Offshore Service Provider Deceptive Pricing - This is an old take off on "hook them in with a low price". The auto dealers used to do this many years ago. They would advertise a car that they ordered from the factory without a radio, without air conditioning, without power steering, without power windows and without an automatic transmission. The factory would reduce the price of the car because all these options were deleted from the base model car, in other words they deleted the standard equipment to get the car at a reduced cost. Then the car dealer would advertise this car in the newspaper at a low price and when the people came in to see the car of course they would not buy it, it was not really a complete car. Most of the people would not be able to even turn the steering wheel without power steering. They would sometimes leave the store angry and others would wind up buying a "real" car at much higher prices which is what the dealer wanted.
This is exactly what is going on with many of the sellers of corporations and foundations. The corporate agents advertise a price and leave many of the required features out of the price structure for the corporation or foundation. If you add in all the things you need to make the asset protection structure anonymous and functional, the price is no longer a discount at all. Would you want to trust someone with your asset protection structure who does this to sell you something? I wouldn't! Going to a non-lawyer corporate agent for your asset protection structure to save a few dollars is penny wise and pound foolish.
Panama Corporation Deceptive Pricing Scams - Before we begin you should know that only a Panama Attorney can form a Corporation in Panama. This means a non-attorney reseller is buying your asset protection structure from an attorney who never meets with or communicates with his or her actual clients. Does that make you feel warm and mushy inside when you are thinking about your asset protection structure?
If you are forming a Panama corporation you want all the corporate documents including a translation in English, a resolution from the board of directors to open a bank account because without this no Panama bank will open up a bank account for your corporation, a general power of attorney, stock certificates, minutes and most importantly three nominee directors. Without the three nominee directors the corporation will not be anonymous and that sort of defeats the value of the Panama Corporation. The Panama annual fee for the corporation is currently $300 and is included in all of our fees start-up and ongoing annual fees starting in year two. Some sellers love to leave this fee out and treat it as an add-on when it is mandatory. Go to our prices page to see a breakdown of what should be included in fees.
Offshore Corporation Deceptive Practices - Many offshore corporation sellers offer bearer share corporations from different jurisdictions. Panama bearer shares do not have to be kept anywhere in the world and the share certificates themselves can be made out in blank. The person owning the share certificates controls the corporation. In most of the other bearer share issuing jurisdictions the bearer shares need to be kept with the corporate agent in the country of formation and must have the names of the owners on them. This sort of defeats the purpose of bearer shares and of course ruins the anonymity. In Panama the owner of the bearer share corporation never has their name appear anywhere, not in any public registry, not in any database and the government of Panama does not even know who the owners are of a bearer share corporation or a foundation. There is no requirement to report the transfer of the shares to any other entity in Panama. Panama still does it the old way and has not sold out with tax treaties to keep their tourism business going. Panama has precious little tourism and most of what it has is from other Central and South American countries.
Panama Foundation Pricing Scams - Once again only a Panama attorney can form a Panama Foundation so if you are dealing with a non-lawyer corporate agent you are never meeting or communicating with the attorney who did your foundation. This is not a good thing. The Panama foundation to be anonymous needs to have three nominee council members and these are often omitted. This is like leaving the power steering off the car. Foundation council members like corporate directors do appear in the public registry and you do not want friends, associates, relatives etc. appearing in the public registry of your corporation or foundation. The annual fee for the Panama foundation paid to the government is $300. We include this fee in all of our prices start-up and subsequent year annual fees starting in year two. We also include a resolution signed by the nominee council members to open a Panama bank account. You also have a chance to communicate by email, phone or in person with one of our attorneys to create a letter of wishes. This is a secret document that details how your foundation assets are to be dealt with in the event you are incapacitated temporarily or permanently, and what happens with your foundation assets in the event of your death. Things like the simultaneous death of you and your next heir will be covered which could occur with an airplane or auto crash. We also create a Foundation Protector document if you wish to use a protector which is popular. You have direct communication with an attorney that is assigned to handle your asset protection structure that you can call and ask "Your Asset Protection Attorney" questions. We rest our case.
Panama Bank Account Scams - Many non-attorney corporate agents sell a Panama corporation which they buy from a Panama lawyer and include a bank account. They use terms like offshore bank account, private bank account, secure bank account etc. They do not say Panama Bank Account because they most likely can not get you a Panama Bank Account. They prefer to send you to some other jurisdiction where anyone can get a bank account.
What they are really doing is helping you fill out the bank forms and send them in to some less than desirable jurisdiction. Usually the jurisdiction will be in numerous tax treaties and other privacy invading treaties. The banks will often have total assets of under $25,000,000. Their bank secrecy laws will be weak at best. They are using jurisdictions that used to be secure but have compromised their corporate and bank privacy in recent years and as a result of that are desperate for depositors and will deal with almost anyone including a non-lawyer corporate agent.
Panama banks need to conduct due diligence on their clients which is similar to the due diligence a lawyer is required to conduct. When we as a licensed law firm introduce a client to a Panama bank the bank is comfortable knowing that we already did our due diligence and are thus vouching for the client in this way. The lawyer in our firm representing you physically goes to the Panama bank with your file and gets the account opening started. We do the follow up until your account is open. As your law firm we can always intervene on your behalf with the bank. A corporate agent and a law firm are far from the same thing to a Panama bank.
Another issue is the Panama bank runs a credit check in Panama on the nominee corporate directors or the nominee foundation council members. Our nominees clear the credit checks just fine. Other entities may use nominees that for various reasons will not clear the bank credit check. We provide your corporation or foundation with a Panama bank account that has online banking including the ability to send international wire transfers and also has a secured Visa card or Visa debit card that will work online, in person and in ATM machines around the world.
Panama Stock Broker Scams - When we open up a stock brokerage account for a client it is with a Panama Stock Broker or a major European stock broker done anonymously. Many of these corporate agents say they will get you an offshore stock broker but do not say where. Be careful it can be in some unreliable jurisdiction where the privacy has long since been eroded by numerous tax treaties and other agreements with numerous countries. Panama Stock Brokers like dealing with a Panama Attorney for the same reasons as the banks.
Attorney Client Privilege - It is always best to have a licensed attorney do your asset protection structure. This way all of your communications are covered by attorney client privilege, which in Panama is very strong. If you are dealing with a corporate agent who is not an attorney there is no attorney client privilege even if the corporate agent bought the corporation or foundation from an attorney. The corporate reseller still knows who you are, has your identity documents, references, knows where you are banking etc and he can be subpoenaed to produce this information and he has no attorney client privilege to protect you.
Licensed Corporate Agents who have some protections under law in some countries (there are no such entities in Panama) are still a weak link in your asset protection structure. If some one want to get into your structure they can hire a local attorney to file a court case with some trumped up frivolous reasons to get your records and the corporate agent would have to spend thousands of dollars to go hire a lawyer to fight back and keep your records private. The chances of him doing so are slim and none. He might suggest you hire an attorney to fight back and suggest an attorney and you can only guess as to whether or not the bill will be through the roof because you are between a rock and a hard place.
A real law firm will on the web site state that they are a law firm or an attorney and have the name of at least one of the attorneys on the web site. Do not be deceived by official looking websites offering services from many different jurisdictions that are not attorneys. Generally this type of person is a nobody just an internet marketing company that buys the structures from the one selling them to him at the cheapest price. Be careful who you trust your asset protection structure to. Many people know how to make money but few know how to keep their money safe.
About the Author
Aurelia Masterson writes for http://www.panamalaw.org
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