Safe havens: The best countries for opening offshore accounts

The Bloomberg Business Index, a profile of the world's most affluent, reveals at least 30 percent of the world's top 200 billionaires have put their wealth in offshore accounts. To these offshore banking clients, the benefits of offshore banking—security, privacy, and tax relief, among others—prevail over the stigma and misconceptions ascribed to it.

Image Source: mi2g.com

Options for overseas banking have been around for more than 300 years as financial instruments that take an investor's hard-earned resources under their wings. A widespread political tumult in Europe prompted Switzerland to offer itself as a haven of wealth preservation in the late 18th century. The country has since become home to trillions of dollars of outside investment from New York to Moscow.

Image Source: csmonitor.com

But as other island nations offer the same financial stability and safety Switzerland offers, and as the U.S. trains its guns on Swiss banks to feed its war on alleged tax dodgers, is the Alpine country still among the best places for opening foreign accounts? The simple answer is yes. Even in the face of intimidation from the U.S.' Internal Revenue Service, Switzerland remains largely unflinching in its confidentiality principles. After all, majority of Swiss banks' clients, who are based elsewhere but the U.S., are placing their coffers in banks within the Swiss territory not for the country's tax incentives, but for its political and economic stability and the unrivaled expertise of its wealth managers.

Image Source: nomadcapintalist.com

But as earlier said, other countries are also attracting the ultra-rich to hedge their wealth. Australia has some of the safest banking institutions in the world, inviting the Chinese elite and other affluent Asians to move their assets down under. And while it may be getting more difficult to open an offshore account in Singapore, plowing foreign resources in Asia's central financial hub remains worthwhile—three of the world's 50 safest banks are headquartered there, according to Global Finance. Needless to say, nothing is safer than investing in the world's richest, most stable economy.  

New Zealand-based Breder Suasso carries safe and efficient offshore financial transactions to clients anywhere in the world. Explore the benefits of offshore investing through this website.