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.
