Opening offshore bank accounts:
Paper and privacy

Open with care, protect your privacy

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				Open with care, protect your privacy
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Choose your offshore partners with care to ensure the long-term preservation of your offshore privacy.

OFFSHORE-FOX.COM
with Alex Hanson

In the not too distant past, opening an offshore bank account and moving your assets beyond reach of those who might wish to lay claim over them was often a straightforward process.

However, doing the same today -- and keeping your offshore assets confidential in particular -- requires some advance planning and knowledge of what you are up against. Cutting corners or making the wrong decisions at the beginning of the process can compromise your privacy in the future.

Choose your offshore incorporator with care and remember: they are there to serve you, and not to scrutinise you. Similarly, many bankers are still businessmen who understand your need for privacy -- even though most are under pressure to turn into the agents of a fledgling global financial police force. Today, finesse and a little insight into your banker's mind will serve you well enough.

Consider how your financial privacy might be compromised, and take steps to prevent the location of your offshore assets in the long term. This ranges from the most obvious steps -- such as not telling anyone -- to awareness of the uses to which discarded refuse and telephone bills might be put.

Most importantly, don't allow the recent anti-offshore, anti-privacy measures to take you by surprise. Remember that the measures were designed to obtain information and not to thwart complex money laundering operations -- everyday folks like you are the intended target.

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