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Offshore financial services handbook (Second edition)

Bill Brown

 - brand new edition including a new chapter on offshore banking services
 - designed for both financial services professionals and their clients
 - written by a practitioner with years of experience in many offshore centres

Reputable offshore financial centres play a legitimate and integral role in international finance and trade, offering a huge advantage in certain situations for both corporations and individuals. Offshore financial services handbook provides an informative and comprehensive survey of the legitimate uses of offshore financial services.

Based on his own wide-ranging experience in several offshore centres, Bill Penman Brown comprehensively reviews the development, practice and availability of financial services in the offshore environment. The result is a clearly written, practical guide which will continue to be essential reading for both professionals and their clients.

ISBN 1 85573 413 3
ISBN-13: 978 1 85573 413 5
February 1999
352 pages  234 x 156mm  hardback  
£150.00 / US$255.00 / €180.00

Usually dispatched within 24 hours

About the author

Bill Penman Brown’s career has taken him around the world to a variety of offshore centres, including senior positions with the Bermuda National Bank, The Royal Trust Company of Canada, Grindlays Bank in Jersey, and Manufacturers Hanover (Guernsey) Bank. In September 1990 he accepted a post as the first Financial Services and banking Commissioner in Gibraltar, charged with setting up a new Financial Services Commission. From 1990-1995 he also served as the first Chief Examiner for the CIOB’s Associateship exams in Offshore Practice and Administration.

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Contents

Selection of an offshore financial centre
 - Political and economic stability
 - Reputation
 - Regulation
 - Availability of services
 - Good communications
 - Legal system
 - Freedom from exchange controls
 - Standard of living
 - Costs and administrative services
 - Choosing an offshore financial centre

Features of offshore financial centres
 - New offshore centres
 - British offshore centres
 - Specialisation
 - Legal systems
 - Tax neutrality

Banking
 - Development of banking functions
 - Categories of banks
 - Bank secrecy

Taxation and offshore centres
 - Tax planning
 - Anti-avoidance legislation
 - Tax havens
 - No-tax offshore centres
 - Low tax offshore centres
 - Tax avoidance and tax evasion
 - Double taxation agreements or treaties
 - Corporate international tax planning
 - Personal tax planning
 - Summary

Regulation and supervision
 - Banking regulation
 - Regulation of investment business
 - Regulation of investment fund business
 - Regulation of insurance business
 - Regulation of trust and management companies
 - Compensation schemes
 - Summary

Money laundering
 - Money laundering and offshore centres
 - Attempts to curb money laundering by legislation
 - Know your customer
 - Stages of money laundering
 - Banks and laundering
 - Investment business
 - Insurance business
 - Employees and agents
 - Conclusion

The need for asset protection
 - Vulnerability of assets
 - Claims by non-government persons
 - Actions pursued through legal processes by governments
 - Politically inspired expropriation
 - Protection under domestic and international law
 - Claims against assets
 - Claims against the vehicles holding assets

Asset protection vehicles
 - Companies
 - Decanting devices
 - Other protective devices
 - Trusts
 - Protective measures for use with trusts
 - Underlying companies
 - Taxation
 - Kidnapping and ransom demands
 - Asset protection trusts
 - Conclusion

Offshore trusts
 - A trust
 - Settlor or grantor
 - Trustee
 - Trust protector
 - Beneficiaries
 - Reasons for making a trust
 - Creation and situs of trusts
 - Forced heirship
 - Types of trusts
 - Will substitute trusts
 - Confidentiality
 - Indemnification of trustees
 - Types of beneficiary
 - Flee clauses
 - Trust deeds
 - Administration of trusts

Company management
 - Anonymity
 - Confidentiality
 - Declarations of trust
 - Incorporation of companies
 - Capitalisation
 - Registered or bearer shares
 - Directors of managed companies
 - Alternate directors
 - Officers of managed companies
 - Nominee shareholders
 - Powers of attorney
 - Company meetings
 - Accounting and record keeping
 - Company management services agreements
 - Financial aspects of managed companies
 - Liquidation of managed companies
 - Regulation of company management activities

The use of offshore companies
 - Use by individuals for investment purposes
 - Commercial use by individuals and corporations
 - Public investment companies

Investment management services
 - Considerations
 - Investment services
 - Investment managers
 - Segregation of duties
 - Research facilities
 - Client's choice
 - Trust assets
 - Investment management agreements
 - Regulation
 - Portfolio performance
 - Choice of jurisdiction
 - Taxation aspects
 - Investment strategies

Investment funds
 - Types of funds
 - Legal structure
 - Investment policies

Offshore pension funds
 - Flexibility
 - Tax advantages
 - Benefit schemes
 - Planning and administration
 - Corporate trustees
 - Documentation and security

Captive insurance companies
 - The nature of captives
 - The nature of business conducted
 - Benefits conferred by captives
 - Pre-planning
 - Financial advantages
 - Tax benefits
 - Other benefits
 - Offshore regulation
 - Disadvantages
 - Administration of captives
 - Other considerations

Tomorrow's offshore world
 - Legitimacy
 - Global need for confidentiality
 - Regulation
 - Self-regulation
 - Tax neutrality
 - Globalisation