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second passports

Questions: An Emergency passport? European citizenship; foreign banking rules; walking away

By Simon Black · 10 comments

March 5, 2010
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Greetings from Malaysia, where I’m spending an extended weekend before heading briefly to Singapore on business.  I’ll tell you more about the country next week… but if you’re interested in Asia, it should definitely be on your radar.

Before turning to this week’s questions, I wanted to give you a quick update on the job posting from a few weeks ago.  Ordinarily, Matt and I would have made a decision by now, but the applications keep rolling in… I lost count after a few hundred.

To expedite our decision, we’re going close the posting at 11:59pm EST, Monday night March 8. No other applicants will be considered after that time.

Please remember, since there have been so many applications, my staff and I will not be able to respond in order to confirm receipt. Rest assured, if you sent us an email, we received it.

On to this week’s questions:

Tom writes, rather emphatically “Simon, I left the US over a year ago. I now need a 2nd passport as I am almost out of pages on my current one. Problem is, I can’t go to the embassy due to some legal problems back home, and I don’t have $50k to spend on a new passport. What can you recommend?”

Tom has an interesting and unfortunately all-too-common case. I don’t know what he’s done or if he’s guilty of any wrongdoing, but a last-minute second passport is no panacea for criminal troubles.

(to be clear, I don’t equate ‘law’ with morality, but this is a different subject altogether)

Why? Because even if you’re completely innocent of some trumped-up charge, any new country that would consider accepting you for citizenship would first do a background check, and if you’re in hot water, they probably won’t take you.

Conversely, if you actually have done something immoral, you should probably just face the music. After all, the cosmic forces of the universe have a way of working these things out.

Regardless, I think this underscores the importance of taking action. If you have the means, going through a second citizenship process NOW, before it becomes a critical need, is a smart thing to do.

I discussed a few cost effective second passport options last week, and I will continue to do so in future letters.

Speaking of second passports, I made a mistake when I mentioned something about Polish citizenship last week– my thanks to “anonymous” for sending along this correction:

“Simon, you said that a Polish citizen could establish permanent residence in another European country like France or Italy and  become eligible for citizenship there after 7-10 years.  The EU rule is that local citizenship can be applied for after 4 yrs residence, though it’s much faster with marriage.”

She is absolutely correct, my apologies for the oversight.

Stephanie in New York writes, “Simon, thanks for the great information on opening a foreign bank account this week. As a US citizen I understand that I need to file a form to the Treasury Department each year– what are the details on that?”

First- standard disclaimer: check with your tax advisor for any updates. But the current rule is that US taxpayers must report foreign bank and financial accounts on form TDF 90-22.1 each year by June 30.

According to the IRS, A “financial account” includes any bank, securities, securities derivatives or other financial instruments accounts, including any savings, demand, checking, deposit, or any other account maintained with a financial institution.

As of now, you do not have to file the form if the aggregate value of all of your foreign accounts was less than $10,000 for an entire calendar year. If the aggregate value of foreign accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the year, you are obliged to file the form by the following June 30th.

James asks- “Simon- you’ve been in Thailand for a month but you haven’t said anything about the nightlife or social scene!”

That’s because you can read about Thai nightlife anywhere. I figured you’d be more interested in the hydroponics plantations where I buy organic vegetables than a review of the Go-Go bars…

… but to put it briefly, you can find whatever you want in Thailand. Sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll are as pervasive as Buddhist monks and the works of Shakespeare. If there’s interest, I’ll write a dedicated post about this, just let me know.

Lastly, Pat asks: “OK Simon- I owe $136k on a house that I bought 4 years ago; it’s now “worth” about $70k, tops.  I make plenty of money, but the payment is slowing me down.  Would it be immoral to jump ship and go rent somewhere else?”

Personally, I have an immensely open mind to not judge people for the way that they live. I only broadly repudiate things based on very few moral absolutes– for example, genocide and pedophilia are clearly ‘wrong’ in my book.

Walking away from your mortgage does not make my list.

If you do decide to walk away (and I’m not encouraging you either way), just bear in mind the single universal law of causality… there will be consequences from your actions, and you must be prepared to accept them.

That’s all for this week; enjoy your weekend, and we’ll talk again on Monday.

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Second passports and citizenship

By Simon Black · 16 comments

February 23, 2010
Pattaya, Thailand

Throughout our conversations, we have routinely discussed the importance of planting multiple flags.

If you live, work, bank, invest, own a business, and hold your assets in the same country of your citizenship, you are putting all of your eggs in one basket, and once that basket heads in the wrong direction, you can kiss your assets goodbye.

There are nearly infinite possibilities that pose substantial risks to your wealth and security, including taxes, litigation, confiscation, inflation, regulation, and good ole’ fashioned social decay.

Making the effort to move assets overseas, diversify your currency holdings, buy foreign property, set up foreign structures to operate a business, etc. are all major steps in the right direction to preserve your livelihood and safety.

If you have executed only a few of those steps, you are ahead of the 99% of the population. You will be safe while others watch their freedoms, their wealth, and their critical thinking be eroded by corrupt bureaucrats and the mainstream media.

One of the ultimate tools in preserving wealth, freedom, and security that we have touched on before is acquiring a second passport. This tool provides additional freedoms of travel, possible tax advantages, banking convenience, an escape hatch, and security.

After all, nobody hijacks a plane and threatens to kill all the Lithuanians.

Most importantly, when your home country starts heading in a catastrophic direction, a second (or third, fourth, etc.) citizenship provides you with options… and that’s what real freedom is all about– the power to choose.

Even without a cataclysmic event in your home country, a second passport pays big dividends. With a second passport, suddenly you find that you can open bank accounts and travel much more easily.

In my case, since I travel so much, the money that I have saved on visa fees alone has more than offset the cost of acquiring a second passport.

So how do you go about obtaining one?

For starters, if you’re a member of the lucky bloodline club, you may have been born as a second or third generation citizen somewhere. Many countries have programs which grant citizenship to descendents of emigrants– Ireland, Poland, India, and Italy are examples.

If, for instance, you could prove your lineage to Irish grandparents, you would have a case to apply for Irish citizenship. There are many more countries which have such programs, but I’ll save that topic for another time.

Second, there are a handful of countries where you simply pay for citizenship, either through an official program, or an unofficial program.

In terms of official programs, most people who have done even the most cursory research have read about Dominica and St. Kitts, both of which charge about $200,000 to $450,000 for citizenship.  These are the most famous, but there are others, including Austria and even the United States.

If I have my way in this part of the world, there will soon be one more.

Yesterday I mentioned that ousted former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is traveling around the world on passports from Nicaragua and the Bahamas… and not because those countries have official programs for ordinary investors, but because Thaksin used his connections to make compelling donations.

Clearly, unofficial programs generally come down to knowing somebody of significant influence in the government. In most countries, the head of state has the authority to naturalize a foreigner at his/her discretion, and this happens frequently in small countries that have been assisted by the actions or donations of a particular individual.

Now… assuming that you don’t have any heads of state in your rolodex, aren’t descended from Polish grandparents, and don’t want to swallow a $250,000 pill for St. Kitts citizenship, the next category applies to you.

I call it ‘connected’ citizenship, in which an individual can become naturalized through some sort of connection to the country.  Typically this can be a combination of residency, marriage, adoption, religious affiliation, and of course, birth.

Obviously we can’t go back in time to change our place of birth, but the others may be well within our control, particularly residency.  In fact, most countries provide a means for naturalization through residency, including the United States and Canada.  But there are three important factors that determine whether a residency program is worthwhile:

First, how long do you have to be a resident in order to be eligible for citizenship? If you have 8 to 10 years to kill, you may want to consider putting the time in for France or Italy. But most people want something much faster, 1-4 years at most.

Second, how hard is it to actually obtain residency? In the United States, for example, residency applications are scrutinized and generally rejected– hence the inordinate number of undocumented workers. In practice, America now sends the tired, poor, huddled masses back where they came from.

Contrast that with, say, Singapore, where anyone with a good idea, strong work ethic, or investment capital is a strong candidate for residency through an easy, painless, transparent selection system.

Third, do you actually have to live there? Many countries’ naturalization regulations require an applicant to spend the preponderance of his/her time in that country. Canada is a great example… if you become a Canadian resident and spend too much time out of the country, you render yourself ineligible for citizenship.

For the next two days, I’m going to discuss two such countries that fit these requirements that I think you should strongly consider if you’re interested in second citizenship.

** Note, I only plan on releasing this information to email subscribers and will not be posting either article on the website. If you want to receive these articles, make sure you sign up for the daily e-letter here before tomorrow.

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In Thailand, they sell T-shirts at the revolution

By Simon Black

February 22, 2010
Pattaya, Thailand

I was in the back of a black sedan on Friday morning speeding along Highway 7 from Pattaya to Bangkok when my driver’s phone rang. He picked up, jabbered for a few seconds, and then said to me:

“Sir, my friend call me from Bangkok; he say big protests in city, we need to go around.”

“No chance–” I replied. “Let’s go see how serious they are this time…”

Here in Thailand, you have to be living under a cave to not know what’s going on in the political scene. It starts with former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by the Thai military while he was out of the country in 2006.

He’s one of the richest men in Thailand having amassed a fortune in the telecom industry, and among other things, Thaksin has been accused of corruption, tax evasion, censorship, and human rights violations.

About half of Thailand loves him, the other half hates him… it just so happens that the current administration falls on the side of hating him, and they have issued several warrants for his arrest.

In fact, shortly after the 2006 coup, the new government set up a commission to investigate Thaksin’s financial holdings; it was ruled that he accumulated an unusual fortune during his time in office, and roughly $2.3 billion of his assets were frozen pending further investigation.

Years later, an official legal judgment has yet to be made about Thaksin’s frozen assets… until this week.

This Friday, February 26, is known as Judgment Day in Thailand because a high court will finally rule on the fate of his assets.

Did he evade taxes? Did he use public office for personal gain? Or did he follow the letter of the law and become victimized by Thailand’s notoriously corrupt politicking? The verdict is set to galvanize the country as many Thais regard it as a referendum on the corruption of their political institution.

There have already been mass demonstrations leading up to the decision by a group known as the “Red Shirts,” who in many ways are like the Tea Party protesters in the United States.

Like the Tea Party, the Red Shirts are commonly unified by their desire for acute political change. They despise the current administration and everything it has done to their country, yet many of the Red Shirts are undecided about Thaksin… sort of like Sarah Palin.

Many regard him as a free market hero who can liberalize the economy, while others find him to be just another self-serving politician… though not necessarily guilty of the charges against him.

The protests on Friday were held by the Red Shirts who shut down several streets and chanted refrains about freedom, justice, and change. I jumped in the thick of it to get a sense of their passions… are they true believers, or simply going through the motions?

I was surprised at what I saw.

The thing is, in Thailand, these sorts of protests and mini political revolutions are about as common as seeing a military parade in North Korea or the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas– if you miss it, just wait around for another few hours.

Oh yeah, and they sell T-shirts. Lot’s of souvenirs, actually… something like “I went to the revolution in Thailand and all I got was this lousy T-shirt” sort of thing.

It’s widely expected that the outcome of the “Judgment Day” decision will result in nationwide protests and rioting, regardless of the outcome. That makes for a lot of t-shirt sales.

As you could imagine, foreign governments are totally overreacting. The British and US embassies are urging their citizens to exercise caution; and if there are wide-scale protests, you can count on the mainstream media to portray Thailand as a country coming apart at the seams.

Truthfully, Thailand will be just fine. Both foreigners and locals alike are accustomed to political instability… it’s par for the course in Thailand. Government or no government, Thailand is one of the most peaceful places on earth.

Case in point, Pattaya is probably the most international city per capita I have ever been to– Russians, Americans, Canadians, Brits, Germans, French, Thai, Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, Malaysians, Japanese, Aussies, Arabs, and Jews, all living in one place in complete harmony.

Why? Because they’re here for the same things– ultra-low cost of living, privacy, warm weather, quality medical care, high class lifestyle, and of course, cheap sex.

These factors trump politics any day of the week, and they won’t go away just because of a couple of protests.

If Thaksin is able to engineer a real revolution, he will make his return to Thailand. In the meantime, he is enjoying the fruits of having planted multiple flags and traveling around the world on second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth passports from friendly jurisdictions in the Caribbean, Asia, and Latin America.

Let’s talk about these later this week. Stay tuned.

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How to avoid living in a police state

By Simon Black · 155 comments

If I have been too subtle in the past, let me be absolutely clear this afternoon: the time to do something, the time to take action to safeguard your future and your families livelihood, is NOW.

I’m more impassioned than usual this morning… and with reason.  Reluctantly, I tuned in to Team Obama’s press briefing last night about the ongoing saga of the Nigerian underwear bomber.  Obama’s is clearly trying to cultivate a fear of al-qaeda while simultaneously building blind trust in his government.

After the President’s remarks, his Homeland Security Secretary and Deputy National Security Advisor took the stage to unveil a series of proposals to ‘improve security.’

I’ll spare you the details as you have probably already heard them, but the bottom line is simply more government– a bureaucrat’s ultimate and only solution. This means more TSA, more air marshals, more undercover agents, more gun-toting soldiers, more pat-downs, more scanners, more searches, more scrutiny, more suspicion, etc.

How do you spell police state?

I’m ordinarily laid back about this sort of thing. I can afford to be since I’m a safe distance from all of that stupidity… but in this case I looked down to find that my knuckles were turning white, clenched around my glass of 2005 priorato.

I set my wine down and remarked to my friends who were watching with me, “What is it going to take for people to wake up and get the hell out of town? Do they need legions of storm troopers marching down the street before they realize it’s time to go??”

I was positively exacerbated.  The US is turning into a police state, and I’m not even saying this specifically to Americans living there. Many countries around the world are following close order behind Uncle Sam.

Once again, the time to act is now.  So what should you do?

First, make sure you have access to funds outside of your home country. This is one of the most important flags that you can plant.  You should open a foreign bank account (like I discussed in the Panama Black Paper), and/or consider storing precious metals in a private storage facility overseas.

Later this quarter, I plan on releasing a new Black Paper that contains actionable information to open an account at safe foreign banks that still take US customers.  You haven’t heard of most of them, and would probably never hear about them because it’s actually illegal for foreign bank to advertise in the United States in most cases.

Stay tuned for that.

Second, you should really be thinking hard about foreign property. Why? Because it can be a great investment; it’s an easy, non-reportable way to move money overseas; and it can be your escape hatch when you’re finally ready to hit the eject button.

Remember, I’m not talking about a 50 million euro villa in Monaco; you can pick up cheap land in Latin America for less than $50 per acre, and I’m pretty sure that everyone reading this letter has at least 50 bucks to spare.

Also, as I’ve discussed in the past, you can buy foreign property using your tax-deferred retirement savings, and I plan on revisiting this topic in short order because it is an absolute no-brainer.

Additionally, if there’s interest, I may also explore the idea of building a small, cost-effective, subscribers-only development.  It would likely be on the outskirts of Panama City and include self-sustaining fresh water and agricultural resources.

Third, if you have the means, you should really consider obtaining second (or third, fourth, etc.) citizenship. Second citizenship can be the ultimate emergency exit if things get really bad, and it effectively serves as the most comprehensive insurance policy you could even have.

I have a lot of contacts in this field, and my colleagues and I are currently experimenting with a few options that I plan on bringing to you soon.  I won’t bring you a passport program unless one of us has gone through the process ourselves, so give me some time while we play guinea pig.

Fourth, give serious consideration to your finances; unless you are already independently wealthy or have sustainable income streams, think about what you would do to earn money if you lost your job today.

Think about what skills you have– what problems can you solve that other people are willing to pay you for? What opportunities to you see around you that can be quickly and profitably exploited?

I guarantee you that there is opportunity everywhere around you. For example, a friend of mine is an intelligent, 22-year old girl who lives in Minsk, Belarus– the last bastion of the Iron Curtain.  While Belarus is not the totalitarian state it once was under the Soviet Empire, it’s pretty close.

And yet, despite living under a tyrannical yolk, my friend has become quite a successful entrepreneur, launching a successful brick-and-mortar company and several profitable web sites just within the last few months.

I raise this simply to point out that if an inexperienced but intelligent and energetic young girl can find opportunity in a place like Belarus, then I would wager that there is a plethora of opportunity out there in places like Panama, Abu Dhabi, Chile, China, Angola, Thailand, Bulgaria, and even the US/Europe.

In fact, I know this to be true because I see so much of this opportunity when I travel.

So those are the top four things I would recommend you do in making your own personal preparations. I clearly have a lot of work to do between the real estate, the citizenship programs, and the banking Black Paper… but after seeing the writing on the wall so plainly last night, I will be refocusing my efforts to get these moving quickly for you.

In the meantime, let me know your thoughts– I’m frankly curious to know what you would like to see in a real estate development, and at what, if anything, it would take for you to hit the eject button.

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Multiple Flags Overview

By Simon Black · 5 comments

January 4, 2010

Reporting from: Malaga, Spain
Welcome back; I hope you had a relaxing holiday.

I spent 10-days with my family combing through the Italian countryside and drinking some unbelievable wine from a local grape called “Primitivo.” It’s a distant cousin of the California Zinfandel, and is only found in this region. A bottle from the best vineyard will set you back about 9 euro.

For New Year’s Eve, I saw a fireworks show that was simultaneously the most disorganized and explosive I have ever witnessed… so literally for me, the new year began with a bang.

I’m optimistic about 2010. I know a lot of people in the financial community who think that ‘this is it,’ that 2010 shall bear the worst economic cataclysm in history, causing widespread doom and agony.

Sure the conditions are ripe for stock/bond market crashes, a currency crisis, and multiple sovereign debt defaults.  But these are a far cry from a gloomy end of human civilization.

It’s not that I have tremendous faith in world ‘leaders’ (as ridiculous a moniker as that is to use); last month’s debacle in Copenhagen only further underscored how perverse and ineffective the existing political process is, and everyone is really starting to see it.

The Social Contract is deteriorating rapidly, and in the end, the one thing that you can count on is that people will ultimately do what they perceive to be in their self-interest.  This is what drives markets and trends.

As the protracted effects of government stupidity become more apparent, one such trend that I see emerging this year is the rise of the sovereign individual– the rebirth of the multiple flags approach.

I’ve talked about this before and I wanted to start off the year with a quick primer since it is a recurring theme of this letter. To be more specific, I absolutely implore you to plant multiple flags as part of your New Year resolutions.

The idea, originally conceived by international finance guru Harry Schultz, suggests diversifying different aspects of your identity across multiple ‘flags,’ or geographic jurisdictions.

As an example, Schultz coined the term ‘three-flags’ in the 1960s, suggesting that an individual should have citizenship in one country, residence in another, and businesses in another.

Later authors expanded on this idea by adding other ‘flags,’ including places to bank, places to ‘play,’ places to house electronic assets, etc.

Many writers today talk about ‘five flags’ or ’six flags,’ but frankly I don’t see a limit on the number of things we can diversify geographically: email, citizenship, residence, banking, brokerages, gold/silver deposits, business registration, e-commerce, customer base, phone/fax, financial instruments, postal mail, etc.

So what’s the point? Why should you do this?

Diversifying geographically increases your freedom, your privacy, your sovereignty, and potentially reduces your tax burden. It protects you against bank failures, market changes, litigation, divorce, overzealous governments, and “NGC’s” (non-government criminals).

Perhaps even more importantly, planting multiple flags expands your existing contact base and opens a lot of doors to new opportunities.

Think of it like a life insurance policy– even if the worst never happens, it gives you great peace of mind and in many cases can rank as a significant asset.

While everyone recognizes these benefits of life insurance, no one actually expects to die anytime soon… so they put shopping for a policy on the back burner, sometimes until it’s too late.

In this case, the time to start diversifying internationally and planting multiple flags is now… before it’s too late– before currency controls are imposed, before tax codes change, before the last remaining foreign banks close their doors to foreigners.

I could cite you examples all day long, but I will list just a few hypothetical cases–

Imagine getting sued, losing the case, and having your financial assets commandeered by the court. Now imagine if your assets were safely offshore in another country.

Imagine being investigated by the government and having your email archives turned over to the authorities. Now imagine if your email server were in another country.

Imagine being robbed (taxed) by the government because your business is structured within its jurisdiction. Now imagine if your business were registered in another country.

Imagine having everything in your home country taken from theft, coercion, and litigation. Now imagine having cash and gold locked away in a secure, private vault overseas.

Imagine the social decay in your city getting so bad that riots and violent crime are a common occurrence. Now imagine having property overseas.

I’m sure you get the idea. Putting your assets, your business, your citizenship, your residency, your family’s livelihood under one flag, one government, is putting all of your eggs in one very frail, weak basket.

Technology makes it incredibly easy to diversify, and I see more and more people waking up to that reality each day. It takes only moments to set up an offshore email account, a few minutes to lease a private vault, and just a couple of hours to set up a company in Singapore.

The possibilities are truly endless, you just need to find the right tools and the right flags that work for you. Yes, even if you are a US citizen who is taxed on worldwide income, there are still several options available to live a multiple flags lifestyle.

I will be discussing the options in future letters, as well as individual case studies.

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Subscriber Questions

By Simon Black · 0 comments

I receive a lot of subscriber questions, and while I cannot answer them all, I wanted to specifically address three of them that key in on recurring themes in this community– second citizenship, investing, international opportunities, corporate structures, banking, and gold/silver storage.

1) Paul asks– “I was wondering what your 1st choice would be in setting up an online business offshore.  Which country would be best for business structure, hosting, and merchant accounts?”

There are a lot of great reasons to have an online business– portability, scalability, maneuverability. You can go from zero to profit very quickly, and the Internet allows people to live and work anywhere on the globe.

Most importantly, though, online enterprises provide a great opportunity to easily plant multiple flags in a cost efficient way; you can live in one country, have citizenship in another, have your business structured in another, process credit cards in another, and have your servers based in another.

This prevents significant influence from any single government over your business. As to the right jurisdiction? This is a tough call because it really depends on your country of citizenship and your country of residence.

The United States, for example, is one of a handful of countries that tax its residents on their worldwide income. Some people with online businesses think they are smart because they structure their business in some Panamanian IBC and/or process credit card transactions offshore.

Then they don’t report the income and hold everything offshore.

Not only is this a completely bonehead move, it’s largely illegal. The IRS has clear rules for what it calls ‘check the box’ entities, as well as how to determine the source of income.

I’m going to be talking about this much more in the future, but for now, the bottom line is simple: with a well-structured plan, it is possible to set up an online business to maximize your personal tax advantage while minimizing sovereign risk.

There is great danger, however, in establishing an overseas structure without performing substantial research into the tax implications of your home country.

I’m going to help you solve this problem in a few weeks– early next year, I will bring you some really valuable information from some top North American tax advisers who specialize in offshore structures; they’ll teach you what you need to watch out for.

For instance, you may want to consider structuring your business in a country that has a comprehensive tax treaty with your home country. Switzerland is a great example that has treaties with both the US and Canada. Zero-tax jurisdictions like Panama or BVI do not have tax treaties.

More to follow on this in a few weeks, it’s an incredibly important topic that merits more than a short-answer.

2) Peter asks: “What do you think about Israel? In spite of all the political unrest in the news, Israel has a growing GDP and has a decreasing trade deficit.”

This is a great question.  My take on Israel is that it’s a great place for second (fairly valuable) citizenship.  If you’re willing to convert to Judaism and live in Israel for a bit, you can obtain an Israeli passport fairly easily.

Other than that, I’m not keen on investing in the country; it’s too closely tied with the United States, and there is no ‘blood in the streets’ discount that you would expect of a nation perpetually at war.

If you compare Israel to a place like Sri Lanka, there is no contest when it comes to value.

3) Stefan asks: “I have an account at DBS (Singapore) but they do not give any information about bankruptcy protection. Do you know anything about this? Do you prefer other Singapore banks? Any idea for a safe deposit box in Singapore?”

I can’t comment specifically on DBS, but you should always, ALWAYS, feel comfortable with the balance sheet of your financial institution. Banks in the US are backed by the FDIC, and this gives some people confidence in their account value.

I am not one of them. I bank overseas because I trust in the financial solvency of overseas institutions, but it means I have to do my homework.

Even the most cursory analysis can say a lot about a bank– what is their ratio of liquid assets to deposits? Does the loan portfolio consist of ticking time bombs? How well are they provisioned against loss?

This is why I wrote about Islamic banking a few weeks ago; based on requirements of their religious law, Islamic banks tend to have higher capital adequacy ratios, providing a greater cushion against insolvency in the event of a financial cataclysm.

There are several Islamic banking institutions in Singapore, though overall I’m quite confident in the country’s financial infrastructure. I rely on it myself.

As for gold storage in Singapore, look at Cisco-Certis. Their facilities have fantastic security, and the boxes are reasonably priced.

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What China’s wealthy want…

By Simon Black · 49 comments

 

I spent the better part of my day today at a small conference attended by many of Shanghai’s wealthy, plus their lawyers and accountants.  Considering the subject material is highly frowned upon by the government, I was surprised that so many were in attendance.

So what was the topic of discussion at today’s event? Second citizenship.  Specifically, the St. Kitts second citizenship program.

Throughout the afternoon, local Chinese listened intently as speaker after speaker extolled the virtues of St. Kitts and its economic citizenship program. 

In case you haven’t heard of the program, it’s one of the oldest economic citizenship models still in existence.  An interested applicant must invest $350,000 (plus government and legal fees) in a government-approved real estate project, as well as undergo a background and medical examination.

If accepted, the applicant will be awarded with citizenship of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.  Since the island-nation is a Commonwealth country as a former British colony, St. Kitts citizens enjoy visa-free travel to the UK and European Union.

There were several developers at today’s conference with lots and homes for sale.  From what I could tell, the average price point was around $700,000.  The locals stared eagerly at the sales brochures, full of Caribbean Sea views and vibrant green tropics, which made for a stark contrast against today’s gray skies in Shanghai. Read More…

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Set up your kids for life

By Simon Black · 23 comments

If you’re presently expecting a child or are planning on having one soon, you should really consider having your baby overseas.

There are many countries, particularly in the western hemisphere, which grant citizenship to all children born within its borders, regardless of the nationality or immigration status of the parents. The legal term is called jus soli, which differs from jus sanguinis, or citizenship by blood/ancestry.

The United States and Canada are two such countries. You are probably familiar with stories of migrants from Guatemala and Mexico who trek across the desert in hopes of surreptitiously crossing the border and having their child on US soil for this reason.

Ironically, if I were expecting, I would probably be heading the other direction across the border to have my kid in Mexico or Guatemala.

Why does it matter? Why consider subjecting your precious cargo to a trip overseas?

Read More…

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