Peter Macfarlane reporting from West Cork, Ireland:

I’m writing this update for Q Wealth’s Offshore Banking and Asset Protection blog from my hotel room overlooking beautiful Bantry Bay in West Cork, Ireland. After waking to beautiful blue skies and morning sun shining into my room, I was served a hearty Irish breakfast with a large pot of delicious coffee. That will keep me going until tonight I think, when we are holding a welcome dinner for the delegates coming here to the ‘Meet the Men’ event, which will start tomorrow.

Time now to answer some client e-mails, a conference call on a secure communications line with a Swiss banker about a client who is buying some gold bullion over there, and then a walk along the beach to work off some of those carbohydrates from breakfast before Richard comes over!

I must say that travel is one of the pleasures of working in the offshore industry, and particularly in my work where I am in regular contact with clients, offshore banks, lawyers, asset protection specialists and the like. Frequent business travellers know that travel is not always as glamorous as it might appear, but I do feel I am privileged that my work takes me to so many interesting places.

For some reason I often end up in tropical places which I generally love, sleeping in top class hotels near the beach! But nothing could have been more beautiful than the cool mist over Bantry Bay this morning. It was a great way to wake up relaxed and refreshed after my long journey yesterday, and I was immediately reminded of Richard Cawte’s expression “your ships come in over a calm sea.” In other words, a calm and relaxed state of mind is probably the most important thing when it comes to creating wealth offshore (or anywhere for that matter)

But although I still enjoy travel and waking up somewhere new, there is one thing more important: and that is the people I meet. I’m looking forward to tonight, meeting the line-up of delegates I’ll be spending the next few days with. We always have such a wide variety of interesting people, with many differing interests but a common theme: the desire to achieve freedom, wealth and privacy in a decidely unfree world.

Quite frequently, clients tell me they don’t want to come to these events for fear there will be government agents present. To that, I answer that we would sniff them out immediately. Yes, of course if you go to offshore banking events with hundreds of mainly US-based delegates present, the IRS will be taking an interest. They can and do buy seats and there is no way to avoid that.

Our Q Wealth Events are different, however, because we have much smaller groups – usually about a dozen people. Of course we respect privacy, but we like to get people to open up and talk. And somehow I have a very good sense of whether people are telling the truth or not. Tax collectors generally believe they are doing something good as that is the way they have been indoctrinated. They have been taught that the fruits of the labour of wealthy and productive people should be redistributed to the poor – or used to fight wars to help the elites.

Most people are attending our offshore wealth events not really because of tax issues, but for more ideological reasons than that. We have people from all over the world (New Zealand being the furthest away this time I think) who are getting together because they hate to see what is going on in the world, with our financial and privacy rights being eroded. People are genuinely sad to see the US dollar collapsing due to the US government’s policies, for example. I am too.

But the ones who come to our events are in the minority who are not going to stand by, watch the TV drivel and see things collapsing around them. They are the brave people who are actually doing something about it for themselves, as individuals and for their loved ones.

Although we call this event ‘Meet the Men’ I really prefer the description ‘Meeting of Minds.’ Many people are genuinely scared to go offshore, after all the hype and negative publicity. They realise it is not only their legal right, but only common sense and duty to their families to diversify risk internationally in turbulent times. But still, there is often that little voice at the back of their heads telling them to be careful. And quite right too.

So attending offshore events like this is a relatively harmless way of dipping your toes in the water slowly. Talk face-to-face with people who have been there and done it. Make lasting friendships with like-minded individuals from around the world. And over several days, even if you don’t take in all the information, you will learn so much and get a much better impression of the way things work offshore. (I’m comparing for example to personal meetings where I meet clients in a hotel somewhere for a couple of hours)

Once the events are over, we always allow time for personal consultations so you can put together your own plan. There is, however, no obligation… and of course it will be up to you and you only to follow through with your plan.

That’s why I think Q Wealth Events are such an important part of our services to members. If you are considering going offshore, attend one of our events as part of your decision making and due diligence process. You are too late now for this one, but we will shortly be announcing dates for the next events, early next year. Please make sure you are on our free Q Bytes mailing list if you would like to be kept informed. No obligation at any time of course.

Our focus here at Q Wealth is on protecting your personal and financial freedom, wealth and privacy. Naturally offshore asset protection is an important component of that. A balanced portfolio would include both offensive (or should I say proactive) and defensive strategies.

The key thing to realize is that it’s not enough just to make money. In the current environment, your dollar, pound or euro balance could be going up – but you are still losing money… due to the ongoing devaluation of fiat currency! If that’s something you have a hard time getting your head around (and who could blame you, since the mainstream media don’t report on this) then you need to read more Q Wealth articles. I would start with this page: Offshore Gold Bullion vs Fiat Money

There you’ll find a good explanation of the value of gold in relation to fiat currency like the dollar, which is backed by nothing but the declining faith and credit of the US government! Although written a few months ago, it’s particularly relevant today as gold has just burst through the $1,050 mark.

You might have heard of ‘forex trading’ – a way you can make or lose lots of money very quickly. Big banks make big money on forex. But most individual investors I know of who try it end up losing their shirts. And more than a few of the forex trading sites out there that promise you huge returns are forex trading scams. Bottom line, it’s not for average investors like you and me who have other things to do besides trade.

But there is a little-known variation on forex trading that is known as the ‘currency sandwich’ or ‘arbitrage loan.’ This is still speculative, but is something you can leave on its own and just monitor in say ten minutes, once a week.

Some European private banks like Jyske Bank and Finansbanken (Bank of Copenhagen) have been offering this for years, but the vast majority of investors have never heard of it.

The key thing here is that you can get a 100% offshore loan, available to anyone, regardless of credit history. You can borrow money from an offshore bank at say 2% interest with no scheduled repayment date, then turn right around and invest it simultaneously for 10% – 30% a year return. In other words it’s a classic way to make money using other people’s money…!

How does this work? Is it a good idea?

Once you’ve established a relationship at the right bank, they will arrange for you to borrow money in currencies like Swiss Francs, Yen or Dollars where the interest rate is very low. Then you invest the proceeds of the loan in buying fixed income products in currencies like New Zealand Dollars, South African Rand or Hungarian Forint.

Let’s say you agree a five times leverage with the bank. If the initial deposit is $100,000, you get a loan of $500,000 making a total of $600,000. This can then be invested in a pre-defined diversified portfolio of instruments like bonds or CDs.

There are two ways you can gain – or lose. There’s the exchange rate factor: raising a loan in one currency and investing in another can lead to huge exchange rate gains as wells as losses. For example if you believe the US dollar will go down relative to the Aussie dollar, you might borrow in USD and then invest in AUD, looking for ‘capital gains’ on the currency.

Then there’s the interest rate factor: Investments are made in bonds – often government bonds – which pay a much higher rate of return than what you are paying in interest on the loan, leaving a profit there.

Given the right market conditions, this deal gives you the possibility of making extraordinary profits. The more volatile the markets – the more your profits can be.

The downside, obviously, is that sometimes such deals go against you – basically if you get the market wrong.  However you don’t generally get completely wiped out, because it’s very rare for these currencies to devalue overnight.

The next question of course is which banks offer this type of loan? I named a few above, but those are not necessarily the most confidential and if you happen to be a US citizen, you may find the reporting requirements an unwarranted intrusion on your privacy. As I said, there are a number of lesser-known European private banks that will offer this kind of deal – even to USA citizens provided the accounts are  are established via offshore vehicles (for example Panama Corporations or Private Interest Foundations ). A cheap Panama corp will suffice here since the goal is not tax planning but simply asset protection and opening up new opportunities.

But you must know who to ask, and how to ask (discreetly). I wouldn’t go so far as to say these deals are only available to insiders, but they are not available to people who walk in off the street – or the internet. That’s the reason I’m not going to name banks here. Then these high level private bankers would be flooded with e-mails from wannabees and tire kickers who don’t really understand the deal.

If you are interested in finding out more about these deals, first you must be a member of Q Wealth. If you are not already, you can sign up online right now for a mere $87. Then I will be happy to name such banks to you in an individual e-mail, as part of the free consultation that all members are entitled to. So, what are you waiting for? This is a great way not just to protect yourself against declining currencies like the US dollar, but actually to prosper and create wealth… out of the US government’s poor management of the economy. Now doesn’t that sound like the way things should be?