Guatemala Trust Agreement Banking

Introduction – Trust Agreement banking is a means of maintaining extreme privacy and asset protection in your banking relationships. An international trust agreement is entered into with the Guatemala Law Firm. You are the "Trustor" or the “Grantor” and the Law Firm is the "Trustee". The Trustee holds assets on behalf of the beneficiary. The Trustee actually is the one listed on the bank records, your name never appears in any bank records or bank documents. You are not the signatory nor are you the beneficial owner of the account.

The Trustee does need to know who you are so identity documents are required such as a notarized copy of a driver’s license and passport sent by scan or courier. The identity documents also serve to protect you as well. You have a written agreement with the Trustee detailing all the terms of the agreement. You direct the Trustee to disburse funds, move funds, and invest funds etc as you wish according to the terms and conditions of the international trust agreement. The Trust Agreement is covered by attorney client privilege. The bank cannot turn over any information on you because they have none. The only way to truly offer extreme privacy to the client is when the bank does not know whom the client is. This insures that there can be no information requests fulfilled by the bank under any circumstances.

International Trust Agreement Security – There is a trade off when seeking extreme privacy and asset protection where the bank is not in a position to reveal whom you are because they do not have such information. Clients will sometimes say, “Well what if the law firm runs away with my money”. This is reminiscent to us of the old days when you would open a bank account for the client on some Caribbean Island where they would not share information in the old days years ago. Then the clients would say "What if the bank runs away with my money". The International Trust Agreement protects you against the law firm keeping your money and that is one reason we use this. The client would file a police report against the law firm if the law firm ran off with any funds. The online banking records or statements would show the removal of funds and the International Trust Agreement would establish the relationship and define it. It would be a most serious criminal offense for the law firm to do such a thing. This is the only way to conceal the client’s identity from the bank. Any other options involve the client’s identity being known to the bank and this reduces the privacy of the structure. We do the best we can given the banking environment we have to work with.

Asset Protection and International Trust Agreement Banking – Let us say you had financial enemies. If you are reading this you’re probably do or are concerned that one day you might. Frivolous litigation is a big problem in many countries. A financial enemy is a person(s) or other entity that wishes to attack you financially and get your money. Let us assume they develop a trail to your offshore bank account. This can be done by getting a subpoena to look at the banking records in your home country and then they see wire transfers to your offshore bank account or perhaps wire transfers from your offshore bank account into your home country bank account.

If your financial enemies are motivated enough and have enough money they can retain counsel in the country of your offshore bank and attempt to get the money. They can argue fraudulent conveyance (just about impossible to do this in Guatemala with or without us signing on the bank account) and start a civil action to get at your money. They can also try posting a bond within this civil action to freeze the bank account (sequestro order which again is just about impossible in Guatemala based on an out of Guatemala event or judgment). Governments can also try to get the records of the bank account arguing tax offenses and or crimes. Almost all tax offenses get colored with fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to commit fraud, tax fraud etc to throw the offense into the criminal realm thus enabling access to the records more easily than if the offense was civil only.

Guatemala does not share information for tax purposes even if it is a criminal tax charge. The International Trust Agreement banking model protects you from all of these potential asset protection problems. If any government got into the banking records based on allegations of crimes they would not get your name, just the law firm representatives name. If anyone asked you why you sent money from your home country bank account to the attorney client trust account you could hide behind attorney client privilege. Many clients prefer to send funds from the home country to our attorney client trust account first and then we move the funds over into the corporate account they have. So you are avoiding any potential attacks by financial enemies by using our International Trust Agreement banking model to eliminate any trails to the ultimate destination of the funds.

The trail of the funds is lost since the money first goes into our attorney client trust account and then on to the corporate bank account. They have no grounds to get into the banking records of a law firm, which is covered by attorney client privilege. If the law firm were the signatory on the corporate bank account getting those records although extremely difficult would not provide any useful information either. Sometimes issues in banking come up when a corporate bank account is used to receive funds from clients. These clients can get into trouble on their own independent of any dealings with you and your business. It happens. Then wires are seen going from their bank account to your corporate bank account.

If it is a criminal case or even a tax case the governments involved start looking for conspiracy and try to get your corporate banking records since the account received funds from the client who is in a criminal or tax case. So if your name were on the bank records then they would start doing background investigations on you, which would include criminal records, check with your home country (they would see your passport in the bank records). This is a privacy violation and could have negative implications for you although you did nothing wrong it was your client who messed up but you got dragged into it. This is the police state concept of guilty by association, which is nonsense. If the law firm were the signatory on the bank records of the corporation, then the investigation would go nowhere. They could come to Guatemala and have a fight with us in court to get the law firm records but their chances of success would be just about non-existent unless they could directly tie (think have concrete evidence) the corporate bank account to some deplorable criminal activity directly like child porn, kidnapping, blackmail, slavery, narcotics etc. The International Trust Agreement banking model can protect you in many ways you may never have even considered.

Death, Incapacitation and Beneficiaries - The International Trust Agreement allows you to list beneficiaries in case of your demise or incapacitation. If you are the signatory on the bank account and something happens to you then it can be confusing, time consuming and costly for your beneficiaries to hire a law firm in the banking jurisdiction, prove your death in court and then establish to the court that they are the rightful heirs to the funds. Certified death certificates would be required and then a certified will. None of this is necessary with the International Trust Agreement since you can list persons as beneficiaries and of course change them as required. The International Trust Agreement is a secret document covered by attorney client privilege.

Somehow you would need to make sure your beneficiaries knew about the relationship with the law firm or to at least contact our law firm in case of a tragic event. They would need a certified death certificate but nothing else except their identity documents. The time required to change beneficiaries in the event of a death would be couple of days is all with trust agreement banking. To deal with incapacitation we can custom write the defining terms of incapacitation into the agreement to suit. Some thoughts would be strokes, alzheimer's that is advanced, comas and other dreaded situations. Your beneficiaries getting control over a regular bank account that you sign on in the event of incapacitation (think coma) can be tough especially if the coma may not be permanent. Sorry about the walk on the dark side here but we are a law firm and these less than favorable subjects need to be discussed for your benefit and for the benefit of your beneficiaries.

Planning is the best way to cover these potential issues. We will customize these trust agreements to suit your special needs and modify them as needed over time. For instance one can specify in the event of their death that their spouse receives all the funds over time in installments but if the spouse remarries then the funds in whole or in part revert to the children. This can keep the hands of your spouse’s new mate away from your children’s financial well being. Just one example of what can be done. You are really only limited by your imagination in that practically anything will be enforceable in court in Guatemala.

Foundations - Just in passing use of a foundation like a Panama Private Interest Foundation or similar one will not solve these problems anywhere near as well as the trust agreement banking. Foundations still require a court hearing to transfer bank account assets. Proving the beneficiary instructions are correct and the most recent can get complicated. You need to get on the court calendar. There is expense, time delay, personal visits, possibly testimony required in court etc. Then what is a relative shows up and starts a dispute, which can take years to resolve. Practically anything is disputable in Panama.

Distress Clause – This is another advantage of banking with trust agreements. We can put clauses into the agreement that state in the event you are under verifiable distress your funds are to be treated in a specified manner with highly specific instructions. Some examples of distress could be: divorce, lawsuits, forced bankruptcy, arrest and other reasons. We could have standing instructions to move money around under such circumstances. We could also be instructed to remove the control of said funds to avoid you be compelled by some court to turn funds over to the court. You would have what is called plausible deniability since you no longer have the capability of moving the funds around until the distress is removed. The protective measures the Trustee is authorized to take can also be specifically detailed in the Trust Agreement. A number of different protective scenarios can be accomplished depending on the potential risk factors and potential financial enemies. Such an asset endangerment clause may read as follows:

The Trustor specifically agrees that in the event that possible legal problems may occur that the Trustee may do any and all legal acts to protect and secure the Trustor’s Asset and Person. The Trustee specifically agrees to immediately notify the Trustor of any and all such bank account and or assets jurisdictional and or location transfer and all details as may be required by the Trustor.

Information Requests – If there is a request for information regarding a civil matter (judgment, divorce, bankruptcy, etc) the request will be ignored and put in the paper shredder. In the event that a request for information is made to the bank under a tax treaty from a national government this is what will happen. The bank will have to turn over the account information listing the signatory and beneficiary owner as the Guatemala law firm. Banks have no options, they must comply. The law firm will be contacted and refuse to reveal any information about the client (you).

The matter will eventually wind up in a Guatemala court if the requesting government wishes to pursue the matter and spend the time and money to do so. They often do not have the funds, time and resources to this and instead will chase the low hanging fruit where there is a greater chance of recovering money for their government. As soon as the law firm is aware of any request for information you will be contacted and most likely you will want your funds moved to another jurisdiction rapidly and such a request we would be obliged to comply with. The requesting nation will come to Guatemala if they are so inclined to try and find out whom the client is. They will hire local counsel to represent them and attempt to use the courts to force the law firm to reveal whom the client is. They will argue suspicions and try to get the records that way. The usual offenses are fraud, conspiracy, and of course money laundering (Guatemala has restructured their money laundering laws to prevent frivolous actions) and such allegations require evidence, not just allegations. Rarely does evidence exist.

Tax only matters are not going to fly. The law firm is not a bank that has to comply. Breaking attorney client privilege is a very serious matter in Guatemala and it will take evidence of a major crime like kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, murder, narcotics trafficking, slavery, forced prostitution or child pornography. Without evidence the action will fail. The lawyer sent by the requesting country will start testifying about how bad they need this information and how sure they are that once they get it they can make their case. This does not work in Guatemala. The attorney from the requesting country will immediately be accused of testifying (lawyers are not supposed to testify in court) and asked to waive his or her diplomatic immunity exposing them to charges of perjury and contempt of court. This is where it will normally end since the attorney from the requesting country is not going to expose himself to charges.

Trust Agreement Details – The Trust Agreement can be custom designed to provide you with the flexibility, convenience, security and privacy that you require. Wire requests, bank check requests, payments etc. can be transmitted to the Trustee securely for prompt execution. The Trustee can be removed or replaced at any time by the Trustor. The Trustor is able to revoke/cancel the international trust agreement at anytime and take legal control and or ownership over all corporations and Bank Accounts and all other assets included in the international trust agreement with 24 hours notice. The trustee can be directed to manage investments according to any agreed upon criteria. For example the Trustee can invest funds into a stock portfolio, real estate, and other businesses according to your specific instructions contained in the agreement. The Trustee cannot reveal the name of Trustor and the Trustee in writing agrees to maintain absolute identity secrecy of Trustor and there is attorney client privilege to assure this does not get pierced. This is the only way we know to protect the privacy and security of the client in this day with all the government intrusions into banking privacy.

Trust Agreement Records – The Trustee shall maintain and make available to the Trustor as required all accounting records, which shall be maintained in a safe and secure location covered by attorney client privilege.

Banks We Use – We only use quality banks. The bank will have online banking in English and Spanish. We use banks in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Mexico and Ecuador. Accounts can be held in US Dollars, Euros and other currencies, inquire. The attorney client privilege in Guatemala is extremely strong, world class. Guatemala is not known to cooperate with any other jurisdiction when it comes to sharing information for any reason other than major criminality like: terrorism, murder, genocide, blackmail and kidnapping.

Offshore Derived Income Taxes – Offshore derived income is not taxed by the countries we bank in.

Identification – We need a notarized copy of a passport and driver license sent by scan attached to an email, courier or fax. Fax must be readable. We DO NOT need any bank references or utility bills. If there is difficulty with these requirements feel free to discuss your unique circumstances with us. We cannot work without a passport copy notarized.

Time Frame – From start to completion including a bank account can be accomplished in one week or less. We can allow one to wire money into our attorney client trust account in as little as 24 hours. Then the money will be moved over to your corporate bank account when ready. Corporations formed with the name you select can take two to three weeks to from. Shelf corporations are available immediately but you do not get to select the name.

Fees – The fees for the Trust Agreement Banking are $6000, which includes an anonymous corporation (we use corporations formed in the same country as the bank for simplicity and this does not weaken the structure at all), the international trust agreement including a distress clause, and a bank account. There is an additional 3% charged on all funds deposited into the account. Questions welcome. The law firm is responsible for those funds and wishes to be compensated for this. We know of no other method as private, safe and secure for banking in the current legal environment with all the new tax treaties being signed around the world.

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