Many will still remember when Anonymous Banking was available and banks provided full banking and investment secrecy for their clients. KYC was a quick and simple process for investments or opening bank accounts and no questions were asked for transferring and even withdrawing large amounts of money in cash. Seldom questions were asked with regards to specific business activities and the source of funds.

Much has changed.

Long gone the times when wealth planning was to focus on the creation of wealth alone.

Even investing wealth has meanwhile taken a backseat considering the various factors that need to be taken into account in order to maintain wealth and to be able to pass it on to the next generation with reduced or no risk.

Goals:

• Business succession planning.

• Tax considerations: “Sheltering” money from a country’s income and estate taxes.

• Keeping wealth safe and away from sudden, unexpected or malicious lawsuits.

Necessary Considerations:

• Where does a beneficiary owner reside and where are assets located?

• What are these assets?

• Movable or immovable?

• Easy to liquidate or difficult to do so?

• Easy to relocate assets to another jurisdiction?

• What is the applicable tax and legal system where assets are located and/or administered?

• On-going obligations?

• Complexities in wealth accumulation and how to minimize such?

• Other financial, investment and tax issues

• Country Risk (natural or man made disasters / civil war / economic collapse likely?)

• Is the country known for efficiency and smart investments or for poor customer services and risky investments?

• Currency risks

• Reporting requirements

• Frequency of filing of documents

• Maintenance fees and costs of investments

• Disclosure requirements (if any)

• Tax compliance burden

• Common Reporting Standards (CRS) and confidentiality issues

• FATCA

• 4thEU Directive on AML

• New international climate on exchange of information

Today is is just not enough to decide where to invest or just to adapt corporate structures. Investors are well advised to consider:

• Changing domicile;

• Changing citizenship;

• Changing tax residency status.

As the Italian „Voluntary Disclosure Bis“ demonstrates, it was not sufficient to just to move Domicile to Switzerland. Many HNWI might have wasted substantial investments and time by having their families living in Switzerland and holding accounts as residents. The hunt is on and, after Netherlands, France and Spain, Italy is now in full swing to repatriate assets. Elsewhere, Indonesia, China, Russia and others are joining in and Investors should consider alternative citizenships as an adequate way to upgrade themselves in terms of degrees of freedom legally available for themselves, their families and their assets.

We are happy to assist!

Discreet , Fast and Competent

info@roeth.co