The Expanded Worldwide Planning Stories Video Series – Part 3 – Episode 4 – Tax Shield 4

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Tax Shield 4 – Episode 4 – Part 3 – The EWP Stories Video Series

International Tax Planning

Introduction

Welcome. As advisors, we concentrate on the ‘shield’ aspect of the term Tax Shield. A Tax Shield is a main principle of Expanded Worldwide Planning, or EWP for short. We will now speak about the ‘tax’ aspect of our subject. What is the history of this thing we wish to shield? Here is a very brief history of taxation, mostly in the U.S. context.

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC.
CEO, Founder @EWP Financial

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

The Expanded Worldwide Planning Stories Video Series – Part 3 – Episode 3 – Tax Shield 3

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Tax Shield 3 – Episode 3 – Part 3 – The EWP Stories Video Series

International Tax Planning

Intro

Welcome. For real estate investors, there are very substantial benefits to using an asset structure that embodies the principles of Expanded Worldwide Planning, or EWP for short. This is true for U.S. persons and non-U.S. persons alike. A properly designed EWP structure both eliminates tax on rental income and tax on the sale of real estate. This is a very powerful result.

Our video details the disreputable methods used by Conservation for Nature’s appraiser, Jay Edwards. Jay’s inflated appraisals give investors unwarranted tax deductions, while the pressure to achieve these inflated appraisals exact an unhealthy influence on Jay’s life in the form of his increased consumption of alcohol and cigarettes. Jay also finds himself in trouble with the Department of Justice and the Tennessee state real estate appraiser board.

Disclaimer

The opinions expressed in this video are for general informational purposes only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual on any financial structure, investment, or insurance product.

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC.
CEO, Founder @EWP Financial

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

The Expanded Worldwide Planning Stories Video Series – Part 3 – Episode 2 – Tax Shield 2

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Video 2-Tax Shield

Go to Episode 1

Introduction

Welcome. Oddly enough many of the tax benefits used in the sophisticated designs of Expanded Worldwide Planning, or EWP for short, are common to most life insurance policies. These tax benefits are:

Tax-deferred growth of the cash value
No capital gains tax
No income tax
The ability to access the cash value through tax-free loans, and
A tax-free death benefit

In this video we meet Jack Newcastle, an attorney at the IRS. Jack is in the midst of auditing the very company that George Allbright is considering for his conservation easement. Jack’s nickname is ‘Jack the Shark.’ We learn how he earned this nickname, and why he has his current position at the IRS.

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Our Conclusion

Our next video, reveals how Conservation for Nature achieves their inflated tax deductions. You will find out the very person who is most responsible for these inflated deductions, Jay Edwards. Jay is being pushed for larger and larger tax deductions at the cost of both his career and his health.

If you found this video useful, please give us a Like, and click on the Subscribe button below. We look forward to connecting with you in Part Three of our Tax Shield story.

To learn how the wealthiest families in the world conduct their financial affairs, please call +1 530 692 1007, or email us at info@expandedworldwideplanning.com.

At your convenience, we can arrange a call to discuss how our unique blueprint can vastly enhance your asset structure.

Disclaimer

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC.
CEO, Founder @EWP Financial

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

The EWP Stories Video Series – Part 2 – Episode 1 – ASSET PROTECTION 1

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The Expanded Worldwide Planning Stories Video Series – Part 2

Episode 1 – Asset Protection

#Asset #Protection – Video 1 – Introduction

Welcome. In this video the topic of our story is one of the cornerstones of any asset structure–asset protection planning. Expanded Worldwide Planning, or EWP for short, gives a wealthy family asset protection by its very nature, it is not something that must be added.

Why is this so? Because life insurance is one of the rare items that is favored for asset planning under the tax code. This is especially true for the advanced structures that our firm constructs for wealthy families worldwide. Remember, most families place the majority of their assets into an EWP structure, so they achieve superior asset protection for all these assets worldwide.

Our story involves Janet Johanson, an exceptionally talented entrepreneur, who seemingly did all the right things to protect herself against an untimely loss of her assets. How did the devastating loss of $100M wipe out her early retirement? One of her advisors made a critical mistake. We hope you will learn from this video, and not travel down the same path.

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Steve waited impatiently in the long line at Starbucks. He still needed groceries to cook dinner for his girlfriend, but needed a coffee. Steve was in his last year of residency at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. The long hours at the hospital under the close scrutiny of his attending physician were wearing him down. Steve was equally impatient to finish his residency, and begin his practice.

With his straight A’s through medical school, and a remarkably deft hand with medical instruments, his new career as a heart surgeon looked more than promising. Steve was a man poised for success.

Steve made quick work of shopping at Whole Foods, then, proceeded to a wine shop. It was a chain that sold well-selected bottles from around the world at a fair price. He entered by a side door.

A clerk at the wine shop, had just finished cleaning up a large pile of dog poop on the street outside the door. He had entered just before Steve with his mop trailing behind him, not realizing that it was leaving a stream of water in his wake.

Steve stepped into the wine shop. “My God,” he gasped loudly.

As his foot touched the slippery surface of the watery stone floor, it slid. He tried to steady himself. He was heading towards the ground like a wounded soldier in battle. There was now no way to regain control. Both legs shot out from under him, and he landed hard, directly on his lower spine, and then hit his head on the hard floor.

“Crack,” it sounded.

The customers nearby winced in an automatic sympathetic response, even before they turned their heads to see what had happened.

Steve lay sprawled on the hard, cold stone floor with blood flowing from his skull. The store manager jostled several customers in his attempt to reach Steve.

As he saw his customer unconscious, he immediately took out his cell phone and called 911.

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In our next video, Janet Johanson begins her early retirement with the $100M from the sale of her chain of wine shops, only to find out that there has been a serious accident at one of the shops. This accident occurred before the sale of her business had been finalized. She learns from her attorney that there might be a problem with the captive insurance she thought that she had in place to address accidents like this.

If you found this video useful, please give us a like, and click on the subscribe button below. We look forward to connecting with you in Episode Two.

To learn how the wealthiest families in the world conduct their financial affairs, please call +1 530 692 1007, or email us at info@expandedworldwideplanning.com.

At your convenience, we can arrange a call to discuss how our unique blueprint can vastly enhance your asset structure.

Disclaimer

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC.

CEO, Founder @EWP Financial

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

The EWP Stories Video Series – Part 1 – Episode 3

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Expanded Worldwide Planning: Insures: PRIVACY – 3

Introduction

Welcome. Privacy is a key element. Wealthy families are looking for ways to keep their affairs private, and still be compliant with tax authorities worldwide.

Today what was once private and personal becomes public and accessible to all. Computers and other electronic devices are part of our lives, whatever our opinion of them. These devices can add convenience and efficiency to our lives, but at a cost.

At EWP Financial we embrace the Privacy Principle. The Privacy Principle is unique as it legally shields wealthy families from unwanted intrusions into their financial affairs. At the same time, the Privacy Principle is fully transparent and gives wealthy families a bespoke, compliant asset structure for all their holdings, wherever they might be throughout the world.

We continue our story on the plight of Carlos Gutierrez. The scene is Mexico City where we discover how the same drug cartel that kidnapped Carlos’s daughter, Lucinda, is planning to publicly destroy Carlos by using bribery to bring a falsified lawsuit against Carlos.

Diego wondered how he was to receive his bribe. He was told by his contact to buy a burner phone on Wednesday, and throw it away that evening after he received a text. His contact had booked him a table for 7pm at the Bellini Restaurant, atop the World Trade Center on the 45th floor in Mexico City.

“Good evening, sir,” said the handsome young man in his well-tailored valet parking uniform.

His car door was politely closed, and Diego pulled away, feeling somewhat sheepish and out of place with his old Prius at this expensive restaurant in Mexico City. The Bellini was an uncomfortable experience for Diego. This showed in the perspiration draining down his shirt from below his armpits. In his highly excited state, he had forgotten to put on deodorant this morning.

He had barely noticed the dazzling lights that lay below him. He ate but did not taste the exquisite meal that was paid for by his contact. The restaurant magically revolved 360 degrees, but he might as well have been facing a blank wall. Diego only thought of one thing, and one thing only: “Will I get paid, or will they kill me instead.”

As he was traveling toward his small apartment, he received a text, Look in the glove box, then destroy your phone. I mean destroy it completely.

Diego opened the glove box to find a bulging manilla envelope, which filled his entire glove box. He tore it open to find cash. Plenty of cash. 400,000 pesos, about $20,000U.S. dollars. The equivalent of his annual salary.

Why were 400,000 pesos put in his glove box? The reason was simple. Diego worked at the Servicio de Administración Tributaria, the SAT. The SAT is the revenue service of the Mexican federal government. Diego had access to information that the cartel wanted to destroy Carlos Guittierez.

A new law had come into effect January 1, 2020. The law stipulated that tax evasion will turn into a charge of organized crime if three or more people are aware of an illegal tax scheme. This could result in companies being held criminally liable for tax offenses. Diego had access to salient information in Mexico’s Register of Beneficial Ownership. The cartel was going to use this information to falsely charge Carlos under this new law.

How ironic that a successful businessman like Carlos could be discredited by an organized crime cartel when he went to great lengths to comply with all of Mexico’s laws. In a sinister way, the designs of Carlos’s intricate electronic components mirrored the devious, deceptive, and criminal practices of the cartel. One was used for good, and the other to destroy an innocent man.

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Conclusion

In our introduction, we mentioned the Privacy Principle. The Privacy Principle of EWP accomplishes its objective in several key ways:

Upon transfer into the PPLI policy, the insurance company becomes the beneficial owner of all the assets in the policy;
If there is reporting to a tax authority for the asset structure, only one number is reported. This is the total cash value of all the assets in the PPLI policy. The individual assets are not reported;
The bank account that is usually opened in connection with a PPLI policy is opened in the name of the insurance company, not the policyowner. The policyowner has full access to the funds in the bank account in accordance with the assets inside the policy.

In our next video, Episode Four, we conclude our story. The scene shifts back to California. Carlos realizes that he must reconstruct his financial affairs using an EWP asset structure. He also realizes that if he had employed an EWP asset structure the kidnapping of his daughter and the falsified lawsuit would most probably not have occurred.

If you enjoyed this video, please give us a like below, and click on the subscribe button. We look forward to connecting with you in Episode Four.

To learn how the wealthiest families in the world conduct their financial affairs, please call +1 530 692 1007, or email us at info@expandedworldwideplanning.com.

At your convenience, we can arrange a call to discuss how our unique blueprint can vastly enhance your asset structure.

Disclaimer

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC.

CEO, Founder @EWP Financial

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

EWP & Trust Substitute-Part 2

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International Tax Planning & Trust Substitute—Part 2

EWP (Expanded Worldwide Planning) and Trust Substitute

Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) in Action

A Stradivarius Violin Plays the EWP Super Trust

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In Part 1 we spoke about how a beginner’s violin knows nothing of the deep, rich, and more pleasing tone of the Stradivarius violin. We equated the Stradivarius violin with the more sophisticated uses of asset structures that employ PPLI to its full effect. In Part 2 we will learn about the EWP Super Trust, which indeed uses the deep, rich, and more pleasing tone of the Stradivarius violin.

Ironically, the most simple PPLI structure, a Frozen Cash Value (FCV) policy, offers wealthy families the most advanced structuring possibilities available in the world today. A family can place almost any asset class that is located almost anywhere in the world into a FCV policy, and still have it compliant with tax authorities worldwide.

The FCV PPLI structure almost eliminates the concept of cash value in the traditional sense. The growth element of the assets in the policy is paid out as a tax-free death benefit at the death of the insured person(s) in the contract. The amount of the death benefit to qualify as life insurance is just a percent or two of the total assets contributed to the policy, as there must be a risk shifting element to qualify as life insurance under the laws of the jurisdictions who issue the policies.

The maximum the owner of the policy can withdraw is the total value of the premium contributed to the policy. This includes in-kind premiums. The structures that we create for the world’s wealthiest families have sizable premium contributions, frequently in the hundreds of millions and multiple billions. Therefore, if withdrawals from the policy are wished, there is plenty to withdraw. More frequently there are no withdrawals, as these families can accomplish what they wish inside the existing FCV PPLI structure.

In essence, the policy is composed of a small amount of life insurance and the worldwide holdings of a family, offering them the maximum amount of privacy, asset protection, and tax efficiency that is possible. With its own three elements of owner, insured, and beneficiary, it goes far beyond the three elements of a trust: settlor or trustor, trustee, and beneficiary. How is this possible? How can it be fully compliant with the U.S. tax code for those families that have a connection to the U.S.?

The EWP Super Trust

FCV PPLI relies on §7702. Section 7702(a), in defining life insurance, states in part, “the term ‘life insurance contract’ means any contract which is a life insurance contract under the applicable law.”

The meaning of “the applicable law” in both §7702(a) and §7702(g) mean that life insurance policies issued under the laws of other countries are indeed life insurance contracts, even if they do not meet the various cash value tests mentioned in the §7702(a).

The insurance laws of these countries allow the death benefit of the insurance contract to be less than its cash value. In fact, within these countries, a life insurance contract is fully compliant with a cash value well in excess of the death benefit of the insurance policy.

The insurance companies that issue FCV PPLI policies design the policies to conform to the laws of the countries where these insurance companies are domiciled. You then have an insurance policy that is fully compliant under “the applicable law” of these countries. Most nations in the world, including the U.S., allow their citizens to purchase life insurance policies that are issued from countries outside their own.

Thus, the FCV PPLI is fully sanctioned for U.S. buyers, and buyers from other nations in the world who wish to avail themselves of this truly remarkable structuring tool: a Trust Substitute that we call an EWP Super Trust.

FCV PPLI asset structures have been in use by U.S. persons and non-U.S. persons for over 25 years without a challenge by the IRS. Our mission at Expanded Worldwide Planning is to make the most advanced asset structuring techniques available to wealthy families throughout the world.

Why not take advantage of this exceptional opportunity which is supported by 100s of billions of dollars of successful structures that have been put in place over these 25 years?

We offer you another chart which shows what a properly structured PPLI policy can accomplish for non-U.S. persons who own real estate in the U.S. compared with structures that just use trust and other entities.

PPLI with IDF vs. Other Real Estate Structures

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A Safe Drive to the Ultimate Destination

We will use a multi-lane motorway or freeway as our analogy on how life insurance is ideally positioned to serve the needs of wealthy families worldwide. Life insurance is recognized throughout the world as a useful financial planning tool to address the retirement, financial planning, and estate tax needs of families. Where is life insurance positioned on this motorway?

The fast lane is for those drivers who are the risk takers, traveling at ever faster speeds until they hear the sound of a patrol car chasing them down. In the slow lane are those drivers who wish to drive the speed limit, or wish to travel at a leisurely pace to reach their destination. In the middle lanes are those drivers who wish to blend into the flow. Not be the fastest on the road, or the slowest. In the universe of financial planning tools, life insurance structures are traveling in these middle lanes.

These middle lane drivers are avoiding the newest innovations in planning techniques championed by those in the fast lane, and, also, staying away from strategies that accomplish little which are adopted by those in the slow lane. The drivers in the middle lanes will reach their destination safely with little risk of a confrontation with the authorities, who are concentrating on the drivers in the fast lane.

By using life insurance as its basic framework, the families driving in the middle lanes accomplish the maximum amount of privacy, asset protection, and tax efficiency. A PPLI life insurance based structure is indeed the best building block available to achieve the six principles of EWP, and be fully compliant with tax authorities worldwide.

Tax Avoidance vs. Tax Evasion

This brings us to the topic of the regulation of financial planning structures. One key distinction is the difference between what is termed tax avoidance and tax evasion. For some regulatory bodies there is little or no distinction between these two concepts. With our EWP approach to asset structuring, we see a large distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion. On what grounds do we take this position?

Admittedly, our position is self-serving because our clients’ are the world’s wealthiest families. At the same time we challenge those who take the high moral ground of calling tax avoidance and tax evasion the same thing. Our view can be summarized in IRC v. Duke of Westminster, Baron Thomas Tomlin wrote:

“Every man is entitled if he can to order his affairs so that the tax attaching under the appropriate Acts is less than it otherwise would be. If he succeeds in ordering them so as to secure this result, then, however unappreciative the Commissioners of Inland Revenue or his fellow taxpayers may be of his ingenuity, he cannot be compelled to pay an increased tax.”

Yes, there is some line between tax avoidance and tax evasion, but it is not as simple as saying that putting money in a tax-deferred retirement savings account is morally fine because these accounts are intended by the government. But it is immoral to employ tax avoidance such as—assigning low value to intangibles sold to corporate subsidiaries in order to assign profits to low-tax jurisdictions—because this behavior was not intended by legislators.

Defining the line between tax avoidance and tax evasion involves drawing a line that governments themselves have failed to draw adequately, and places blame squarely on the taxpayer for their behavior. This is all based on a rudimentary idea about what the politicians who wrote the law “intended.”

Conclusion

An EWP Super Trust is a unique vehicle for creating the maximum amount of privacy, asset protection, and tax efficiency for the world’s wealthiest families. We await the opportunity to create one for you!

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC, @ Advanced Financial Solutions, Inc

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

EWP & Compliance Simplifier

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International Tax Planning & Compliance Simplifier—Part 1

EWP (Expanded Worldwide Planning) and Compliance Simplifier

PPLI Keeps You Out of a Spider Web Structure

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For most people a spider’s web is not a positive image. For this reason Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) uses a spider’s web as a symbol of an overly complicated asset structure with multiple entities and a confusing array of boxes and arrows. In its complexity, what we call a Spider Web Structure might look impressive to some, but the end result is summarized in three words: overcomplication, confusion, and uncertainty. Later on we will give you a detailed description of a Spider Web Structure.

We propose an alternative asset structure that we call an EWP Structure.

At the heart of an EWP Structure is a Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) policy which was born out of the necessity to achieve greater tax efficiency, privacy, and asset protection in one low cost structure with institutional pricing. A PPLI structure is made possible through the laws and regulations of life insurance. A much more stable and straightforward body of law than the more politicized tax laws and regulations worldwide.

FATCA and CRS

The beginning of the end for Spider Web Structures began in 2010 with the birth of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The impetus was to stem the tide of U.S. persons using overseas accounts and assets for the purposes of tax evasion. The structure of FATCA is twofold. First, individual taxpayers must report their qualifying foreign income to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). At the same time, the Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) that hold or process that income must report the identity of their qualifying U.S. clients to the United States.

Nine years later, the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), at the behest of the G20 and the G8, proposed similar regulations under the name CRS, or Common Standard on Reporting and Due Diligence for Financial Account Information. In fact, some commentators, noting the similarities between the two initiatives, have dubbed CRS GATCA, or Global FATCA. Though both FATCA and CRS try to combat tax evasion, there are some notable differences between the two sets of regulations.

One of the biggest differences between FATCA and CRS is the breadth of its design. Whereas FATCA requires financial institutions to report only those customers who qualify as U.S. persons, CRS involves more than 90 countries. Under CRS, virtually all foreign investments handled by a financial institution become subject to a CRS report.

One of the ways the IRS encourages compliance with its FATCA regulations is by imposing sizable penalties over those companies who fail to report their U.S. taxpayers’ list. Companies who register with the IRS agree to withhold 30% on certain U.S. payments to foreign payees if those payees do not provide verification of their taxpayer status. This puts the onus of the work of client identification and verification on the Reporting Financial Institution (RFI), not the IRS.

By contrast, the CRS does not charge a withholding tax to any of the RFIs working under its provisions.

Another strong impetus that favors EWP Structures are unexpected disclosures by the press that aim to discredit worldwide financial centers, and the asset structures that are formed in them. The unauthorized publishing of documents in the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers caused financial documents to be made public that were thought to be private.

Some good came out of these disclosures in that those who sought to illegally hide assets from tax authorities were exposed, but at the cost of discomforting many innocent families who had their financial affairs paraded across the popular press.

These families sought to do no more than Judge Learned Hand adjudicated in 1934:

“Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.” – Gregory v. Helvering, 69 F.2d 809, 810 (2d Cir. 1934)

EWP Structures use life insurance as the main component of their structure. Since a properly structured PPLI policy always has a risk shifting element, it definitely qualifies as a life insurance policy. Life insurance is widely recognized in almost every country worldwide as a conservative and legitimate financial planning tool, and for the most part, escapes these periodic, unwarranted intrusions into the privacy of ordinary citizens.

Complexities of Trust Reporting

When overseas holdings involve foreign trusts, things become significantly more complex. As a trustee, grantor, or beneficiary of a foreign trust, you do not want to make a mistake that could cause significant unplanned negative tax ramifications. The way in which you must report foreign trusts to the IRS varies, depending on the type of trust that’s involved.

Multiple categories of trusts are available, and these categories play a role in how the IRS treats foreign trust from a tax perspective. The tax effects also depend on whether the taxpayer established the trust, serves as a trustee, or will be a beneficiary of the trust.

Based on the taxpayer’s relationship to the foreign trust, the tax laws and forms that could be required include: Form 8966 (which is the FATCA Report), Form 3520, Form 5471, Form 8621, Form 8398, and FinCEN Form 114 (the FBAR).

For a PPLI policy that is owned by a foreign trust there would be reporting for the owner of the trust, but at the policy level only FinCen Form 114 and Form 8938 are currently required, and, only the total value of the assets in the PPLI policy are reported, not the individual assets themselves.

At the Heart of EWP Is PPLI

Why engage in complex trust and entity planning that just produces overcomplication, confusion, and uncertainty–yes, Spider Web Structures? You can definitely accomplish much more with a more simple and straightforward EWP Structure that uses PPLI as its core element. We invite you to inquire today to find out how we have helped families worldwide achieve privacy, tax efficiency, asset protection, and, of course, compliance simplification. Contact Us for any questions you may have.

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC, @ Advanced Financial Solutions, Inc

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

#michaelmalloy #PPLI #EWP #privateplacement #lifeinsurance #advancedfinancialsolutions

EWP & Tax Shield-Part 2

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Expanded Worldwide Planning-EWP and Tax Shield

Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) in Action

The Hampton Freeze & Beyond–Part 2

Updated

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The universality of Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) is not to be denied. This is objectified by Wikipedia. In the first sentence of their page on International Tax Planning, Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) is featured.

We are taking a cue from Wikipedia. Over the next few weeks, we will feature one of the six principles of Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP). The six principles are: privacy, asset protection, tax shield, succession planning, compliance simplifier, and trust substitute. Today we feature the tax shield.

PPLI Benefits Non-U.S. Persons with Real Estate

There are many obstacles that non-U.S. persons face in investing in U.S. real estate. The primary tax impediments to foreign investment in U.S. real estate in general and in real estate funds specifically are U.S. income, capital gains and withholding taxes. Adding Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) in combination with trusts and LLC elements eliminates or mitigates U.S., withholding taxes, U.S. income and capital gains taxes, and estate taxes.

Here is a list of the obstacles faced by non-U.S. persons investing in U.S. real estate:

✦ Effectively Connected Income (ECI): Although non-U.S. investors’ gains from U.S. stock are generally not taxable, income and gain from their real estate investments are generally taxable under the ECI rules. Specifically, rental income and/or gains from the sale of U.S. real estate are both generally treated as ECI. U.S. source rental income allocable to a foreign investor is typically not entitled to any treaty preferences. ECI is generally taxed to such foreign investors under the same tax rates that apply to U.S. taxpayers, and foreign investors that receive ECI are required to file U.S. federal and state income tax returns. Finally, the FIRPTA rules described below can also transform sales of stock (or other equity interests) and/or capital gain dividends from REITs into ECI.

✦ FIRPTA: Enacted in 1980 to combat perceived unfair advantages for foreign investors in U.S. real estate, the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA) imposes significant taxes on dispositions of US real property interests. Specifically, Section 897 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, essentially treats such gain as ECI. In addition, as explained below, complicated withholding tax rules apply with regard to US counterparties in such transactions.

✦ Non-US Regulatory Concerns: In addition to U.S. tax issues, non-US investors can have non-U.S. tax and regulatory concerns. For example, non-U.S. investors may need to comply with certain informational reporting requirements in their home jurisdictions.

Significant investment capital for U.S. real estate transactions and funds has been and will continue to be raised from non-U.S. investors. In light of this fact, it is important that real estate advisors, investors, and owners understand the tax challenges, as well as the potential solutions, involved when non-U.S. investors invest in U.S. real estate. PPLI is an integral element in these solutions.

Outstanding Results Realized

We will compare the various structures generally used by non-U.S. persons for investing in U.S. real estate with the addition of PPLI. Adding the PPLI advantage is a cost-effective way to give clients additional return on their investments and legitimate, enhanced privacy in their structures.

An insurance solution using PPLI or a Private Placement Variable Annuity (PPVA) contract can greatly simplify or eliminate many of these issues and make long term investing even more appealing.

All foreign Investors are exposed to a myriad of US tax consequences, including withholding taxes (30%), capital gains, and even U.S. Estate Taxes. Life insurance, and specifically Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI), is a well-established tax and estate planning tool that many qualified investors utilize to mitigate and manage these exposures.

Most structures can remain intact with the simple addition of a compliant life or annuity policy. PPLI can accommodate most custodians, managers or funds, making the transaction as simple to set up as a trust or other less effective structures.

PPLI also provides simplified reporting and confidentiality. The policy is reported once, and not the assets held or underlying investments. The owner reports a life policy and not that they are investors or hold assets in the U.S.

The Summary Chart below compares using PPLI with other commonly used structures. The small additional expense of adding PPLI to a structure gives the non-U.S. person many additional benefits that cannot be achieved otherwise.

CLICK HERE to enlarge image

We learn much valuable knowledge from your questions and comments. Please give us your thoughts on using PPLI in real estate structures.

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC, @ EWP Financial

#michaelmalloy #PPLI #EWP #privateplacement #lifeinsurance #advancedfinancialsolutions

Expanded Worldwide Planning-EWP & Tax Shield

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Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) in Action

The Hampton Freeze & Beyond–Part 1

Expanded Worldwide Planning-EWP & Tax Shield

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The universality of Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) is not to be denied. This is objectified by Wikipedia. In the first sentence of their page on International Tax Planning, Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) is featured.

We are taking a cue from Wikipedia. Over the next few weeks, we will feature one of the six principles of Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP). The six principles are: privacy, asset protection, tax shield, succession planning, compliance simplifier, and trust substitute.

Today we feature the tax shield. Perhaps the best comment made about the tax benefits of PPLI is from the October 1994 article in Offshore Investment by Professor Craig Hampton:

“I was visiting a gentleman at his home in the Piccadilly district of London. It was explained to me that his net worth exceeded US$100 million by a substantial margin. I noticed the presence of a computer terminal on a large desk in his den. It was surrounded by reams of paper dealing with offshore investing.

It soon became apparent that his affluence was due to his own efforts when he said to me: “You’re a bright young man who obviously knows his craft. But what can you tell me that I don’t already know about finances?”

I leaned forward and made this simple statement:

“Through the creative use of international life insurance, your financial affairs can be arranged so that you will never have to pay income taxes for the rest of your life!” The gentleman took serious notice, and thus was born the Hampton Freeze.”

The Hampton Freeze is the name coined for the various PPLI designs developed by Professor Craig Hampton in the early 1990s. These designs were utilized in cases where the premium was over $100M, but can also be employed for PPLI policies with lesser amounts of premium.

Oddly enough many of the tax benefits used for the sophisticated designs like the Hampton Freeze utilize the same tax benefits common to all life insurance policies:

tax-deferred growth of internal cash value;
no capital gains tax;
no income tax;
ability to access cash value through tax-free loans;
tax-free death benefit, if structured properly.

This is why savvy, wealthy families today are employing PPLI, (Private Placement Life Insurance), in greater and greater numbers. A hallmark of the popularity of this asset structure is its conservative and straightforward nature. This ironically allows it to achieve spectacular tax savings.

Why strain to invent a structure that will very likely draw the attention of tax authorities, because of its convoluted and aggressive design? At Advanced Financial Solutions, Inc., we counsel you to stop trying to be overly clever in the design of your asset structures. Why not use a financial tool that has been in use since Ancient Rome–life insurance? This will give you the best tax shield available today bar none.

A Brief History of Taxation

We will be concentrating on the ‘shield’ aspect of the tax shield, but before we go into more detail, let us speak briefly about the ‘tax’ aspect of our subject. What is the history of this thing we wish to shield?

In the ancient world there is recorded a system of taxation in Egypt around 3000-2800 BC. Documents show that the Pharaoh would tour his kingdom twice a year to collect taxes. In the Bible, we find this quote,

“But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children,” Genesis (chapter 47, verse 24, the New International Version.)

America was tax-free for much of its early history. This changed at the time of the Civil War, when large debts were incurred to fund the war against the South. In order to help pay for the war, the Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861. The tax was levied on incomes exceeding $800 and was not rescinded until 1872.

In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was introduced to pave the way to an income tax by removing the proportional to population clause. It was quickly followed by an income tax on people with an annual income of over $3,000. This tax touched less than 1% of Americans.

World War I led to three Revenue Acts that cranked up tax rates and lowered the exemption levels. The number of people paying taxes in the U.S. increased to 5%, and separate taxes were introduced for estates and business profits.

By 1940, the need for the U.S. to prepare for war and support its allies led to even more aggressive taxation. People with incomes of $500 faced a 23% tax and the rates climbed up to 94%. By 1945 $43 million Americans paid tax and the yearly receipts were in excess of $45 billion, up from $9 billion in 1941.

Who Pays the Most Tax Today?

The most recent IRS data, from 2016, shows that the top 10 percent of income earners pay almost 70 percent of federal income taxes.

Looking at all federal taxes, the Congressional Budget Office shows that the top 1 percent pay an average federal tax rate of 33.3 percent. The data show tax rates decline with income, and the poorest 20 percent of the population pays an average tax rate of just 1.7 percent.

In Part 2, we will focus on the exceptional advantages of using PPLI with real estate. As always, we welcome your comments and questions.

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC, @ Advanced Financial Solutions, Inc

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

#michaelmalloy #PPLI #EWP #privateplacement #lifeinsurance #advancedfinancialsolutions

The EWP Da Vinci Code – Part 3

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Expanded Worldwide Planning–EWP & Asset Protection

Private Placement Life Insurance (PPLI) in Action

The EWP Da Vinci Code–Part 3

The EWP Da Vinci Code - Part 3

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Domestic Asset Protection Trust vs. Offshore Asset Protection Trust

Today we feature asset protection. In this segment we will discuss the development of Domestic Asset Protection Trust (DAPT) and Offshore Asset Protection Trust (OAPT). We again alert you to the fact that a simpler and more time-honored approach to asset protection is using life insurance. In a sense, asset protection comes automatically with Expanded Worldwide (EWP).

Advisors debate which is better: a DAPT or an OAPT. We say that they do serve a purpose for some clients, but why not adopt The EWP Da Vinci Code, and receive not only outstanding asset protection benefits, but all the six principles of Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) in one complete package?

Why bring Leonardo da Vince into this discussion? Because Leonardo said, “Simplicity is ultimate sophistication.” We have taken this as our model in implementing Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) in our PPLI asset structures. We invite you to do the same.

When you purchase an automobile, you do not ask if it has turn signals. Of course, this is a standard part of the vehicle. Today you may pay extra for an advanced guidance system (GPS), but you might be able to do without it.

“Asset protection does not come as an extra feature with Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP), it is part of the package, just like turn signals on a new vehicle.” ~ Michael Malloy

As we will read, the controversial aspects of DAPTs and OAPTs arise out of public policy issues: is the use of this particular trust the best for the common good.

It is not our place to take a position on public policy issues. At Advanced Financial Solutions, Inc. our role is to assist wealthy families in their quest to implement the six principles of Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP). Asset Protection is one of these six principles, and it is achieved through the financial planning tool of life insurance.

Life insurance is considered a societal benefit. Life insurance relieves governments from providing families with the needed cash at the death of the family’s income earner. Life insurance encourages savings for retirement through the accumulation of the cash value in the policy. PPLI is a form of life insurance, and thus bypasses much of the attention that is focused on trust structures.

In terms of the actual PPLI contract, all investments are held in separate accounts in the policy, thus, they are not in the insurance company’s general account. For this reason they are not subject to the creditors of the insurance company, if the company were to become bankrupt.

When government regulators look to curb what they would term abuses of public policy: in other words, wealthy families who have gone too far in stretching tax and trust law, aggressive trust structures are a frequent target.

We now give you a brief history of DAPTs and OAPTs, and the public policy issues that raise concerns with government regulators.

According to Wikipedia:

“An asset-protection trust is any form of trust which provides for funds to be held on a discretionary basis. Such trusts are set up in an attempt to avoid or mitigate the effects of taxation, divorce and bankruptcy on the beneficiary. Such trusts are therefore frequently proscribed or limited in their effects by governments and the courts.”

What we might call the modern asset protection trust was formulated in the late 1980s, and the first jurisdiction to adopt it was in the Cook Islands. These trusts had spendthrift provisions and could be self-settled. These OAPTs had a one year fraudulent conveyance statute.

The Cook Islands legislation was soon followed by similar laws in the Cayman Islands, Belize, Nevis, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and numerous other international financial centers.

In 1997, Alaska passed legislation allowing for irrevocable, discretionary, self-settled trusts. Ninety days later, Delaware followed suit, and as of this date some 16 states have passed DAPT legislation.

The controversy surrounding DAPTs and OAPTs arises from the degree to which OAPTs, in practice, often defeat deep-seated precepts of U.S. trust law. A key precept is that one ought not control and benefit from property and at the same time shield it from one’s creditors.

The underlying policy rationale for the non-enforcement of self-settled spendthrift trusts is clearly stated in A. Scott’s The Law of Trusts:

“It is immaterial that in creating the trust, the settlor did not intend to defraud his creditors. It is immaterial that he was solvent at the time of the creation of the trust. It is against public policy to permit a man to tie up his own property in such a way that he can still enjoy it but can prevent his creditors from reaching it.”

For a U.S. wealthy family to form a DAPT, it is not necessary to form a trust in a jurisdiction outside the U.S., so this can make the process less expensive and time consuming. This takes us back to the old adage: “you get what you pay for.”

The greatest deficiency of DAPTs is that they are necessarily governed by U.S. law. The DAPT fails to achieve the jurisdictional separation required to fully protect the asset.

Since only a quarter of states currently have DAPT statutes, it is probable that states where litigation is taking place are those in which DAPTs are expressly prohibited as being against public policy. In a conflict-of-law analysis, it is difficult to envision any judge in a non-DAPT state agreeing to apply the laws of the DAPT state.

OAPTs are more secure for several reasons:

a foreign trust is not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts, so a U.S. attachment order will have no effect within that foreign jurisdiction;

furthermore, creditors seeking to reach the assets embark on independent legal proceedings in the foreign jurisdiction in which the trust is located;

even a favorable foreign judgment may be a hollow victory. The creditor still may not be able to satisfy that judgment from the assets held in the trust unless she proves that the transfer to the trust constituted a fraudulent conveyance.

Conclusion

Most asset protection trusts established by U.S. settlors are considered grantor trusts under U.S. income tax law, meaning that all income of the trust is reportable on the grantor’s (the settlor’s) individual income tax return. Asset-protection trusts do not, in and of themselves, offer any tax advantages under U.S. income tax law.

So why not create a trust that not only gives you asset protection, but the whole formidable array of benefits that Expanded Worldwide Planning (EWP) provides? To achieve this outstanding result, we suggest using an International Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust (ILIT) which owns a properly structured PPLI policy–The EWP Da Vinci Code.

The ILIT has been in use for decades; it has withstood numerous court challenges, and avoids the taint of opposing public policy that you acquire with DAPTs and OAPTs.

Regarding U.S,. tax laws, a properly designed International ILIT, governed by the law of a foreign jurisdiction, is treated virtually the same as a domestic ILIT. For wealthy U.S. families, or those families with a connection to the U.S., an International ILIT in combination with a properly structured PPLI policy, is arguably the most efficient structure for the integration tax-free investment growth, wealth transfer and asset protection.

Please contact us today to find out if The EWP Da Vinci Code is right for you.

by Michael Malloy, CLU TEP RFC, @ Advanced Financial Solutions, Inc

Michael Malloy-CLU-TEP

#michaelmalloy #PPLI #EWP #privateplacement #lifeinsurance #advancedfinancialsolutions