With all the things going on in the world today, sometimes it’s tempting to procrastinate on important things. I recently received my annual expat health/medical insurance renewal reminder and, of course, I put off handling the renewal until tomorrow. But now it’s been taking up space in my inbox for a few days (and I try to keep my inbox completely clear by sorting or replying to messages as soon as they arrive) I will handle it.

About five years ago I searched long and hard until I found an international health coverage provider I was happy with. And I can report that I’m very satisfied with the service I’ve received from offshore brokerage Expat Medical Insurance and their primary underwriter, Multinational Underwriters.

Although Multinational Underwriters are based in Indiana, USA, the policy I have doesn’t actually cover me for the USA and Canada. As specialists in the international health insurance business, they don’t sell their medical insurance policies to US or Canadian residents – they do however have the option for coverage in the USA and Canada if you are visiting there. And of course US and Canadian expat citizens are very welcome and are a large part of this company’s clientele.

I also went for a high excess on my policy ($2,500). This means the insurance cover is excellent value. Dare I say it, cheap! It is there for real energencies and I know I can rely on fast service s well as a free choice of the best hospitals anywhere in the world. At the same time, I’m not subsdizing hypochondriacs who visit their G.P. every month and make a claim for it. And I’m not paying for the stratospheric costs of healthcare in the US and Canada which I rarely visit anyway.

Places I live offshore it is cheap to visit a doctor for a regular consultation… between about $5 and $40 depending on the doctor. I just got a load of dental work done for $35. So it’s much easier just to pay for incidentals like this in cash, not have the hassles of making small claims, but still have the reassurance of the critical coverage if I or a family member really need it.

Anyway, another reason I decided to write about Health Insurance today was an announcement that came through from Multinational Underwiters that they are changing their name. As from 1st July they will be part of HCC global.

To quote:

We do want to stress to the vigor the HCC name brings to our products and services. In the current economic climate, there isn’t a better time to stand behind our strengths. As we see competitors wane due to economic stresses of the insurance business, HCC Insurance Holdings continues to grow its market share and status. We provide security for
clients by showcasing the following:

• Rated AA (Very Strong) by Standard & Poor’s
• AA (Very Strong) by Fitch Ratings
• A+ by A.M. Best
• Shareholders’ equity of $2.7 billion
• Assets of $8.6 billion
• Forbes Magazine named HCC Insurance Holdings one of 130 companies worldwide as a Global High Performer.

The actual insurance offered by this company is underwritten by Lloyds of London. which provides accident and health insurance to over 1,000,000 people in over 100 countries. Lloyd’s currently enjoys an ‘A’ (Strong) rating from Standard and Poor’s.

I don’t tell you all this to bore you with statistics, but simply to point out that this combination of HCC Global and Lloyds of London gives you the strength of two major companies from both sides of the Atlantic. The administration of HCC Global has direct settlement agreements with many top hospitals worldwide, particularly in Latin America (Mexico, Panama etc). But even where they don’t have settlement agreements, you don’t need to worry as they will take care of bills.

What you should have however (especially if you go for the high deductible like I do, but anyway it’s good policy) is good working credit cards so in case of emergency you can reassure a local hospital for initial costs. I would say having $5000 always available by credit card is a good idea. That may sound easy but many banks these days put daily limits on credit cards, even gold cards, which could mean in a dire emergency you are trying to call a bank on the other side of the world in the middle of the night trying to get them to raise yor daily limit, even though you might have funds available. Not a nice prospect!

I say ‘working’ credit cards because some banks are more reliable than others. My wife has a regular credit card from one of the biggest banks in the world, and sometimes authorizations are declined due to technical problems. It took about 6 months for them to get the Chip-and-PIN system working right. That is NOT what I call a ‘working’ credit card.

One bank I can recommend that issues working credit cards and puts absolutely no daily limits on spending is the bank we work with in Cyprus. We can arrange introductions to this bank free of charge for Q Wealth Members, who will also find further details in the Practical Offshore Banking Guide.

Anyway, for your international health insurance take a look at Expat Medical. You can check rates online without any obligation to provide personal details. You will also find more information on their health insurance for international students and  life insurance policies for expats.

By Doug Hornig, Editor, BIG GOLD for Q Wealth Report

Tuesday, October 9, 2007 started as a nice day in New York City. A lovely early fall day, with the temperature still a balmy 80° at 2:00 in the morning. By evening, though, the temperature had dropped twenty degrees, the clouds had rolled in, there was thunder and rain.

As with the weather, there were some hints of trouble here and there on Wall Street. But all in all, things could not have seemed better. Little did we know, the stormy end of 10/9/07 signaled a very large bubble that had just popped.

That was the day when the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit its historic peak. From there, it was all downhill — slowly but steadily at first, and then violently after last August — until the Dow bottomed (for now) on March 9 of this year. Over that span, the index lost 54% of its value.

It’s been a crushing blow to just about everyone. But it’s already being referred to as the crash. As if the unpleasantness were now all behind us. More likely, in the future it will be seen as, simply, the first crash.

Don’t believe it? In a moment you will, when you see the scariest graph of the year.

But let’s quickly recall what’s already happened. During the late, great housing boom, interest rates were at microscopic levels, while bankers were encouraged to grant home loans on little more than a wink and a nudge. In order to inflate their balance sheets, those bankers resorted to all sorts of gimmicky, adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs), whose common feature was an interest rate that would eventually reset. That is, it would balloon somewhere down the road. And those most likely to come quickly to grief were the riskiest borrowers, who held loans known as “subprime.”

“But not to worry,” borrowers were told. “Betting on ever-rising home prices is the safest wager in the whole wide world. If you have problems with cash flow when the ARM resets, your house will be worth a lot more, so you can simply sell it and walk away with a nice chunk of change in your pocket.” Uh-huh.

The bankers themselves were a little more concerned about the deterioration of their portfolios. They took out insurance in the form of credit default swaps (CDSs). These were a brand-new invention in world financial history, allowing mortgages to be sold and resold until they were leveraged 20 times over. They became the shakiest part of a huge global derivatives market, with a nominal value in the tens of trillions of dollars.

For a while, this Ponzi scheme even worked. But then, as they had to, the ARMs began resetting, and there were defaults. Then more of them. Because at the same time, the housing market was cooling off and the economy was stalling out. More and more people were trapped in a situation where they owed more on their home than they could sell it for. Many simply mailed their keys to the bank and moved on.

All of this wreaked havoc in the derivatives market. Sellers of these exotic packages could no longer establish what they were worth. Buyers couldn’t determine a fair price and so stopped buying. As the ripples spread through the world financial system, trust disappeared and liquidity dried up.

Now consider that the base cause for all that dislocation was the subprime sector. And how big is that? Not very. Subprime mortgages account for only about 15% of all home loans. Their influence has been way out of proportion to their numbers, because of derivatives. Here’s the good news: the subprime meltdown has about run its course. These loans were resetting en masse in 2007 and the first eight months of ’08. Now they’re pretty much done.

And the bad news? No one in the mainstream media seems to be asking what should be a pretty obvious question: What about loans other than subprime? Truth is, the banks didn’t just trick up their subprime loans. ARMs were the order of the day – across the board.

Now, here’s that frightening graph we referred to earlier. …

Take a good, long look. You can see that from the beginning of 2007 through September of 2008, subprime loans (the gray bars above) were resetting like crazy. Those are the ones people were walking away from, sending a shockwave from defaults and foreclosures smack into the middle of the economy. Now they’re gone.

The ARM market got very quiet between December 2008 and March 2009, hitting a low that won’t be seen again until November of 2011. Small wonder a few “green shoots” have poked their heads above ground. But in April, resets began to increase and will reach an intermediate peak in June. After that, they tail off a little, going basically flat for the next ten months.

It’s not until May of 2010 that the next wave really hits. From there to October of 2011, the resets will be coming fast and furious. That’s 18 months of further turmoil in the housing market, and the beginning is still nearly a year away! (Although the months in between are likely to be no picnic, either.)

While it isn’t subprime ARMs that are resetting this time, neither are they prime loans. Those eligible for prime loans wisely tended to stay away from ARMs in the first place, as indicated by the relatively small space they take up on each bar.

No, the next to go are Alt-A’s (the white bars), Option ARMs (green) and Unsecuritized ARMs (blue). Alt-A’s are loans to the folks who are a small step up from subprime. Unsecuritized loans are a 50-50 proposition; either the borrowers were good enough that they weren’t thrown into the CDS pool, or they were so risky no one would insure them.

Those two are bad enough. But Option ARMs are the real black sheep, loans with choices on how large a payment the borrower will make. The options include interest-only or, worse, a minimum payment that is less than interest-only, leading to “negative amortization”-a loan balance that continually gets bigger, not smaller. Imagine what happens with those when the piper calls.

Once the carnage begins, will it be as bad as the subprime crisis? That’s the $64K question. Perhaps not. For one thing, subprime loans were a much larger chunk of the market when they started going south. For another, there’s been a lot of refinancing as interest rates dropped; that should help ease the default rate. And the government has massively intervened, with measures designed to prop up those who would otherwise lose their homes.

On the other hand, we’re in a severe recession, which wasn’t the case when the subprime crisis started. More people will be unable to meet payments. And the housing market has continued to decline, pressuring both marginal homeowners and banks that can’t sell foreclosed properties.

Is the stock market’s next 10/9/07 on the way? Yes. Which day will it be? That’s unknowable. It could be in a week, or not for another year.

But make no mistake about it, the second crash is coming. It can’t be prevented, no matter what desperate measures Obama and his hapless financial advisors come up with. All we can hope for is that, with a little luck, it won’t be as severe as the first one. But it will last longer. We aren’t even in the middle of the woods yet, much less on the way out.

The order of the day is to be very defensive. There will be few safe havens, but they do exist. Read our report on “48 Karat Gold,” a gold-related, conservative investment that has continued going up even while the common stock market bombed. It’s not too late to profit… click here to learn more.

PT privacy thinkers, wealth creators and offshore philosophers like us are constantly amazed by the bizarre and insane things happening in the world. We only need to turn on CNN, BBC or Fox News to be amazed.

Amazement, I believe, is a source of infinite richness. When we were children, we could easily be amazed at all the things the world had to offer. It’s something that we lose as we grow up, unfortunately. “I’ve seen it all before,” is a typical attitude.

The thing these days is that I am amazed not so much by what the world has to offer (a lot) but by how stupid some – dare I say most – of its inhabitants are.

Fortunately, readers of The Q Wealth Report can sit back with a certain smugness and quiet inner confidence because we know what’s going on. Well, sort of.

We can laugh, for example, about the swine flu saga, which officially passed off the radar a few days ago and is now a non-issue. I don’t normally have time for internet jokes but I saw a great internet floater yesterday with some real and photoshopped images of face masks making fun of the whole swine flu fiasco. I can send it to anyone who is interested.

But what was behind Swine flu? A huge transfer of wealth, that’s what. Some people lost (small Mexican restaurant owners), some people (those selling snake oil, vaccines, face masks and state health services for example) certainly gained. More than that, I don’t know. I don’t get in to conspiracy theories. Or as libertarian writer H.L. Mencken said,

“The fact that I have no remedy for all the sorrows of the world is no reason for my accepting yours. It simply supports the strong probability that yours is a fake.”

On that note, here are a few more thoughts from Mencken for the weekend. Mencken, for those who don’t know him, was an American journalist and newspaper man known as the Sage of Baltimore. Wikipedia calls him “one of the most influential American writers and prose stylists of the first half of the 20th century.”

Mencken On Taxes

Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.

Mencken On Change

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth – that the error and the truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cure of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

Mencken On Democracy

[Democracy is] based upon propositions that are palpably not true and what is not true, as everyone knows, is always immensely more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of men than what is true. They turn, in all the great emergencies of life, to the ancient promises, transparently false but immensely comforting, and of all those ancient promises there is none more comforting than the one to the effect that the lowly shall inherit the earth.

Mencken On God:

It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods. If such a board actually exists it operates precisely like the board of a corporation that is losing money.

Protect your children! Catch your cheating spouse!

Those are the claims made by a rash of new websites selling cellphone based tracking and spyware software. And the scariest thing is that this dreadful software does exactly what it claims. Global Nomads researched and tested some of these packages and gave us some advance information ahead of a forthcoming update to their excellent mobile phone privacy report.

All you need is physical access to a cellular phone for less than five minutes, and you can install a kind of ‘virus’ that will track locations and make conversations and text messages available to you in real time. You can access the contacts list, see photos exchanged. You can even make outgoing calls from the compromised phone via your computer….

It may well be illegal, but that probably won’t stop jealous spouses. And if you can do this, just what capabilities does the real Big Brother government have?

There are very few technical restrictions on how this works. According to the frequently asked questions at phonestealth.com for example:

Will this work in my country? Yes! This product does not depend upon country or mobile network. It will work anywhere in the world!

Will I have to install any software on the phone(s) I wish to spy on? No. This product only needs to be installed on your phone.

Whereas bigdaddyspy.com at least shows a sense of humor:

It’s time to catch ‘em where they least expect it ON THEIR CELL PHONE! THIS PRODUCT IS BOTH CREATED FOR THE FAITHFUL AND PRESENTED TO THE FALSE-HEARTED TO DISCOURAGE INFIDELITY AND RENEW TEMPERANCE AND VIRTUE.

Flexispy.com goes one step further, actually showing a photo of a couple in flagrante with the testimonial:

Thanks to FlexiSPY I finally figured out my wife was cheating on me with my brother. I had a bad feeling about this for over a year. After the divorce, my life is so much better now. Thanks FlexiSPY, I’m free again – Divorced

Of course we find these sites somewhat distasteful and for that reason we are not creating hyperlinks direct to their sites. But you can search for them on Google and click on their sponsored ads (each click costs them money!)

Some of these sites, it’s worth noting, also sell a few more privacy-friendly products such as a cellphone voice changer.

Our advice for years has simply been to avoid cellphones. It’s better to communicate via e-mail that can be made secure more easily via open source security software. If you must use a mobile, it’s best to buy pre-paid anonymous phones in countries that don’t ask for ID for cellular service (Which countries don’t ask for ID for mobile phone service? Panama is one. We would welcome contributions from readers on others…)

Some of our Q Wealth friends are working right now on a new encrypted VOIP telephone service that should be available in the next month or two. This will pair nicely with secure laptops, privacy technology, and secure e-mail. If you would like to get advance information – especially if you are considering replacing your laptop or internet phone service soon – please talk to Peter Macfarlane or Brian Craig.

As for the consequences of this form of surveillance, even if done for something as seemingly innocuous as protecting your teenage daughter, asset protection expert Mark Nestmann warns “the consequences could obviously be catastrophic if you discuss anything on your cell phone you wouldn’t want published on the front page of The New York Times.” In an article on his blog he lists seven ways you can protect yourself against cellphone spyware.

In this article: which Swiss banks still offer privacy, and which do not (like Credit Suisse). And where to find better wealth management services that are not subject to the same political pressure… in other words, private banking that really is private…

We’ve all heard a lot recently about the supposed downfall of banking privacy in Switzerland. I’ve personally been contacted by many clients of UBS who have been notified that their Swiss bank accounts are being closed because of the recent scandals in the US.  Many clients undoubtedly chose UBS thinking it was “too big to fail,” or maybe just because they had hundreds of sales reps in the USA, not realizing that UBS was also “too big and too exposed.”

UBS actually describes itself on its website as “one of the world’s leading financial firms”…  and therein lies the problem! It’s not really a Swiss bank at all… it’s a global bank just like JPMorgan or Citigroup.

I’m on record elsewhere as saying that Credit Suisse will have similar problems soon too. If your money is in Credit Suisse, you have been warned! It’s too easy for foreign governments to put pressure on big international banks to give up their secrets.

So what are you to do if you want to bank in Switzerland? For starters, you could go for either one of those ultra-discreet private banks. They are so discreet they don’t have websites, they don’t even have their names outside their offices. But they are certainly a dying breed. Besides, they are overrated in my view – charging enormous fees for service that as a sophisticated investor you probably don’t need or want. In the last few years many have been taken over by bigger banks like UBS and the large Swiss Private Bank Julius Baer.

A better option in my view would be one of the Swiss Cantonal banks. These are banks owned by Swiss local governments (cantons) which means they are both very strong, and very focused on their local markets. They are good for three reasons:

1. They don’t have too many overseas clients – that makes them less of a target in the first place for foreign governments.
2. They often don’t have any offices outside Switzerland – which makes it much harder to apply pressure on them
3. Being associated with the government gives them additional political clout.

Many little cantons have their own banks and the best way to open accounts with them is to get on a plane. If you feel like paying a sizeable fee for a referral, a company called Micheloud & Cie has made quite a business out of bank introductions and is currently busy promoting Cantonal Bank accounts. But remember membership of Q Wealth costs just $87 and our members do get FREE bank referrals – full details in our Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009.

One of the bigger Cantonal banks, for example,  is Zuercher Kantonalbank, from Zurich. Here’s a link to ZKB’s Private Banking division, but the site is only in German. I’m sure they speak impeccable Englis – but not having English language publicity on the internet is undoubtedly  a calculated decision about the clientele they are seeking. You probably need a good local referral and a sizeable deposit to get in the door, but this is the kind of Swiss bank you should be looking for if your aims are privacy, class and good service at a fair price.

Many Swiss banks, of course, will no longer accept accounts from US or EU citizens at all. Who can blame them, given the recent pressures. In this case it may be necessary (and a darn site better privacy wise) to look for alternatives outside Switzerland. Neighboring Liechtenstein is no longer desirable, given that it is signing agreements with the US treasury and is working on a ‘swift agreement’ with UK tax authorities amongst others.

Austria is known as “where the Swiss go for private banking” and indeed Austrian banks have world class wealth management services. However, their membership of the European Union could be a problem. Austria is also a great place to buy gold bullion offshore.

Indeed I think to find real banking privacy today it is necessary to go further afield. Not so much to specific countries, but to banks that realise that jurisdictional arbitrage is one way to enhance their clients’ privacy. The modern boutique private bank will have highly qualified private bankers who are able to open accounts at subsdiary banks in several different jurisdictions. As an additional layer of both privacy and asset protection, offshore corporations and foundations are always a useful way of handling offshore accounts too.

I don’t have space to get further into ‘how to achieve real banking privacy’ here, but it’s the kind of thing we cover in our quarterly issues of The Q Wealth Report and at our events. You’ll also find the publications in our members’ section represent an excellent start, and I am happy to answer questions by e-mail on this topic from paid subscribers (sorry, but I just don’t have time to answer queries from people who have not signed up) Our next event is scheduled for Bantry, Ireland, so maybe you can make it? If you would like to be kept informed on such matters please take a moment to sign up to our free e-mail newsletter Q Bytes

What will Ricardo Martinelli’s election as the new President of Panama mean for the offshore banking sector and Panama’s tax haven status? Will Panama IBCs and Corporations still be attractive tax planning vehicles? Will Private Interest Foundations remain inpenetrable?

The election of a self-made multi-millionaire as Panama’s new President this last weekend is good news for anyone thinking of doing business in Panama’s booming offshore sector. “Super 99″ Supermarket tycoon Ricardo Martinelli beat socialist Balbina Herrera who was intent on raising taxes and threatened changes to Panama’s traditional laissez-faire approach to government.

Martinelli is a business friendly conservative who understands the need for fiscal discipline, says Reuters. What we particularly like about him is his money is not from family or government. He is a self-made millionaire who has been there, done that, seen hard times and survived – the real archetypal tycoon.

He was almost bankrupted by looting at his supermarkets after the US invasion of Panama in 1989 but since then he has built up business interests also in real estate, hydro electric energy (very smart guy), and sugar. The Panamanian electorate has bucked the recent trend in Latin America towards left-wing governments, showing once again that Panama is a business friendly country.

Needless to say, Martinelli is keen to court the Obama administration, given the importance of US trade with Panama. In common with what’s going on in the rest of the world, Panama is likely to loosen up bank secrecy somewhat over the coming years. Despite their committments to the G20 and OECD, we know the Panamanians will deliberately move slowly on this. But it is coming.

On the other hand, a closer relationship with the US, which Martinelli is seeking in the scope of a Free Trade Agreement, also stands to benefit the offshore sector through increasing opportunities for legitimate international tax planning. (See yesterday’s article about the enormous tax benefits US tax law actually allows for offshore business, especially in the pharma and tech sectors, and for high net worth individuals)

Indeed, the anti tax haven crusade is already getting worried about this prospect and cranking up the publicity… something that can only be a good sign for supporters of the right for individuals to do what they like with their own money!

The Tax Justice Network, in a recent article called Grimy Panama, describes Panama as an “especially unpleasant secrecy jurisdiction,” pointing out that unlike most tax havens and even their bete-noire Switzerland, Panama does not have any tax or information exchange treaties. Furthermore, they point out, “The OECD notes that Panama made a commitment in 2002 to conform to international tax norms but since has completed not a single agreement to implement its promise.”

Another report claims that this Free Trade Agreement between the USA and Panama, which comes much closer with the election of Martinelli, would “undermine U.S. efforts to stop ofshore tax-haven abuse.” Apparently, these people have some problem with Panama trying to create a “comparitive advantage” for itself through regulation of financial services… while in the almost the same breath they suggest that the USA should seek to gain what could only be described as a comparitive advantage for itself, by putting up legal and fiscal barriers to American companies wishing to do business overseas. Finally, needless to say, they throw in accusations of money laundering on behalf of American International Group, Mexican and Colombian narcotraffickers.

Bottom line? The socialists are worried because events in Panama and the possibility of a Free Trade Agreement would give Panamanian companies better access to US markets on more preferential terms. That could open up exciting new possibilities for paying less tax legally.

We are pleased to welcome Ricardo Martinelli as the new Panamanian President, and take this opportunity to remind readers that we are now offering a free e-book “Eight Important Things You Should Know Before Doing Offshore Business in Panama.” Because the business culture in Panama is different, the way of doing things may not be what you are used to, and there are certain ways of getting things done (or conversely doing things the wrong way) that might surprise you.  Download your e-book by Peter Macfarlane now, here: Panama Corporations and Banking – Hidden Truths Revealed.

by Peter Macfarlane, Offshore Banking expert for The Q Wealth Report

“Obama Plan Aims to Limit Use of Offshore Havens by Multinationals and the Wealthy” is the subheading of a Wall Street Journal article entitled Firms Face New Tax Curbs.

Hot on the heels of the crackdown on tax havens announced in the UK budget, President Obama today reveals what White House press officers are hyping as “a far-reaching crackdown on offshore tax avoidance and evasion, targeting many U.S.-based multinational corporations and wealthy individuals.”

Ironically this new attack does draw attention to the fact that there is a great benefit for American companies and wealthy individuals to going offshore completely legally. If you’ve been wondering whether all this “offshore stuff” is completely legal, here you have your answer!

The proposed changes, if they happen, will take place between 2011 and 2019. So how much money can you save by going offshore legally right now, starting with your 2009 tax bill, even if you have to make some changes over the coming decade?

As the article points out, however, the current tax system is actually very beneficial to American companies running business internationally. The pharmaceutical and technology industries are cited as particular beneficiaries, as are high net worth (HNW) individuals. Treasury and IRS officials acknowledge it has become much more commonplace in recent years for both businesses and  individuals to take advantage of low taxes as well as lack of transparency in many offshore tax havens.

So going offshore may not be politically correct, but it certainly is legal and beneficial… and morally the right thing to do as well, if you don’t approve of what the government does with taxpayers’ billions. In this situation I’m reminded of the famous tax case judged by Judge Learned Hand that I quoted in the Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009:

This decision became one of the bases of the US tax system at the IRS code.

Of course, it’s not an accident that the current tax system is very beneficial to American companies doing business overseas. The aim of previous governments that originally introduced this policy was to encourage American companies to do business overseas. Exports of goods and services were the mainstay of the American economy… until somewhere along the road the Chinese took over this role and the American economy became bloated by more and more money created out of thin air through dodgy banking transactions.

American technology firms like Microsoft or Google lead the world. Very likely if benefits like this had not been in place, they would not have decided to base themselves in the USA.

Obama, of course, knows this too… but he’s on the bandwagon at the moment trying to benefit from publicly cracking down against perceived abusers of the tax system.

Making it more difficult for these major pharmaceutical and technology firms to do business could be yet another disaster for the US economy. Microsoft alone has an economy bigger than many countries, and they are actually very well diversified geographically already. It would not take much to move their home base outside the USA, and I believe they would consider doing so in a flash if circumstances warranted it. Obama also doesn’t want to lose the likes of Microsoft and Google over a little publicity stunt, so he will have to take care.

Likewise, the High Net Worth investors who are sophisticated enough to be doing offshore are likely the ones who are actually creating wealth for the American economy. They are to be encouraged. If they leave the USA, the USA will be the loser, not the individuals.

So what will come of this? Frankly not much I believe. It is hype, designed to appeal to the masses, circulated by the mass media. To scare people off unsophisticated tax evasion tactics like having unreported personal offshore bank accounts … puehhlease!!!

People who read The Q Wealth Report know better than to believe the hype or break the law. We explain exactly how you can benefit from going offshore legally. We even offer a free five part course so if you are not yet amongst the super wealthy HNWs, you can become one. Module 1 of our free Secrets of the Super Rich course is about Offshore Banking. This one and the other four modules will allow you, in about ten minutes a day, to gain a new perspective of the world we live in – and the way you can prosper within it. We will show you ways you can legally create wealth offshore because of the recession – not in spite of it.

As I said at the beginning, this new attack does draw attention in no uncertain terms to the fact that there is a great benefit for American companies and wealthy individuals to going offshore completely legally. How much money can you save by going offshore legally right now, even if you have to make some changes over the coming decade? Start today with the Secrets of the Super Rich and The Q Wealth Report

by Peter Macfarlane, Offshore Banking Consultant for the Q Wealth Report

One recurring question we hear almost every day in the wealth management business is “How Can I Open a Swiss Bank account?” Whilst a minority of those asking the question might really be candidates for Swiss private banking, the majority seem to have watched too many Bond movies! This article is a brief introduction to Swiss banking to help you decide which of these categories you fit into.

First of all let me point out that if you are looking for a secret bank account, there are places that are much more discreet, much more under the radar than Switzerland. You’ll find, for example, nine alternatives to Swiss banks which also have that “private banking feel” listed in the Practical Offshore Banking Guide 2009, which is available free to Q Wealth members. This instantly-downloadable pdf guide also explains the truth behind some of the services associated with Swiss banking like anonymous numbered bank accounts (yes, it is still possible to open numbered bank accounts legally as of 2009! – details in the guide)

But what if you have your heart set on a real Swiss account? Opening a bank account in Switzerland is in theory not too difficult – but like all banks anywhere in the world, Swiss banks do reserve the right to refuse customers. Needless to say the recent hoo-hah from the G20 and the OECD has not made it any easier to open Swiss bank accounts. All banks are scared of being accused of money laundering and this has made it much harder, especially for non Swiss residents, to open bank accounts.

Then, you need to choose a Swiss bank according your requirements. If you want traditional private banking service and a free lunch each time you visit your banker, expect to invest at least a million as your opening deposit. Some of these real Swiss private banks are so discreet they don’t even have signs outside their offices, let alone websites.

You can, however, open accounts at more run-of-the-mill Swiss banks with a very low opening deposit or minimum figure to open accounts. Swiss banks like Migros or Swissquote Bank (which is really more of a discount brokerage, E-Trade style) have no minimum opening deposits whatsoever and you can start the process all by yourself – no need to pay an intermediary. The disadvantage is that, well, there is no particular advantage if you see what I mean… this is not traditional Swiss banking at all! There is nothing private about these banks. Swissquote, for example, will require you to waive bank secrecy before you can even open account!

If you have a Swiss work permit and wish to open a local Swiss bank account, that changes things significantly. In order to pay your salary in, your employer will probably require that you have a bank account. But Swiss working papers make all the difference.  Some of the documents you will need, according to expat website AngloInfo, are:

• Passport or identity card
• Recent utility bill (electricity is best)
• Residence permit
• A copy of your work contract
• Cross border workers from France or Germany, a copy of your permis frontalier (cross border work permit)

It is not necessary to make an appointment to open a current account, says Anglo Info. Opening an account can be done in a day and means of payments (like cash cards) will usually arrive within a week to ten days of the account being opened.

In general banks all over Switzerland are open from Monday to Friday from 08:30 to 16:30, and are closed at weekends and on public holidays.

You may, however, not need a Swiss bank account at all. Household bills and invoices are more commonly paid through the post office, with a so-called Bulletin de Versement (bill slip). Bill slips are attached to each bill that you receive by the post.

Below are some links to major Swiss retail banks. Remember these are not the same as Private Banks. If you are a non-resident looking to open a Swiss bank account, you need to be looking at Private Banks since they are the ones that accept non-resident business. To sign up for our free newsletter on Asset Protection and Private Offshore Banking, visit our Q Bytes page.

Major Swiss Banks

• Banque Coop
• Banque Migros
• Banque Raiffeisen
• Crédit Suisse
• UBS SA