Re: Put up or shut up!

[Black Unicorn <unicorn@schloss.li>]

On Mon, 7 Oct 1996, Lucky Green wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 7 Oct 1996, Black Unicorn wrote:
> > I'll wager, though I have no data to back it up, that most of the people
> > in this forum who are uncertain about the safety of their assets don't
> > bother to engage in the most basic of asset preservation tactics, namely:
> > geographic diversification.
> > 
> > Surprising considering the perfectly legal options which would protect
> > many of them.
> 
> Not to me. Geographic diversification requires either significant 
> research on part of the individual or trusting one's assets to the 
> goodwill of third party consultants.

Investment in mutual funds requires the same leaps.  Doesn't seem to stop
people from buying them in record numbers.  Why don't more people
represent themselves in court?  Because it requires significant research.
But that's not to say experts are not to be found, nor that they should
not be consulted.

Unless you are an expert, you shouldn't be mucking around in engineering,
crypto design, legal work, or asset protection.  Consult an expert please.

> There are a number of individuals on this list that have claimed in the 
> past to know the detailed techniques required to achieve such 
> diversification. Not one of them has ever posted "How To" instructions to 
> the list. Sure, we heard many generalities, but never concrete instructions.

No one has ever posted any real worth while "how to" instructions as to
how to diversify your stock portfolio either.  That's what professionals
are paid for.  You get what you pay for.  If you tell an investment
manager that protection from seizure is a consideration in investment,
you'll get results.  No one bothers to do this.  No one bothers to invest
in careful ways.  It's merely one more criteria and a rather mundane one
at that.  Yet no one bothers.

I posted the massive kludge I did because I hoped it would increase
awareness a bit.  I did get a pile of encrypted messages asking me if I
would help so and so invest $10,000 safely abroad for free.  Not exactly
the kind of work I do, but it does show the interest.

> Tim has asked several times on this list for details, but, to the best of my 
> knowledge, was never provided with a workable solution to secure his 
> fortune, most of which seems to be held in stock in the US.

No one can expect real financial advice over an internet mailing list.
Let's not forget where we are afterall.  What I will tell you that it is
possible, and there is a market for the service.  A potent market.  I
don't know what Mr. May holds, what his interests are, nor what his
specific problems or dispositions are.  The thought that there is some
list member who can say "Yeah, just dump it into a foreign shell
corporation and reinvest it all in the U.S." is silly.  It's on par with
the radio ads which proclaim "You too can make a fortune in heating oil!
Doesn't it make sense that prices will rise in the winter?"  There is no
one good solution, and anyone who sells you a universal package is selling
you a bill of goods.

Careful, professional, and highest quality service is required to properly
design any investment design.  Again, you get what you pay for.

The precursor to getting the market for asset protection to be wider scale
is to increase awareness.  In the way that the stock market is available
to the individual, I'd like to see (among others) the asset protection
market available to the individual.  Put the tools out there and begin to
isolate the experts from the general public.  There are, believe it or
not, very few experts today.  Most of them in banking secrecy
jurisdictions where the clients are.  That's stagnating.  Let's change
that.

> Compare this to the dozens of FAQs available for crypto. If they were 
> limited to "find some cryptographic software, it will protect your data", 
> considerably fewer individuals would use PGP.

Crypto is mostly technological know how.  It is easily reduced to code.  I
submit that asset management is not..  Were it then the measure of a
profitable bank would be the power of its trading and investment software.

> Crypto FAQs have URLs, step-by-step instructions, etc. I have not seen 
> anything even remotely like it for asset diversification.

And if you are sending e-mail this is fine.  If you are designing a crypto
system for a financial instituion, it is not.  I'm surprised I have to
point out this difference.  I cannot believe that anyone on this list
could do more than tell the layman what NOT to do.  I can't imagine that
advice from someone on this list to a bank manager, or some other "real
money" interest would be anything other than "Don't do it yourself, ignore
the hype, ignore the how to guides and _seek professional help
immediately_."  I think also that many of the people on this list ARE the
experts.  That tends to make comparison to the level of asset protection
content on this list a bit skewed.  I don't know how many asset protection
experts are on this list, I suspect the number is smaller than the crypto
expert one.

I will be the first to denounce the "pay no taxes" "hide your assets"
"second passports" ads you see in the back of the Economist.  In my
personal opinion, "Scope" and all that perpetual traveler literature is
trash.  In my professional opinion, anyone with over US$200,000 in free
assets can benefit from some restructuring.  In some cases with minimal
increase in long term fees and often with a _substantial_ increase in
personal attention and service.  The American banking market is robust,
but hardly attentive.  It is a retail market and is designed in most cases
like fast food counters.  U.S. banks make a pile of money on fees because
people are lazy in the United States.  They would sooner use the atm right
in front of them than walk a block and save a buck in fees.  Walking might
be worth it, but I submit that the consequences of poor asset management
are almost never worth it.

I suggest that you just walk into a bank in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein,
perhaps in Switzerland and compare the experience to doing the same in the
United States.  It may be a bother to get to a real bank, but the
difference in service, attitude, and skill can be substantial.

You get what you pay for in sweat too.

--
I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist
unicorn@schloss.li