you
may have been told by your broker or banker, you can own almost any U.S.
or non-U.S. investment in your retirement plan, including offshore mutual
funds and virtually any kind of foreign real estate. |
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| Imagine owning an exotic
beachfront retirement home on a lush tropical island—purchased with the
tax-deferred dollars you have been saving. Add to that the salary your
retirement plan will pay you to manage the property. The icing on the cake
is the freedom from the worries that plague most Americans when they think
about their dwindling retirement plan assets. |
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| Most of these opportunities
are never made available to the average U.S. citizen—few people aside from
the ultra-wealthy have ever even known of their existence. Trust me, your
regular U.S. broker will never tell you these opportunities exist, probably
because he’s simply unaware of them himself. |
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| Why Take Your Retirement
Plan Offshore? |
| 1. Investment diversification.
Many of the world’s best investments and money managers will not do business
with U.S. citizens directly. They have simply made the choice that it is
easier to do business with the rest of the world than to comply with the
draconian U.S. rules. |
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| 2. Higher returns.
There are opportunities in the traditional financial markets, such as offshore
mutual funds and London-traded investment trusts with much higher returns
then are generally available in U.S. markets. For example, the BFS Income
and Growth Fund returned 75% over the last year; and the Jupiter Financial
Fund has a one-year return of 57.1%! These "split capital" trusts aren’t
normally available to U.S. investors. |
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| 3. Currency diversification.
Investors looking to stabilize their portfolios can protect their wealth
against the falling U.S. dollar by simply holding other currencies (like
Japanese yen or Swiss francs). And opportunities in foreign currencies
are plentiful—like earning nearly 20% this year on the declining dollar
versus the euro. |
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| 4. "Insurance" from closure
of U.S. securities markets. We all learned the need to have part of our
assets outside of the United States when our markets were shut down for
five full trading days following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
But although U.S. markets were closed, individuals with foreign accounts
were able to trade securities on foreign exchanges. |
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| 5. Asset protection. All
types of retirement plans have come under attack in the courts. If a creditor
gets a judgment against a "qualified plan" that’s not properly administered,
or a "non-qualified plan" in a state where such plans aren’t protected,
the judgment is easily enforced.14 In contrast, if you invest your retirement
plan in a suitable jurisdiction—Switzerland, for instance—it can be configured
to be essentially judgment-proof. |
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6. Financial privacy.
Many people want protection from the prying eyes of business partners,
estranged family members and identity thieves surfing the Internet. And
financial privacy can be the best protection against frivolous lawsuits
that end with big judgments—if you do not appear to have enough assets
to justify the time and expense of an attack in an attorney’s mind, he
will not view you as a target. Simply put, assets you place "offshore"
are off the domestic asset tracking "radar screen."
What investments can your retirement
plan make offshore? Almost anything! The only restrictions that apply are
against most collectibles and some types of insurance. Amazingly, most
investment restrictions people have run into are imposed not by legislation,
but by the custodian or plan administrator. |
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| For instance, are you interested
in international real estate? Well, your IRA or pension plan can own raw
land, condos, office buildings, single or multi-family homes, apartment
buildings and improved land, so long as the real estate is not for your
current personal use. |
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| How about offshore funds?
Most offshore funds won’t sell directly to U.S. investors, and even if
they did, the U.S. tax consequences of owning most offshore funds can be
punitive—unless you purchase them through your IRA or pension plan. |
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| For many investors, their
retirement plans have become one of, if not, the largest asset they have.
Clearly, it is vitally important to have these assets in a position where
they can provide access to the global trading markets, the world’s best
investments and money managers and added asset protection. I urge you to
act now while you are still able. |
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| How to Turn Your Retirement
Plan Into an Offshore Money Machine |
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| If you would like to know more about
how to legally invest retirement plan assets offshore, The Sovereign Society
is about to publish The Retirement Plan Protection Manual, by Larry Grossman.
This manual includes a comprehensive discussion of the threats retirement
plans face; evaluation of pertinent court cases demonstrating successful
attacks on retirement plans; and a copy of those portions of the Internal
Revenue Code governing retirement plans. |
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| Additionally, the manual
includes step-by-step instructions to re-domicile your retirement plan
offshore in a legal and tax-compliant manner. This is critically necessary
to ensure you do not accidentally trigger an early distribution. There
have been advisors and investors who have tried to do this on their own
and disqualified their plans inadvertently. You must obtain The Retirement
Plan Protection Manual to ensure your transfer is done correctly. For more
information, please refer to http://www.sovereignsociety.com
and to upcoming broadcasts of The Sovereign Society Offshore A-Letter for
announcements of its availability. |
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