December 2006 Archives

Here today, gone to Rio. Be back in 2007.

Please read our Season's Greetings

NEW YORK, NY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 12/21/06 -- Barclays PLC announced that investments in iPath(SM) Exchange Traded Notes (iPath ETNs) surpassed $1 billion. The first two iPath ETNs were launched in early June, and the third in August.

Exchange Traded Notes have a 30-year maturity and are senior, unsecured, unsubordinated debt securities issued by Barclays Bank PLC linked to the performance of a market index. Exchange Traded Notes are designed to provide investors with convenient access to the returns of market benchmarks, less investor fees(1), with easy transferability.

Continue reading Exchange Traded Notes

NASSAU, The Bahamas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Teekay Offshore Partners L.P. (the Partnership) (NYSE:TOO) today completed its initial public offering of 8,050,000 of its common units at a price of $21.00 per unit, including 1,050,000 units subject to the over-allotment option, which the underwriters exercised in full. Gross proceeds of the offering were $169,050,000.

The Partnership used the net proceeds of the offering to repay indebtedness and to redeem 1,050,000 common units from Teekay Shipping Corporation (NYSE:TK). The 8,050,000 common units issued in the offering represent a 40.3% limited partner interest in the Partnership and Teekay Shipping Corporation owns the remaining partnership interests, including common units, subordinated units, incentive distribution rights and its 2% general partner interest. The common units trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "TOO."

With its stable government, low corporate tax rates, and advanced IT infrastructure, Iceland is making a strong case for the title of economic top dog in Europe, and beyond.

Reykjavík, Iceland (PRWEB) December 18, 2006 -- After a year-long study of the country's resources and tax codes, a team of economic experts has determined that Iceland is poised to become the world's top economic center

Forced heirship rules in many civil law countries are an ongoing source of family problems which have frustrated proper estate planning and divided families into warring camps for generations.

While there are a number of very good solutions for this problem, one of the most popular is the use of a foreign trust structure to hold the assets indefinitely without ever triggering heirship rules since a trust never dies.

What You Need to Know But Won’t Read in Promotional Material presented by David Marchant, Publisher of OffshoreAlert, the world's only news service exposing offshore financial crime.

The Ardour Global (TICKER: AGIGL) Index will add 2 new components, effective 6:00 PM (EST) Sunday, December 17. Ten stocks will be deleted from the index. The changes result from the index’s semi-annual reconstitution. A complete list of constituents and weights will be posted on the Ardour web site, (www.ardourglobalindexes.com/indexes_agi.php).

The Ardour Global Index is a capitalization-weighted, float adjusted index of 81 of the most prominent alternative energy stocks in the world.

One of the most common motivations for those who venture offshore is the belief that they can avoid or defer U.S. income taxes with a foreign bank account, a foreign trust or a bearer share foreign international business company. Some of that belief is based on very old and outdated information. Some of it is caused by articles and information that is grossly over-simplified or taken out of context and therefore mis-understood. And, then there are the outright sharks and crooks who have no concern about giving blatantly false information to gullible U.S. taxpayers.

The market continues to push into new territory of all-time and multi-year highs, yet it also appears to be putting positive spins on negative data releases and attaching itself to positive economic data. Housing weakens here; manufacturing slowdown there, retail sales disappoint here and inflation isn’t moderating over here. That is all I heard last week, but it seems as if not too many people are picking up on it. More importantly, it’s almost as if the market just kind of forgot about inflation being a factor in the market.

In the world of international finance you will hear a number of confusing terms to describe various kinds of banks. These include A banks, B banks, C Banks, offshore banks and shell banks.

A shell bank is one which has no substantial presence, staff, or independent existence. These banks are often nothing more than a banking license lodged at an attorney's office with the nameplate on the door from which they have also come to be called, brass plate banks. Under the Patriot Act, these banks are de facto presumed to be criminal operations. The most famous purveyor of these banks was Jerome Schneider, who has since been convicted of various felonies.

One of the most powerful estate planning tools available to the modern international financial planning practitioner is the FOREIGN DEFERRED PRIVATE ANNUITY (FFDPA)

An FFDPA is a contract between an individual (the "Annuitant") and a foreign entity that is neither an insurance company nor in the business of selling annuities (the "Company").

Lipper Fitzrovia’s latest research reveals that US$154.2 billion (GBP83.4 billion) in 1,159 funds and subfunds were serviced in Jersey, as at 30 June 2006, an increase of 94% over five years - up from US$79.6 billion (GBP56.6 billion) as at 30 June 2001.

Looking solely at funds domiciled on the Island, the largest asset classes are property/real estate funds (with total net assets of US$43.6 billion, representing over 38% of the total for domiciled funds’ assets) and private equity/venture capital funds (US$26.5 billion – 23% of the total).

The following questions need to be asked when determining which IBC is best for your specific needs. There is no right or wrong answer to any of these questions. But there are some answers that are better for you, and others that are worse.

Q. What specific kind of IBC do you require? (A corporation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, to name the most common.)

The trust is the oldest of all of the entities currently used in international financial planning. Some say it dates back to Roman times, but it certainly dates back at least to the time of the Crusades, when it was used to protect the estate of the knight or Lord who went to fight in the holy land at a time when wives were considered legally incompetent to manage such an estate.