Want to protect your savings? Take your IRA offshore. Want to invest abroad tax free? Take your IRA offshore. Want to build your account in something other than U.S. dollars? Take your IRA offshore.
Want to join Obama’s MyRA program? Want to be forced to buy U.S. Treasuries with your IRA. Then leave your IRA onshore.
Yes, you can take control of your investments and your retirement account by moving your IRA offshore. It’s much easier than you might think.
First, we help you move your account to a U.S. custodian who allows you to invest offshore. In most cases, this is a simple transfer from your current custodian to someone like Midland IRA or Entrust (these firms are not associated with Premier or Escape Artist).
Why do you need to move your IRA account? Because your custodian probably won’t allow you to invest offshore. In fact, many only allow you to invest in their products – those that they make the highest commission on.
Just the other day, someone asked me why they should pay a different custodian when their current provider did not charge them anything? No charges or fees of any kind!
Well, that’s because these firms make monster sized commissions on investing your IRA into their products. If you take your IRA offshore there are no commissions to be made. You are the manager and you make the investments that will (hopefully) make you the most profit, not the custodian.
Next, we form an Offshore LLC to take your IRA offshore. This is best done in the country of Belize because they have the most modern and protective limited liability statute.
- When you take your IRA offshore, it must go into an LLC and mot a corporation. The tax free jurisdiction with laws that allow for single member LLCs are Belize, Nevis, Aquila and Cook Islands.
The LLC is owned by your retirement account and you are the manager of the LLC. This allows you to take your IRA offshore, maintain its tax deferred (traditional) or tax free (ROTH) status, and control your investments. Once it is offshore, the custodian has no control over your investments and no access to your bank account.
We also write a custom operating agreement (about 25-pages) that spells out your rights and responsibilities as the investment manager basically, you are to manage the account as a professional would. When you take your IRA offshore, you are prohibited from borrowing from the account and all transactions must be at arm’s length. For more on the rules, please see www.premieroffshore.com.
- This means you can’t buy a property offshore and live in it for even one day. You can buy real estate and rent it out once you take your IRA offshore.
Now that you have moved to a custodian that allows for this type of transaction, formed your Offshore LLC and written an Operating Agreement we are ready to open your offshore bank account. We work with a number of banks and most will open an account by FedEx. A few, like those in Panama, require you to travel there for an interview.
You can find a number of banks and brokerages listed on www.premieroffshore.com. The bank selected will depend on the size of your account, which currencies you want to hold, your investments, and your country of choice. A Belize LLC can open account in many countries, but we often recommend Caye Bank in Belize because they are experts in U.S. IRA accounts.
When the account is opened, the custodian will wire your money to your account and you are ready to invest. It usually takes two weeks to place your IRA offshore.
If you would like to take your IRA offshore, please email us at info@premieroffshore.com or call us at (619) 564-4062 for a free and confidential consultation.
