A few days ago, in response to questions about how to get started with offshore asset protection, I mentioned Mark Nestmann’s book The Lifeboat Strategy.  Mark is a trained international lawyer and one of the world’s top offshore asset protection experts.  I own his book and think it’s a fantastic resource, especially for those looking for initial answers.

The number of questions I received from readers in response to the book was overwhelming, so as a special service to Notes subscribers, I decided that we should pin Mark down for an interview.

I called my partner Matt, one of the savviest, most intellectually curious global entrepreneurs I know, and asked him to conduct the interview… as you will see, Matt didn’t pull any punches.

Personally I think he caught Mark a little off-guard, so you’ll hear a lot of candor.

Mark and Matt cover a lot of ground in the call, including:

1. Why demand for offshore asset protection is exploding
2. The most important thing you should be doing right now to protect your assets
3. Why politicians just don’t get it, and the future of currency controls
4. Strategies that anyone can use to legally safeguard their assets

Some of my favorite quotes:

“Anyone who wants to make a serious committment to investing outside the dollar needs a foreign bank account…”

“If you do it in the right way, you don’t necessarily have to report any of it…”

“It’s very hard for the Treasury to tell you to repatriate a house…”

“This is something that anyone can do– it’s private, it non-reportable…”

You can listen to the unedited, unscripted call below.  It’s about 35 minutes, and I think Mark’s valuable insight is well worth your time.  He’s not a Chicken-little fear-monger, rather a common sense professional with first-class knowledge.

For more information about Mark, go to http://www.MarkNestmann.com.

Let me know if you like this sort of thing and I can dip into the Rolodex a bit more to interview other experts in privacy, asset protection, investing, and lifestyle design.  Also, if you have any specific questions for me or Mark that weren’t answered in the interview, please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to get an answer.

Today I confessed my sins to Uncle Sam.

No, I’m not talking about anything sinister. But in a mad dash through a US stopover today, I dropped US Treasury form TDF-90 in the mail:  “Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.”

It went something like this:

“Forgive me uncle for I have sinned. May last confession was April 15th. Here is all the information on my foreign bank accounts, including those for which I only have signature authority.  I am confessing this intensely private information despite the fact that I have no financial interest whatsoever in said account, and the account holder does not even fall under your jurisdiction. I understand that being party to financial accounts outside of the United States must be inherently evil, and I look forward to giving you more of my money next year.”

This form is required by the US government for all persons that have a financial interest or signature authority in any foreign financial account– banking, brokerage, etc.  In my case, I listed all the relevant information for a Panamanian bank account– I am very confident banking there as my research from this trip indicates strong liquidity levels and tight loan standards devoid of significant exposure to US agency debt. I am required to submit this form by June 30th.

Our Uncle certainly has a way of keeping tabs on us: disclose or go to jail.  It’s an unfortunate no-brainer, and if you have similar accounts you need to do the same… the alternative is simply not worth the risk, though I understand that sometimes they allow conjugal visits at minimum-security federal prison camps.

I’m using particularly strong language today to illustrate a clear point: there are right ways to go offshore and wrong ways… and dodging legal obligations is like playing Russian Roulette. It really hurts one out six times.

Simply put, Uncle Sam wants our money… and I say ‘our’ because, chances are, if you’re reading this missive, you fall in the unfortunate category of people who are actually productive and whose tax dollars pay for everyone else’s stimulus. I’m convinced this tax burden is going to increase, and they are going after every penny to which they feel entitled (in their sole discretion of course).

Offshore structuring makes a lot of sense: there are much safer places for your assets than a dollar-based US bank account where your wealth can be inflated away, frozen, stolen, or sued.  And as I am sitting here in the business lounge at JFK Airport going through subscriber emails as fast as I can, I see many of the same questions.

Many of you are asking for specific contacts for banks, brokerages, lawyers, etc. I am working on the right framework to help you… but I need to be clear about something.

I have spent several years and tens of thousands of dollars traveling around the world and building up contacts. I know who is good because I do/have done business with them, and I know who is bad because I have been swindled by some of them and lost money. My trusted contacts are trusted for a reason, and I would be betraying that trust if I just published their contact information all over the internet.

Bear with me while I work on a few ways to share the right information with some of you.

“Offshore” is almost a dirty word these days. But as a savvy investor, you probably realize that it’s a perfectly legitimate way to safeguard wealth.

The dollar is in an irreversible decline. Banks are being nationalized. Anyone with any money left has been deemed evil. Salivating lawyers are already sharpening their knives. The IRS and SEC are on a witch hunt.

Currency controls are coming.  The time to move assets is now.

Nearly, everywhere we go (we’re constantly traveling the world) we see enormous opportunities despite the global financial meltdown.  It’s sad to say, but the best business opportunities we’ve seen in the last 12 months have NOT been located in the United States.

Starting an offshore business or expanding your current business into overseas markets may seem a bit daunting at first, but the opportunity is huge and the time to diversify is now or never.

We’ll share some (legal) tactics with you on this site and in our daily e-letter: International Man: Notes from the Field.   If you’re not already signed up for the e-letter click here to do so now.