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OFFSHORE
INDUSTRY EXISTING AND POTENTIAL CLIENTS
(Source)
The users of
offshore facilities fall primarily into the two
categories of individual and corporate users.
Individual
users include high net worth individuals, expatriates and
emigrants and owners of businesses, individuals enjoying
inherited wealth, entrepreneurs and industrialists, businessmen
and senior executives, entertainers and authors, sportsmen,
inventors, engineers and designers, owners of intellectual
property rights, medical practitioners and other professionals.
High net
worth individuals are generally those clients with disposable
assets in excess of two million dollars. Expatriates are, in the
main, individuals who are living away from their home countries,
either on overseas contracts of employment or as retirees,
whereas emigrants are individuals who have permanently moved from
one country to another in pursuit of a better quality of life
and/or business interests. The category of 'owners of businesses'
relates predominantly to proprietary businesses where the shares
are held by family members.
Traditionally,
such users originated from Europe, North and South America and
certain African and Australasian countries. Over the last decade,
however, clients falling into this category have increasingly
come from the Eastern European countries, the CIS, the Indian
sub-continent and the booming economies which make up South East
Asia and the Pacific Rim.
Individual users utilize offshore
facilities for the reasons such as tax planning, estate and
investment planning, pre-immigration planning, confidentiality
and privacy, security.
Corporate
users include multinational companies, conglomerates, shipping
companies, financial institutions. Most modern
corporations, be they medium sized companies pursuing
international expansion, multinational companies, conglomerates,
shipping companies or financial institutions, are market driven
and many have been able to establish and maintain their
competitive edge by efficiently structuring aspects of their
operations through offshore centers.
Holding
companies, foreign direct investment companies,
mixing vehicles, royalty companies and treasury management
STUPID
IS AS STUPID DOES
It
is safe to say that all giant international companies
maintain massive assets offshore. They have an "offshore
presence." That is a wise and necessary move in order to do
business globally. There are many complaints from their native
countries and threats about "doing something." It
remains, however, that there will be a lot of complaining,
wringing of hands, threats and promises, but those companies
gained much financial and competitive advantage from placing
their assets in offshore jurisdiction and the practice will
continue. There is simply too much economic power involved
to make a change. They may have been stupid in the way they
selfishly and unadvisedly bought into a bad mortgage market and
fell for the demands of a public seeking unlimited credit.
They over-leveraged and broke every law and rule about investing
one can imagine. That was stupid. They were not stupid for going
abroad because the tax situation in the offshore jurisdictions
allow for a level playing field for the global competitor.
If they can do it, you can do it... go offshore, that is.
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