Peter Macfarlane’s long-awaited Gold Report is now available for download in the Members’ Area here at Q Wealth Report.

If you have been looking into options for buying physical gold bullion but have been put off by the difficulty or the extra costs involved in buying gold bullion through local gold dealers, this report was written for you, by Q Wealth’s Offshore Banking and Asset Protection expert Peter Macfarlane.

As the gold holdings of the Barclays Gold Trust (Gold Exchange Traded Funds or ETFs for short) and the World Gold Council across the globe grew larger than the gold holdings of Switzerland this week, in this 11,000 word report Peter looks at the outlook for Gold during 2009 and beyond. Peter explains why in his view investing in anything other than real physical gold bullion is unsafe because of exposure to the global banking system. The importance of this cannot be stressed enough in the current climate. He explains why the whole point of gold is a safe haven and why owning gold through an ETF or through substitutes like Perth Mint Certificates is just not the same as owning real gold bullion! (Not that it’s necessarily bad, says Peter… but nobody should mislead you into believing you are really buying gold)

Many people, however, are mystified when it comes to buying gold bullion offshore. Gold bullion kept in an offshore safe deposit box does not trigger any reporting requirements, but if you want to keep your gold ownership secret, then there are certain do’s and don’ts you need to know about before you buy a single ounce of gold. Peter explains in detail three strategies for buying gold offshore, privately and even anonymously if you wish. Whether you want to invest just a few thousand dollars or a few million, one of these three techniques will probably work for you.

Peter also talks about buying gold direct from the producers who own the gold mining assets. This is a way of cutting out the middleman – the gold and banking cartel. He touches too on how the Federal Reserve might be manipulating the gold price. Gold Price Manipulation is a big issue for all gold bugs to be aware of – and yet another reason why real physical bullion is the way to go!

Finally, where can you store your gold safely? Peter looks at different options in depth and reviews the pluses and minuses of each, from storing gold in a safe at home or a local bank, to storing bullion in tax free vaults at Zurich Airport in Switzerland. Little known secure safe deposit storage options where you can hide your gold safely in Austria, Switzerland and the Caribbean are also reviewed – and there’s a dire warning about why you should not hide your gold in the United Kingdom!

The Gold Report is essential reading for anyone interested in buying gold offshore or overseas. Best of all, The Gold Report is yours FREE! If you are a Q Wealth member, you can simply log in right now and download your copy. If you haven’t yet joined, take advantage of the opportunity to join online right now and download not just The Gold Report but also Peter’s Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009 and a host of other goodies available exclusively for members!

For Press Enquiries or Interviews with Peter Macfarlane, please contact Q Wealth Limited in London, preferably by e-mail.

by Peter Macfarlane for the Q Wealth Report

In the American media and press, a familiar news story is being rehashed – again! The IRS are trying to scare people away from perfectly legal asset protection and offshore banking strategies, by cashing in on publicity surrounding their recent coup against Swiss banking guant UBS. UBS have almost closed down their offshore private banking divisions in Geneva, Zurich and Lugano following IRS pressure.

“In the hush-hush world of Swiss banking, the unthinkable is happening: secrets are spilling into the open,” comments Lynnley Browning in the New York Times. “UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, agreed on Wednesday to divulge the names of well-heeled Americans whom the authorities suspect of using offshore accounts at the bank to evade taxes.”

Reading beyond the headlines, however, the truth becomes clearer:  “It is unclear how many of its clients’ names UBS will divulge. Federal prosecutors have been examining about 19,000 accounts at the bank, but UBS ultimately may disclose the identities of only a few hundred customers.”

This, dear reader, is what I wrote about here just a few days ago in my article Is Swiss or Offshore Banking Dead? No Way!

It’s pure hype, as the article continues quoting a known hater of all things offshore:   “The Swiss are saying that this is the end of Swiss banking as they knew it,” said Jack Blum, an offshore tax specialist. “Nobody will trust the security  of the Swiss bank account.”

Exactly as I predicted the other day – a few hundred, or more likely a few dozen, people who can be identified by the IRS as tax fraudsters for other reasons will have their banking details turned over to the IRS, in accordance with the treaties. Nothing new there. It is not the end of Swiss banking. It is just the IRS trying to get publicity to scare people away from offshore bank accounts.

The Swiss do, however, have another very significant problem at the moment, that you should take into account when considering Swiss banking. In an interview with Swiss daily newspaper Tagesanzeiger, a well-known economist has warned that Switzerland risks bankruptcy, if the recent market turmoil centering on Eastern Europe is not contained quickly.  At issue are loans made in Swiss francs to Eastern European debtors – in other words, sub-prime mortgages in places like Hungary, where the property market has collapsed. The rapid growth in many countries of Eastern Europe was stimulated through loans in Swiss francs. Swiss banks and offshore institutions loaned the local banks francs, which passed the francs on to their borrowers. The loans were attractive because borrowers paid interest rates much lower than required for loans in local currency.

With many countries in the region falling into depression, currencies and asset prices are plunging. Therefore, debtors domiciled in Eastern Europe are increasingly expected to have difficulty with mounting foreign debt loads — and that spells trouble for Switzerland…. There’s a translation of the original article here.

If you are interested in learning more about protecting your assets through Swiss private offshore banking, and more attractive lower profile wealth management alternatives in Europe and elsewhere, Q Wealth Report brings you the answers. The Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009 is a well-written and researched independent guide telling you in about 40 pages how to open your offshore bank account and – more importantly – how to keep it in good standing, and maintain a good relationship with your offshore banker.

Traveling with a second or even a third passport is becoming far more commonplace and accepted – that’s the conclusion of a recent article in the New York Times called Carrying a Second Passport? It’s not just for spies covering the advantages of travel with multiple passports, second citizenships and naturalization. Many Americans, says the article, don’t even realize that they already hold dual nationality and have the right to carry a second passport. Others, of course, don’t realize that they can completely legally buy a second passport through a so-called “Economic Citizenship” program.

For example, Alessandro Pappalardo, an artist in New York, holds passports from Italy and Argentina. Last year, he added an American one. Previously an airline employee in Argentina, he said, “I used to go a lot to Brazil, and I would always decide what passport to show depending on what line was shorter.”

Another example quoted in the article is Stefan Stefanov, who holds both United States and Bulgarian passports and works in Poland. He decides which passport to use depending on where he is headed for. “Of course, I don’t hide that I am a U.S. citizen,” Mr. Stefanov said. “But I don’t parade it either.”

Although statistics are hard to track down, as the world becomes more international and American citizens frequently feel discrimated against or targeted when traveling overseas, more Americans seem want second passports. “Savvy travelers and business travelers want to make sure they have two passports based on nationality because there are certain advantages,” says Jan Dvorak, president of Travisa, a passport services company in Washington, D.C., quoted in the Times article.

Perhaps the greatest advantage to holding a second passport for the global citizen is the ability to work without restriction in various countries – a particular benefit of passports from countries in the European Union. Also, says Dvorak , carrying a second passport is “a way of hiding where one has been,” when traveling among countries with soured relations – for example between Israel and Arab countries.

So how does one actually go about obtaining a second passport? As a general rule, to obtain a passport you must first become a citizen of the country whose passport you wish to carry. Once that is completed, the process of applying for a second passport is straightforward. Of course, it’s qualifying for the second citizenship that is the difficult part. But there are ways, even if you don’t have Irish, British, Italian or German ancestors. Israel, for example, allows anyone of Jewish heritage to use what is called aliyah, or the ‘Law of Return’.  This grants instant Israeli citizenship to anyone of Jewish ancestry or anyone who converts to Judaism.

Ruth Yoffe is another example quoted in the Times article who also carries a second passport. Ruth is the founder of Reloop Designs, a company that hires handicapped people in Cambodia to weave trendy baskets from recycled plastic. As a citizen of the United States and New Zealand, she travels frequently throughout Southeast Asia. “For obvious safety reasons, I always try and travel and put my visas on my New Zealand passport,” she said. “On a plane, I don’t want to be identified as an American if I have that choice, depending on where I am heading.”

Another advantage is cost savings. Visas are cheaper for New Zealanders. “They assume anyone else from any other country can’t be as rich” as Americans, Ms. Yoffe said. Many countries such as Brazil charge extra fees to Americans to reflect the cost of obtaining a US visa for citizens of that country.

Alex Thomas, the corporate manager of Travel Document Systems, a visa and passport services company in Washington, is quoted as saying that some of his clients are “uneasy traveling with a U.S. passport, and if they have an additional passport, they prefer to use it…. four or five people a month who ask specifically what they need to do to get a passport” for another country… Because of the way things are going in the world,” he said, he expects that number to rise.

What the Times article omits to mention, however, perhaps on grounds of political correctness, is the possibility of buying a second passport. So called “Economic Citizenship” programs allow wealthy individuals and families to purchase a second citizenship from a country such as St Kitts and Nevis or Dominica. The only requirement to obtain one of these passports is to make an economic investment in the country.

Although expensive, these high end economic citizenship programs are often worthwhile for wealthy individuals who do not have the time or inclination to wait the two to five years necessary to establish residence in another country and apply for citizenship via naturalization in one of the more liberal countries for obtaining second passports such as Dominican Republic or Paraguay. Additionally, they have the advantage of being completely tax free and not being mired in bureaucracy or military service obligations.

Second passports and citizenships, as an important asset for sovereign individuals, are a frequent topic in The Q Wealth Report. We keep readers up to date on the frequent changes to the rules. If you are interested in obtaining a second citizenship or passport, for privacy, freedom and protection, you need The Q Wealth Report. Sign up today on this site!

says Peter Macfarlane, Offshore Banking Expert at The Q Wealth Report

The recent scandal involving Swiss bank UBS and the closure of 19,000 offshore bank accounts for American account holders has people running scared. It’s been a big publicity coup for the IRS and indeed for European tax authorities too. However, I was interviewed the other day for a forthcoming magazine article, and the interviewer asked me bluntly whether offshore banking, and more specifically Swiss private banking, is “over.” This got me thinking.

The why and the how of offshore banking for security and asset protection is alive and well. In fact, for American and European Union citizens, banking offshore is more important than ever. Here’s why:

1. First of all, the hype in the media suggests that those 19,000 account holders will be in trouble with the IRS. This is not true. Sure, it’s what the IRS want you to believe, because they don’t want you to bank offshore. If you bank offshore they have less control over your money – so bad news for governments. But provided you have done nothing illegal, those people have nothing to fear. Even if those people have been illegally evading their US tax obligations, most likely they still have nothing to fear – though they should be taking urgent steps to put things right. The truth is that IRS attempts to learn the identities of the 19,000 account holders will be handled by UBS on a case-by-case basis strictly in accordance with both Swiss and American law and the respective international treaties, with UBS refusing to cooperate in any wide-net fishing expedition. By closing the accounts, UBS have done the right thing in helping to protect their clients.
2. UBS clients will need to move their accounts to other banks, or the clients will receive checks in the mail. Obviously, depositing the checks in a home bank would leave a paper trail – playing right into the hands of the IRS. The IRS hopes that those affected who might not have declared their Swiss bank accounts will be scared and own up. If they don’t, however, the chance that they will be ‘caught’ is almost nil. Fortunately, there are still plenty of lower profile, secure offshore banks out there who are willing to take on the new business – even from American or European citizens.
3. The mistake these people made was banking with UBS in the first place. It is stretching things these days even to call UBS a Swiss bank. It would be better described as an international bank, and it has a huge presence in the USA. It is therefore vulnerable to pressure being put on its US operations to breach Swiss bank secrecy laws. If you want further proof, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan said “We can’t get every bank in front of us to do what they did,” referring to UBS rolling over and apologizing. Very true words from the Senator! The basic rule in choosing an offshore bank is to go for one that has no offices or employees in your ‘home’ country. Another basic rule is “you don’t know until you go” – in other words, if you want to open a serious Swiss or other offshore bank account, get on a plane!

I mentioned above that affected account holders should be taking “urgent steps to put things right.” What are those steps? The fact is there are plenty of ways you can achieve the goals you are seeking, serious asset protection, and full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. Those are topics we frequently write about here in The Q Wealth Report, and you will find some starting points in my Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009 which is available right now for free download in the Members’ Section. The Practical Offshore Banking Guide includes some offshore banking notes especially for US citizens and residents, and another section especially for European Union residents and citizens.

Q Wealth Report is your resource for offshore asset protection, banking privacy, and wealth creation information. A subscription costs just $87 per year, and if you don’t feel  our service is worth a lot more than that once you have signed up, you are covered by our full no-quibble money back guarantee! Plus, as soon as you sign up you gain instant access to our members section to download a series of free reports including the Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009. What are you waiting for? Join today!

Some of the large banks in the United States are like “dead men walking” and most are “insolvent”. That is the conclusion of an article by Steve Lohr in today’s International Herald Tribune.

Nouriel Roubini,  professor of economics at the New York University, has to date been both pessimistic and prescient about the crisis. In his latest report, Roubini estimates that total losses on loans by American financial firms and the fall in the market value of the assets they hold will reach $3.6 trillion, up from his earlier estimate of $2 trillion.

Of the total, he calculates that American banks face half that risk, or $1.8 trillion, with the rest borne by US non-bank financial institutions (such as insurance companies) and banks based outside the USA.

“The United States banking system is effectively insolvent,” Roubini said.

Roubini’s numbers might be the highest, but he’s certainly not alone in his dire predictions. Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, estimates that the United States banks have a capital shortage of $500 billion. “In a more severe recession, it will take $1 trillion or so to properly capitalize the banks,” said Johnson, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, quoted in the IHT article.

At the end of January, the IMF raised its estimate of the potential losses from loans and other credit securities originated in the United States to $2.2 trillion, up from $1.4 trillion last October. The IMF says that US and European banks would need at least $500 billion in new capital, a figure more conservative than those of many economists.

Still, these numbers are all based on estimates of the value of complex mortgage-backed securities in a very uncertain economy. “At this moment, the liabilities they have far exceed their assets,” said Posen of the Peterson institute. “They are insolvent.”

Yet, as Posen and other economists are at pains to point out, there are crucial issues of timing and market psychology that surround the discussion of bank solvency. If one takes the somewhat optimistic view that current conditions simply reflect a temporary panic, then the value of the banks’ toxic assets could well recover over time. If not, then we can guess what will happen.

“If they had to sell these securities today, the losses would be far beyond their capital at this point,” says another expert, Raghuram Rajan, a professor of finance and an economist at the University of Chicago graduate business school “But if the prices of these assets will recover over the next year or so, if they don’t have to sell at distress prices, the banks could have a new lease on life by giving them some time.” That sort of breathing room is known as regulatory forbearance – essentially a bet by regulators that time will help heal banking wounds.

Note: If you are worried about your exposure to the financial collapse and the falling dollar, the answer might be right here. Q Wealth Offshore Banking Expert Peter Macfarlane will be giving a presentation on offshore banking in Ireland next month at Q Wealth’s “Meet the Men Who Made Their Clients Millions” event along with Dr Richard Cawte, It’s not too late to book your place, by clicking on the link above. Otherwise, sign up for Q Wealth’s Q Bytes newsletter today so you can receive our free missives approximately once a month.

by Peter Macfarlane, Joint Editor of The Q Wealth Report

I talk to people every day who are dismal. It would be easy to get depressed myself. Snow might be beautiful to some, but the humid grey skies that have been covering much of the northern hemisphere lately don’t inspire happiness in most of us. But I think it’s the economic doom and gloom that is really causing the serious pain and sending people scurrying to protect their remaining assets, or to find warmth and companionship (Funny side note, A recent survey found that Expats are most likely to fall in love in sub-zero Germany..)

As a general principle I firmly believe that health and happiness are essential ingredients in success and international wealth creation. You must be at ease with yourself before you can do anything useful. If you are depressed or desperate, you are likely to fail. Healthy, happy, positive people are the ones who make money. After all, what is wealth? It’s health, happiness and prosperity.

I’m not, however, into positive thinking psycho-babble and cookie cutter self improvement ideas. I’m a realist, an offshore banker by profession. Every now and then, it’s good to look back on what is wrong in our lives. That’s the only way to learn from bad experiences and change things for the better. Some of us work better than others under pressure or to deadlines – but all of us have to go through difficult times and learn how to react to create success and wealth.

It’s impossible to avoid being depressed sometimes. The question is how to get over it…. how to come out ahead. Q Wealth’s property tycoon and forex guru Thomas Bolther writes that “Anyone can become a tycoon if they dare to cut off some security and clean up their lives. It is a hard road but it is a road that makes you strong and eventually very rich as you will one day hit a gold mine.”

I agree with Thomas to an extent, but it seems to me that many people cling to a false sense of security. Jobs are a typical example. How many millions of people who thought they had secure jobs have discovered otherwise over just the past few months? Now they are being forced to make radical changes. These are testing times. If they had made contingency plans earlier, would they have felt more secure?

I’ve been making radical changes too. My significant other and I had to make the difficult decision last week to close a side business we’ve been running for the last five years. It’s just a small case in the global big picture, but I’m going to lose all the money I invested and I’m having to put people out of work, which is always very hard going. The problem was that the business was simply not making money, but was creating a lot of work, stress and headaches for us.

In cases like this the pure positive thinker might soldier on, working for free, believing things have to get better one day. But no, you can’t do that. It would be a mistake. It’s better to cut losses and move on to something new. Failure is nothing to be ashamed of – this crisis caught us all by surprise. For me, putting positive energy into existing or new successful projects makes much more sense than having energy sucked out of me by a business that’s on the rocks.

Getting rid once and for all of this side business will free up a lot of time for new, more enjoyable activities. We always enjoy travel and experiencing new places, new cultures, new international lifestyles and new culinary experiences. Well, this difficult decision is going to allow us to travel more, too, living closer to the true PT (Perpetual Traveler or Permanent Tourist) lifestyle.

For the last few years I’ve been the typical business traveler – something I have come to hate. I go to get things done but don’t have time for fun. I can’t enjoy the places I am visiting. Now, I can take my young family with me, go for a month or two to Montevideo,  Uruguay, look forward to a few summer months in Europe, and may be we will go to explore China together as a family, which is something we’ve been planning and dreaming of for the last five years.

Some people question the wisdom of travelling with young kids, taking them out of school etc. I couldn’t disagree more. Travel is the best education that money can’t buy. My children are already fluent in English and Spanish and talk about bush fires in Australia or schools in Japan like some kids might talk about what’s going on in the next classroom. They are so easy going. Kids are just so much more flexible than us grown-ups. To children, everything is possible. They haven’t yet learned to impose limits and restrictions on themselves. If they fall down, they just get up and carry on. We all need to think like children.

Fortunately my business – writing and consulting – can be run from anywhere there’s an internet connection. But so many more businesses these days can be run in a similar manner. I know forex and options traders, internet marketers, e-commerce guys and even real estate gurus who travel the world, learning new things, living the international jet set life, and opening their minds – while making money.

For those without a real portable trade, real estate investing is something fairly simple, that most people understand. And if you have a relatively small amount of money, you can make a lot in real estate now. There will be an article on this in issue 52 of The Q Wealth Report, due out in mid February.

Of course, the rules of the game have changed completely. You can pretty much forget about bank financing, though if you are one of the lucky few who qualify it is very cheap at the moment. But if you want to buy up some land and start building, the cost of materials like steel and concrete has fallen by half… and whereas a year or two ago you had to beg artisans to come to work for you, now they will beg you for work.

Latin America is my playground for the moment and I just see so much opportunity around here today. Latin Americans tend to take financial crises in their strides. They’ve been there, done that. Put bluntly, they are used to living in poverty, used to not getting loans. So it’s no big deal for them. Whether you are in Ecuador or Mexico, Panama or Uruguay, the recession is not hitting so hard. Plus, it’s hard to be depressed when you are living cheap in a tropical paradise.

And right now, if you are lucky enough to have US dollars, your money is going a very long way. There is some urgency to this situation as I’m sure the US dollar will collapse pretty soon, and it has a very long way to fall. Not sure where to start looking for these opportunities? For International Real Estate Offshore World is good, as is Escape Artist.

Anyway, I’ve gone on much longer than intended today. If you’ve found this article useful, and you are not yet a subscriber to Q Bytes our free newsletter on International Living and Wealth Creation, then I strongly recommend you go ahead and sign up right now. It’s free. And not just that, we’ll also give you our five part e-mail course Secrets of the Super Rich covering offshore banking, international finance, asset protection and wealth creation.