Britannia Radio

The Last Great Offshore Tax Shelter By Dr. Steve Sjuggerud "I can't believe Porsche allows people to do this," I said out loud as I came out of the hairpin turn and sped back up to 100 miles an hour. On Tuesday, I drove brand new Porsche cars on Porsche's private race track in Leipzig, Germany. Porsche let me (and my colleagues from The Atlas 400 Club) push their new, $100,000+ cars as hard as we wanted. I was flying around the track in a new 911 Carrera. My wheels were squealing at the brink of spinout about a third of the time. And yet I could hardly keep up with my DailyWealth colleagues Ned and Brian in the new Panamera Turbo in front of me. That day was unquestionably one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced. It was arranged for The Atlas 400 Club by my old friend Joel Nagel. A while back, he happened to meet the CEO of Porsche Germany at an international Rotary conference, and they hit it off. Joel speaks fluent German. And over dinner at the CEO's house, Joel put this day together for us. While we were flying back to Munich that night, I sat next to Joel. He's an American attorney based in the States. And for most of his legal career, he's done tax planning. He told me he recommends his clients keep a portion of their assets offshore if possible. I asked him about what's going on in Switzerland... With banks like UBS turning over records to U.S. tax authorities, it seems like its famous bank privacy laws are disappearing. Joel said, "Oh, Switzerland is definitely still open for business." And he told me about a completely legal offshore option... With what he called "the last, best tax shelter," you can... · Grow your wealth without paying income tax on the gains. · Choose how your money is invested. · Access your funds without triggering taxable capital gains. · Pass your money on to your heirs, without being subject to estate tax. · Legally avoid reporting this offshore program to the IRS. The idea at its core is simple and crafty: It's life insurance... But the important part is, the insurance is from an offshore life insurance company that issues U.S.-compliant policies. The "trick" is, the money is officially the life insurance company's. But you can have it invested on your behalf by Swiss advisors. The Swiss are happy to do it... They're investing money from an offshore insurance company, not from you, the American. Since it's legally life insurance, the money you've built up in that policy can be passed on to your heirs outside of estate tax. And you can access it by borrowing against it.   The Best Way to Beat Higher Taxes How to Use Your Retirement Savings, Penalty-Free... at Any Age   Now, I assume the fees are high. You're paying the cost of life insurance and then you're paying for an investment manager to invest your premiums. So it probably doesn't make sense to consider this unless you're able to put six figures into the premiums for a few years. I don't have all the details... It was just a casual conversation with Joel. I'm not a tax advisor or a lawyer. And I'm not sure I got everything exactly right. But my friend Joel Nagel is an attorney specializing in tax planning. We've been friends for a long time. And he's an interesting guy, definitely worth getting to know. If something like this sounds interesting to you, don't take my word for it... To get in touch with Joel for more information (and for corrections on whatever I got wrong) about "the last, best tax shelter," e-mail him at nagellaw@aol.com. Good investing, Steve