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1/6/2009
Tuesday morning
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| 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. |
| Annuities also carry SURRENDER CHARGES, which are similar to the Contingent
Deferred Sales Charges of B shares of a mutual fund. Typically, an
annuity will charge you 6% for withdrawing more than 10% of your account
balance in the first year, 5% in the second, etc., until no Surrender Charge
would be assessed in the 7th or later year. Often, this charge is waived
upon the death of the annuitant or if he or she must enter a nursing home. |
| 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. |
| JML: At the beginning there was a big information gap. We had
to explain to Americans how the benefits of diversifying into
foreign currencies such as the Swiss franc, as well as how
important it was to have ones assets geographically diversified.
At the same time, all I knew was Swiss insurance law and nothing
about American law. More and more American legal questions came
up -- such as, can an individual retirement account own a Swiss
policy, etc.? So I learned the answers. Until five years ago,
we didnt receive a lot of questions regarding privacy and asset
protection. When I started in business I didnt even know that
this was of any importance. There are precedents in Swiss law
that an annuity really is a very, very private investment and
under Swiss law there is no way that a creditor can attach this
investment. Coupled with this, Americans dont legally have to
report annuities as they are insurance policies and not foreign
financial accounts. Today, privacy and asset p. |
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