What
you may not realize is that governments are another
threat as they are systematically attacking your
right to financial privacy even if you are not braking
the law. The war against drugs and as of late against
terrorism may seem to be justified considering the
news reports but the results are that ordinary peoples'
privacy that is being attacked. Now UK, Japan, Britain,
Germany and now over 100 countries passing legislation
against money laundering. Protecting your assets
is not a luxury its a necessity,
Decent
hardworking middle to upper class people who own
large and visible assets are displaying on the
table highly tempting morsels and if laws change
to allow seizure government is in for the gravy.
Proof
in point is the "Asset Forfeiture" Program
introduce in 1994 under the Asset Forfeiture Act
which allows random seizure of property - without
the need for any proof. This is strictly against
the US Constitution and Human Rights. All that
is required is an allegation that property was
used for illegal activity. If you are not putting
steps in place for protecting your assets your
government may be your biggest concern.
Here
is a quote from Amy Rudick director of the Office
of Financial enforcement at teh Treasury Dept
in 1991 where the intent of the program was described
as follows:
"The
more assets you can identify and seize, the more
money you've got, either going into the general
treasury or into asset forfeiture funds. That
money can be used to help law enforcement in criminal
prosecutions. I see this as a money making enterprise
for the government, and anything that's going
to make money is not going to die too quickly."
What
steps can you take in protecting your assets?
One thing you don't want to do is to lump all
them all together. This is a common mistake made
by many financial advisors and lawyers where they
use one financial structure to protect both high
risk and low risk investments. You may wish to
set up seperate trusts putting the low risk assets
together and creating seperat trusts for your
high risk assets.
Offshore
trust or an offshore life insurance policy are
some strategies you should seriously consider.
The benefits are that they shield you from currency
controls, possible confiscation of assets by government
political instability and other threats.
