Modern offshore architecture:
Shock-proof by design

Today's changing offshore climate demands that modern offshore strategies be built on stronger yet flexible foundations if they are to withstand the forces that seek to bring them down.

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OFFSHORE-FOX.COM
with Peter Widder

While those that make up the traditional offshore market continue to praise the delights of Caribbean tax haven corporations like the last swansong of a dying diva, a whole new approach to financial privacy and tax-efficient planning has evolved.

The days of the "offshore advisor", whose advice was based around the sale of his menu of products, are coming to an end. Modern offshore strategies can no longer be built around yesterday's principles.

Instead, building shock-proof corporate foundations that withstand today's unpredictable offshore world is a growing and profitable area of specialisation for those that have recognised this market-driven opportunity.

The move away from simple answers has created a new form of corporate science, one that calls not only on multiple jurisdictions, but also on multiple professional disciplines.

Even though it has been around for a while, this is a concept lacking a title that adequately describes its process; I have therefore taken the liberty of calling it Jurisynergy.

Jurisynergy: Designer offshore
structures of today

Put simply, Jurisynergy is the use of different aspects of a number of given jurisdictions to form a whole. As much as fusion cuisine can create some extraordinary experiences for the palate by combining a variety of unlikely ingredients and styles of cooking, Jurisynergy principles are being applied to create some of the most ingenious of offshore structures.

Jurisynergy is an answer to the recent attacks against offshore financial centres. As a concept, it is the exact reverse of the approach taken by the traditional offshore services provider whose aim is to sell a general, fit-all package, typically consisting of no more than a pre-existing brass plate corporation, a bank account, and office facilities, all "stuck" together in the same jurisdiction.

			Numerous clients affected by recent intrusions into their affairs have turned to jurisynergy in search of financial privacy and sometimes even complete financial anonymity.

Building a designer offshore structure begins with a question: What are the objectives? What should the structure provide? Not surprisingly, numerous clients affected by recent intrusions into their affairs have turned to jurisynergy in search of financial privacy and sometimes even complete financial anonymity. Taxation, which was once the main driving force in this market, has taken a second place today.

It will be of interest to many that jurisynergy makes financial anonymity wholly possible by carefully constructing an entity from a number of different parts (aspects) of relevant jurisdictions. Little-known facts concerning bank secrecy laws and customs in certain banking centres, as well as fiscal loopholes existent in wholly unlikely -- and therefore very low profile -- jurisdictions can be amalgamated to form the desired result.

The principles of jurisynergy

It is in no one's interest to offer detailed information on how to compose such carefully researched corporate structures in such an open forum as a printed article. It may be observed though that the principal factors are as follows:

1. Utilise differences in regulatory systems -- regulatory arbitrage -- to achieve a given result: privacy, anonymity, low tax, no tax or whatever.

2. Disguise or obscure the fact that the structure was designed for the purpose mentioned in (1) above. It is crucial that the visible portion of the structure -- that which may be open to scrutiny -- be formed in a low profile (i.e. non-traditional offshore haven) jurisdiction.

3. Be structured in such a way as to allow the maximum amount of flexibility to integrate any new regulatory opportunities that may arise which contribute towards the attainment of (1) above in the event of better conditions becoming available, or as a result of regulatory changes adversely affecting the structure's primary purpose.

Jurisynergy-compliant structures offer what a traditional offshore fit-all solution cannot. They do not stand out as being primarily for the purpose for which they are intended, and as such will not attract the undue scrutiny of any prying authority or a paranoid bank officer. They are flexible enough to withstand the continuously changing regulatory map and use this for both beneficial and defensive means.

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