Saturday, August 14, 2010

Expatriate Your Wallet

If everything you own is held in your own name in your own country, then you are not merely exposed, you are vulnerable absolutely, to whatever decisions the government might make about how you should behave and who gets the wealth you’ve earned. Tomorrow's new government measure, which might land out of the blue, could be a law that affects everyone, or it could be a rule devised to deal with people like you. Or, it could be an administrative action aimed at you alone. In any case, with all your assets at home, you'd find out how the lobster feels when his trap is being hauled out of the water. Nothing he can do about it.

The only way to protect yourself against the risk of being boiled in a government pot is to keep some of your assets in another country. Depending on how you go about it, the specific benefits you might achieve are:

  • Protection from currency exchange controls
  • Protection from the confiscation of precious metals
  • A lower profile as a lawsuit target
  • Income tax planning advantages
  • Estate planning advantages
  • Easier access to investments in other countries
  • A measure of financial privacy
  • Practical readiness to move additional assets quickly
  • Psychological readiness to think and act internationally when you need to (more)

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