Whenever people discuss setting up an offshore company structure or offshore bank account, the main benefit that is raised is the possibility to lower or even avoiding taxes completely. However, the benefits are much greater than just low taxes. We would say that there are three other main benefits that people should take into consideration when thinking whether or not they should go offshore: Asset Protection, Diversification and Capital Controls.

In today's society offshore asset protection is extremely important. Your assets are in jeopardy whether you are facing a lawsuit or divorce. Placing assets offshore, in offshore bank accounts held by offshore companies, offshore foundations, offshore trusts can limit your legal liabilities and/or make it extremely difficult to seize any assets.

Diversification amongst assets is an important tool to limit risk. In your portfolio, it is wise to diversify between asset classes: currencies, stocks, bonds, real estates, and other investments such as precious metals. Diversifying among asset classes might be easier said than done. Many countries limit the possibilities converting funds into other currencies and precious metals, for example. But besides diversifying between different asset classes, you should also consider diversifying between the jurisdictions where the assets are held in safe custody. For example diversifying amongst currencies or precious metals might not do you any good if you still keep them in safe custody in your home country. A better approach would be to put some investments in an offshore bank account held by an offshore company, spread among different asset classes: currencies, stocks, bonds, real estates, precious metals etc.

Many of the offshore havens were established when most countries still had capital controls in place. The offshore havens did not and capital could freely move in and out. In today's globalized world there are fewer countries with capital controls, however there are still examples of emerging markets in Latin America and Asia. And recently the first EMU/EU-country imposed capital controls, namely Cyprus. After it's banking crisis in 2013, the Cyprus government had to restrict capital flows in order to save the country's banking system. Cyprus is one jurisdiction we work with for corporations, and properly structured we think it is still an excellent jurisdiction, however we have always advocated keeping the bank account in a second country for example Switzerland. It seems as Russia is the most recent country to implement capital controls even though it might not have been done officially. Recent reports suggest that Russians have greater and greater difficulty to convert their Rubles to offshore dollars. Greece is another country where they might have to impose capital controls in the next coming weeks as it looks like they might pull out from EMU/EU, and as a consequence ECB would then cease their emergency funding. When Greece finally pulls out there will be a full-fledged crisis. There might be a domino scenario where Spain, Portugal, Italy try to either re-negotiate their loan terms or they also pull out completely. At this point, these countries will have no other option but to implement capital controls. Besides capital controls, these countries might re-implement their own currencies, and subsequently euros held in local bank accounts will be automatically converted to a devalued currency. Deposits above the EU Bank Guarantee of 100 000 EUR, are subsequently at risk, but also smaller deposits face the risk of being devalued against other currencies when you are not able to convert it into other currencies or move it out from the Eurozone. Act before it is too late. Placing some assets in a safe offshore bank account held by an offshore company will protect you and your family to a certain extent against the kleptocratic actions of the political elite.