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15 Minutes to Your Financial Freedom
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Vol. 8 No. 238 |
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In Today's Letter:
Comment: 15 Minutes to Financial Freedom
Offshore: Wishful Thinking in Willemstad
Sovereignty: Mr. Friedman on Tax Cuts
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You're Just 15 Minutes Away
from Financial Freedom
Today's comment is by Erika Nolan, Founding Publisher and Executive Director of The Sovereign Society.
Dear A-Letter Reader,
I haven't been sleeping well lately - I've had a lot on my mind.
As many of you know, our dear friend and editor, Bob Bauman has been under the weather since his operation in late October...he's recovering, but it's slow going for him. When you have someone close to you experience an unexpected illness, you start to reconsider key things in your life. I know I have - I'm thinking about my long-term financial goals and planning for my daughter's future. I realize there are a few key financial matters I need to resolve in the coming year.
I am sure you do too. Maybe you wake up wondering about your retirement plan. Have you saved enough? Are you properly diversified? Do you feel confident in your investment choices? Or, like me, do you wonder if your children will ever be truly financially secure? What type of legacy will you leave for them and your spouse?
This often leads us to other worries....will our financial nest egg be worth much if the U.S. dollar's purchasing power continues to erode? And what if something happens before then? Like our business goes south...or we end up in a bogus lawsuit and lawyers are figuring out how to pocket your wealth. What will we do then?
I always say that no one wakes up in the morning and decides they need to "go offshore." Rather, they wake up and decide they need to protect their assets...they need to grow their wealth...they need to provide for their loved ones. Those are real concerns for people like us.
So I'm going to offer you a suggestion - and it's an easy one.
Don't spend another minute trying to understand offshore trusts. Or trying to choose between Switzerland, Hong Kong, and Panama....or comparing a Swiss annuity to a Family Foundation. Rather, take about 15 minutes of your time right now and make a detailed list of all of your financial goals.
Ask yourself: what do I want to achieve? Are you more interested in protecting your wealth or achieving reliable double digit gains from your investments? (If you are like me, you want both.) Do you want to ensure you have the proper retirement plan for your personal situation or are you more concerned with leaving a legacy for your family by creating a rock solid estate plan? If you're drawing a blank, here are some scenarios to get you started (courtesy of our recent Offshore Advantage Seminar held earlier this month.):
- Are you worried about protecting your assets and avoiding claims? Are you having trouble with difficult business associates, dealing with the threat of lawsuits, or perhaps your spouse and children?
- Is it just money? Is your main goal to increase the value of your investments? And if so, what purpose will you use those assets for...retirement, supplemental income, savings , etc.?
- Does the lack of financial and personal privacy in the U.S. bother you?
- Have you been putting off creating a formal estate plan for your spouse and heirs, one that will guarantee their secure future should anything happen to you? (It's always wise to be prepared for the inevitable and unforeseen.)
- Are you worried that you won't have enough money for your retirement?
Once you have your list, prioritize it. You now have a valuable document in your hands - you should use this as your personal roadmap to help you in your offshore journey. Armed with your goals, you can start to review the various solutions that can be found offshore and select the one that's most appropriate for your needs. Maybe it's setting up an offshore bank account...or establishing an offshore trust. The best way to move through your list is to choose only one goal at a time and stick with it until it's accomplished.
You can always scan The Sovereign Society website for information about how to accomplish that goal. (www.sovereignsociety.com ) And, as a member of The Society, we are happy to assist you.
Remember, 2006 is almost over. Ask yourself, did you accomplish all you wanted to this year? Or will 2007 become the year for you to put your global wealth building and asset protection plan into effect?
It's your choice, but it's one that may help you rest a bit easier.
In Wealth & Prosperity,
ERIKA NOLAN, Founding Publisher
EDITOR'S NOTE: Do you have your first financial goal in mind now? Do you need help fulfilling it? Our Offshore Advantage Seminar provided attendees with over 21 hours of solutions for their personal financial goals. Our offshore experts' advice can help you too. And luckily we caught them all on tape. Order the Offshore Advantage Audio Series today to find out how you can achieve your number one offshore goal. Click here to learn more.
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Radical New Approach to Asset Protection & PrivacyIn 2004, more than nine million Americans had their identity stolen and approximately 1.8 million were sued. And laws like the USA PATRIOT Act greatly expand warrantless searches and permit government property seizures without proof of wrongdoing.
Big Business and Big Brother want to keep you and your wealth in plain sight, to be profitably tracked and conveniently seized. However, you can still legally create international 'lifeboats' of wealth and privacy that are practically invulnerable to snooping or confiscation.
Click below to learn more.
LINK: http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/190SLIFE/E190GB34/
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Wishful Thinking in Willemstad
Graybeards in the offshore industry will remember that in the 1970s and early 1980s, the Netherlands Antilles (NA) was a leading offshore center, primarily due to its tax treaty with the United States.
Under the terms of this treaty, interest payments and dividends from the U.S. to the NA were subject to much lower U.S. withholding rates than would have otherwise applied. Many companies established subsidiaries in Willemstad, the NA's capital, to take advantage of this treaty. But in the 1980s, the U.S. began to eliminate tax treaties with countries it labeled "tax havens," and in 1987, the U.S. Treasury declined to renew the NA treaty.
Not surprisingly, the NA economy went into a tailspin afterwards. And ever since, the NA government has pined for a new tax treaty. But instead of a tax treaty, the United States instead tried to persuade the NA to sign another type of agreement called a tax information exchange agreement or TIEA. TIEAs essentially give the IRS the right to conduct offshore "fishing expeditions" into U.S. persons or companies who have financial interests in the other country.
Naturally, most offshore centers don't want to sign such one-sided agreements. But historically, the United States has threatened recalcitrant jurisdictions with various countermeasures. It's basically, sign on the dotted line-or else.
However, a new and "enlightened" U.S. Treasury is now taking a new approach to persuade the NA to ratify a TIEA. This time the U.S. Treasury dangled a carrot-the possibility of a shiny new tax treaty. The NA's State Secretary of Finance, Alex Rosaria, says that he will soon begin discussions with the U.S. about a new tax treaty.
Pardon me for being skeptical, but I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell that the U.S. will ever sign a tax treaty with the NA. The U.S. now has what it wants-the ability to conduct offshore fishing expeditions into NA financial institutions-and has near-zero incentive to do anything more. The U.S. has a longstanding policy of not concluding tax treaties with low-tax jurisdictions, and there's no reason to think it's going to change this policy anytime soon.
Politics being politics, that hasn't stopped NA politicians like Rosaria from claiming a new tax treaty is in the works. We'll see-but I'm not holding my breath.
MARK NESTMANN, Wealth Preservation &
Tax Consultant on behalf of The Sovereign Society
www.nestmann.com
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Milton Friedman on Tax Cuts
As you already know, economist Milton Friedman died on November 16. All of us who have studied and written on free-market economics over the past half century owe him a great debt of gratitude.
When another of my economic mentors, Murray Rothbard, died in 1995, I wrote that I could not fully grasp the loss of a such a brilliant and developed mind. It seems so disconcerting that a vast store of knowledge and powerful engine of ideas can abruptly disappear. What grief the ancients must have felt to lose someone, before there were books and the written word to preserve memories. Fortunately for us, we do have the books of the great minds that pass, and we can preserve at least some of their wisdom.
Author and economist Mark Skousen was a friend of Friedman, and lunched with him just two weeks before Friedman's death. In his tribute on his website, he noted that Friedman was not only a great economist, but a most quotable wordsmith. Here are three of Friedman's most well-known quotes:
"I favor tax reductions under any circumstances, for any excuse, for any reason, at any time."
"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon."
"Inflation is taxation without legislation."
Some might think I disagree with Dr. Friedman on tax reductions, since I recently published an essay titled "Tax Cuts, Tax Cuts-We Don't Need No Stinkin' Tax Cuts." In my essay I advocated not cutting taxes, but raising them high enough to fully cover all federal spending. The point was to force politicians to take money directly and openly from citizens rather than fraudulently and secretly through deficit spending and inflation. This way, people know who is robbing them. Reducing taxes and increasing borrowing at the same time to cover the revenue loss is a deception, a pretense, a political trick to make voters and contributors happy.
Since total real taxes are the sum of government deficits plus government tax revenues, real tax reductions would require the sum of both to fall. Taxes are pure theft, but, as Friedman points out, monetary inflation is just another form of taxation, and is therefore also theft. What's not realized is that inflation is more insidious and destructive than taxation at gunpoint.
Based on his quoted words, I believe Dr. Friedman would agree.
JOHN PUGSLEY, Chairman
On behalf of The Sovereign Society
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Your Retirement Plan is NOT SafeA well-known attorney in the asset protection field recently stated: The successful attack on retirement plans is one of the fastest growing areas in the legal profession.
Click below to learn how to avoid being the victim of outrageous court decisions and awards.
LINK: http://www.isecureonline.com/reports/190SURPP/E190GB32/
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