Asset Protection: Offshore Trusts, Companies & Bank Accounts

How offshore companies, trusts and bank accounts can all be used to achieve the ultimate in offshore asset protection plans

Asset protection is not just a concept exclusively considered by the super wealthy nowadays – this is because more and more people have significant personal wealth saved up in the form of their principal property and because the world is becoming more blame-centric and litigious.

In this article we’ll detail simple and practical ways to achieve asset protection with a combination of offshore trusts, companies and bank accounts – ways that you may be able to apply to your own personal circumstances.

An offshore trust is an excellent place to start with any offshore asset protection plan – this is because it removes ownership of a given asset and places the asset in the hands of a trustee.  Naturally this creates a largely impenetrable layer between the settlor (the person placing their assets in trust) and the assets in question that someone might otherwise like to sue the settlor for.

A trust is also a useful legal entity when it comes to creating a structure to legally avoid inheritance taxation. 

Governments such as the British and American ones have stripped away many layers of benefits for trusts so that they are less attractive purely as a mechanism for the legal avoidance of IHT, but there are still ways that trust companies, trustees and asset protection experts can utilize an offshore trust for some people to ensure their estate is managed well during their lifetime and that it passes unhindered by inheritance tax or a period of probate to their heirs and beneficiaries upon their death.

Another way in which an offshore trust can be useful in terms of taxation saving and protecting assets from the erroneous erosion of their assets by income, capital gains, property or death taxes is by incorporating assets in such a way that taxes due are deferred until such a point that they will fall within a lower taxation band for example.

A business owner seeking maximum privacy and protection of his business assets and transactions could consider commissioning the establishment of an offshore company in a no tax jurisdiction.  He could then open a bank account in the name of this company and place the company within an offshore trust structure so that he has maximum flexibility in terms of accessing funds from the bank account whilst protecting his identity and that of his company through the use of a trust. 

Such a structure is certainly not legally accessible for some people and as we are not qualified tax advisers, any information we give does not constitute advice which is why we always recommend you seek qualified taxation and financial advice.

If you’re interested in learning more about your own asset protection possibilities why not use our offshore advice service form to get in touch with our strategic business partners and qualified advisers.