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A 5-star rating would have been granted if the authors had elaborated on what was meant by "carefully structured" arrangements for offshore investors. They also tended to gloss over some of the aspects of the offshore industry. However, the book doesn't promise to be a step-by-step guide on all the "how-to's" of offshore investing either. Instead, the authors provide good and reliable information to give the reader a basic understanding so that they can seek further professional advice as required on an individualized basis.
One of the two sections of the book that I found most valuable was Chapter 9 ("How Individuals Can Take Advantage Of Offshore Financial Centers"), which, despite its shortness, gives excellent information on how several different professionals can take advantage of offshore structures.
Also, the entire second half of the book justifies 4-stars as opposed to 3-stars. In this section, the authors give excellent, concise information on different offshore jurisdictions throughout the world. They have a helpful rating system that ranks the jurisdictions in four categories: Banking, Trusts, Companies and an Overall Rating. Despite the fact that the authors do not justify their criteria of how they arrived at this rating (something that could have earned them 5-stars), it is still extremely helpful for the beginner seeking reliable information at an affordable price.
Offshore Investing is fluff with very little substance. The authors, who are apparently Canadians, allude to tax advantages of offshore investing "through carefully structured international tax planning" but don't tell you the truth that, as a practical matter, it is just about impossible for most US citizens and residents to achieve unique tax advantages by investing offshore.
The authors don't talk in any detail about the few legitimate means for using offshore structures to reduce US income taxes, such as captive insurance companies and offshore variable life insurance and annuities. Neither do they mention the extensive US tax reporting requirements and the negative tax consequences associated with many of the offshore structures they discuss.
Their rankings of offshore banks are of little use because the authors don't provide their ratings criteria, except to say, generally, that the banks are rated on reputation (among whom?), history, service levels (to whom?), expertise (in what areas?), and perceived (by whom?) credit-worthiness.
About 100 of the book's 200 pages are devoted to giving brief overviews of offshore jurisdictions - which is nothing different than you can find at least one better book, Arnold Cornez' Offshore Money Book, with more substance for the same price.
The authors' understanding of asset protection, at least with regard to protecting assets of US persons from US creditors, is also off-base. They discuss the same old schemes pitched by promoters from coast to coast, and what attempt there is at giving practical advice is misguided and just plain wrong in many cases.
No book oriented to non-professionals does a very good job with the tax and asset protection substance and truth of offshore planning. This one, while not promoting blatantly illegal or fraudulent schemes, adds nothing to the existing literature. Save your money -- skip this one.
The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they
are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is generally
understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.
-- John Maynard Keyes
The price of success in philosophy is triviality.
-- C. Glymour.
