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1/6/2009
Tuesday morning
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| One of the most vital areas of the Swiss financial markets
is the insurance industry. While Swiss banks are associated with
safety and conservative management, the insurance industry has
not had a single company failure in more than 130 years. This is
a record that surpasses even the steadiness of Swiss banks.
About twenty insurance companies compete in Switzerland.
All are financially sound and managed with an eye for safety and
high return. Usually, the two conditions -- safety and high
yield regarding investments -- are mutually exclusive. High
yield implies risk. Unlike the insurance industries in other
countries, however, insurance companies in Switzerland enjoy
unique tax advantages. Coupled with efficient and intelligent
management, Swiss insurance companies are able to offer a variety
of steady and productive investment opportunities.
Of all the investment options offered by Swiss insurance
companies, annuities provide excellent benefits and can be used
for as. |
| For variable annuities with a large stable of investment advisors, one
advantage is the opportunity for you to switch among different investment
sub accounts - often managed by entirely different money managers -
without any current tax consequence. This is an advantage if your
investment is not an IRA or other tax-qualified account AND you like having
access to, say, a dozen different mutual fund management companies, without
having to incur charges or tax on any switches. |
| Swiss annuities offer numerous benefits to investors.
Although annuities can be purchased in many countries around the
world, none can match the overall advantages Swiss annuities
provide. Here are the major benefits:
* Asset protection. By irrevocably designating a third
party as the beneficiary, or by revocably or irrevocably
designating a spouse and/or descendants as beneficiaries, the
policy owner is able to protect the policy from creditors.
Provided that the annuity provides for payments to the
beneficiary, and that beneficiary has not made any contribution
to the purchase of the annuity, the annuity is also protected
from potential creditors of the beneficiary. It should be noted
that the asset protection is guaranteed by Swiss law and does not
cost the investor anything. It comes with Swiss annuities.
Virtually the only way a creditor can seize an annuity is to
prove that the investor purchased the annuity with the intent to
defraud the creditor. This is most diff. |
| You write:
The illiquidity of variable annuities in general is a result of the fact that
whenever you are in need of money and would like to withdraw money from your
annuity account, you end up paying a pretty high fee to the insurance company. |
| JML: Youve hit the four primary benefits. Id add that Swiss
insurers are more fiscally stable than their U.S. counterparts,
in part because they are restricted by the Swiss Insurance
Commission to hold only the most conservative investments. As
you know,...no Swiss insurer has ever failed to meet its
obligations and not one has ever failed.
Ive personally helped design a new generation of annuities
that offer the insured a number of other unique advantages. For
one, unlike most annuities, ours are completely liquid. For
another, there is no up-front or back-end commission load -- the
sales fee of about 5% is deducted from dividends earned over the
first year. And, of course, the earnings accumulate free of any
Swiss or U.S. tax. In fact, the investor doesnt need to report
the annuity on his tax return. Finally, weve designed them so
that the funds may be switched between Swiss francs, U.S.
dollars, pound sterling and ECUs, so the account holder has the
flexibility to choo. |
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