Suppose you arrange a picnic or a barbecue, and it starts raining right when you least need it. A far-sighted person will simply open a tent and continue the event! And this is what we do quite often in adult life: we simply know what to do if something happens. And while the situation with rain is more or less obvious, many people avoid finding a solution for more serious cases in life: what if the economic situation in my country deteriorates? What if my bank account is suddenly frozen? And so on.
People who really care about their lives have solutions to all these problems – or are at least planning to find them. We invite all those who are interested in more safety in their lives to our portal. In this post, we are going to discuss opening an offshore account that can save you in many cases, and you can read much more on offshore account benefits on our portal.
We have highly-qualified specialists who help people from all over the world make arrangements for Plan B: open a non-resident account, start a business in any part of the globe, obtain economic passports for all family members, or invest in real estate. Some of our services are free (we will analyze your situation and choose a suitable jurisdiction for your company or account at no fee), and some are paid (like turnkey packages that will require little effort from you).
Non-Resident Account: Disadvantages
It’s a bit unusual to start with the dark side. However, this is the trick of human nature: we want to be aware of all the risks first, and we turn a blind eye to the bright side until we make sure that the danger is not that serious. Anyway, let’s look at the downside:
- The first risk is of a purely reputational nature: the word “offshore” is still associated with all kinds of illegal operations, hiding money, scandals in mass media, tax evasion, and even crimes. In reality, a present-day offshore account is just an instrument: everything is fine as long as you don’t use it for unlawful purposes.
- And while the first item may be simply disregarded, the second one creates more inconveniences: offshore accounts are still notorious even in the eyes of governmental and tax officials. As a result, they check offshore accounts and transactions much more attentively.
- OECD and FATF do a lot of work to combat money laundering and tax evasion, and they are especially active in offshore jurisdictions. This fact exposes you to a regulatory risk: while you go offshore to have more confidentiality, it may be partially ruined one day due to some law adopted by these organizations.
- If your country is under sanctions or on a blacklist, you may be turned down.
- When you choose an offshore bank, you have to look carefully at the protection it offers in case of failure. There are many offshore financial institutions that will be less protected in case of a financial crisis, and you will hardly get much of your money back. And this is one more reason why we help our customers choose the right bank relying on our knowledge of the banking sphere.
The good news is that most of these disadvantages can be neutralized – except for the actions of officials that we simply propose to consider force majeure. Turn to our specialists to have the best offshore experience imaginable!
Reasons to Open an Offshore Bank Account
Let’s look on the bright side! A non-resident account comes with many perks, and here is an overview of what you may have.
- More than a half of the global assets and investments are kept in the offshores, and even multinational corporations turn to offshore accounts to use this convenient instrument! It means that offshore banks are safer than others: they do not engage in any risky undertakings and invest prudently.
- Offshore banking system works like clockwork as they have really serious stimuli to do so: offshore banks will have to pay serious penalties or even lose their license in extreme cases if they violate the rules! As a result, they maintain a higher liquidity ratio and a stronger balance sheet than many onshore banks.
- If you look attentively, you will see signs that the banking situation in your country is turning for the worse: the capital is subject to more control, and the holders of deposits in a foreign currency are ordered to convert them into the local currency. However, it may be too late at this stage to transfer your money to offshore banks to keep it safe, so it’s better to do so in advance.
- Absolute privacy is a thing that cannot be guaranteed nowadays – and yet the wealthy flock to offshores for more privacy than they can have back home. The information about your identity or amounts on your account will never be disclosed to the public or entered into any publicly available registers. The only exception is the situation when you are suspected of a serious crime (like drug trafficking) and the officials provide convincing evidence and order the bank to provide the relevant information about the customer.
- Offshore banks offer enhanced asset protection. The focus of their banking policy is to keep the customer happy, and they do their best. If a creditor (or an ex-spouse) wins a court case against you and you will have to pay the money, the accounts in your home country will inevitably be arrested, while the offshore accounts will remain intact until the creditor wins the same case in a local court. It means that your assets will be safe in 99% of cases.
- Offshore banks want their customers to enjoy seamless services, and they have special policies in place to achieve this result: all you have to do is to comply with simple rules. There are many more cases when a transaction seems suspicious to onshore bank employees and they simply choose to freeze it. As a result, you spend a lot of time proving the legitimacy of your intentions. Offshore banks will also block dubious transactions – but they only do so for a serious cause. In practice, problems with suspended transfers or frozen transactions arise much less often.
You can look at nine more considerations why you should open a bank account by visiting the above link. Feel free to contact our experts if you have any questions or doubts – we are here to help!