Panama Legal Law Firm Standard Ordering Information

Panama Corporation, Foundation and Banking Information

An Anonymous Panama Bearer Share Corporation or an Anonymous Panama Private Interest Foundation requires 2-3 working days to form. Both can be formed at same time in same time frame. For an additional $280 for each for corporation or foundation we can have them done in 24 hours. Shelf corporations and foundations can also be acquired. With an off the shelf you do not get to pick your own name and there is an additional $200 cost associated with each shelf entity. You can email us for a list of the shelf corporations and foundations in stock. They are typically 30-90 days old.

We need an additional 5 days (approximate) to get the bank account opened – depends on courier speed to get bank signature cards to you and back again. In general it takes 10-15 working days to complete the formation and have the bank account opened from the time we have the payment and the documents. We have to courier to you bank signature cards and you need to sign them and return by courier and this usually takes 4-5 days round trip.

Our fee for the corporation or the foundation including the bank account is $1795.00 USD, $1995 for one off the shelf. The corporation includes three nominee directors who appear in the public registry, resident agent and official resident address for the corporation to receive official correspondence only, English translations, resolution from the board of directors to open the bank account, undated resignation letters from the nominee directors, general power of attorney made out to you or whoever you wish, signed and notarized by the nominee board of directors and first year taxes ($300). No hidden costs and a complete fully functional corporation nothing missing. Please bear in mind you will have an attorney assigned to your case that you can call and ask questions to at any time. We generally do not charge for questions. We are a law firm so we do charge to read contracts, write contracts and generate documents. Our billing rate is $150 per hour. If you need the nominees to execute a agreement we generally charge $295 since lawyer time is required to read the agreement and get it signed by the three nominees and notarized.

With a foundation we include three nominee council members whose names do appear in the public registry, a founder that is not you, an English translation of the foundation documents, a general power of attorney made out to whoever you prefer, a resolution signed and notarized by the foundation council to open the bank account, a resident agent (us) and an official address for the foundation to receive official correspondence (our address), first year taxes ($300) and there are no hidden fees. With a foundation our law firm will have one of our attorneys create a secret letter of wishes which can be thought of as beneficiary instructions personally with you (by phone, email or in person) dealing with how your assets are to be distributed to beneficiaries in the event of your permanent or temporary incapacitation or death. One of our attorneys will also work with you to create a foundation protector agreement if you so wish to use a foundation protector. You will be provided with an official address for the corporation or foundation to receive official notices such as official renewal notices. This can be provided to people asking for the Panama address of the corporation or foundation but it is not to be used to receive routine customer correspondence and is not to be used to receive any payments.

The banks we use in Panama are covered by the strong Panama Bank Secrecy Laws. The bank will have online banking including the ability to send international wire transfers, check balances and history of the account. The banks all issue some sort of secured Visa card that is good in person, online and in ATM machines around the world. We will continue representing you as your Law Firm until the bank account is open and the online banking is active. All the banks we introduce clients to are structured as Panama banking corporations. They have no branches in other countries. If a bank using the same name in another country was to be able to get account information on your account the executives of the bank in Panama could go to prison, they could get sued personally and you could sue the bank itself with their deep pockets for the violation of Panama Bank Secrecy Laws. We have never seen this happen to any of our many clients. There are a few banks that operate only in Panama but they require a personal visit. The Panama banks we use have $25 to $75 Billion in assets. Even though there are banks using same name in other countries the Panama Bank is under Panama Bank secrecy and the bank understands that a violation will cause a nasty lawsuit and a Panama judge is most likely to award high punitive damages.

If you wish to have a personal bank account in addition to your corporate or foundation bank account at the same bank this is possible. The fee is $495.00 USD for this extra personal bank account. We do not open up just personal accounts, there has to be a corporation or foundation account involved at the same bank. The personal account is needed to get a secured visa card and/or ATM card from a Panama bank since they do not issue them to corporation or foundation bank accounts any longer. The bank in Ecuador does issue secured visa card to corporate and foundation accounts with only the name of the corporation on the card. They also issue ATM cards to corporate or foundation accounts in Ecuador.

Panama Legal has anonymous ATM cards. They must be loaded by sending a wire transfer to Mexico. They have no name on them. The card operator never receives any of your ID. They are explained in detail here:

Anonymous ATM Cards

Your Foundation or Corporation can have a full stock trading account with a reputable Panama Stock Brokerage company. The broker can be part of a bank or a stand-alone broker. You can trade online or use a live broker. The broker allows you to trade in any of the major markets around the world. Panama stockbrokers have secrecy resembling Panama bank secrecy (strong). They have margin accounts. While they do have competitive rates there are no discount brokers in Panama or any other offshore jurisdiction. In Panama there is no capital gains tax on stock market gains or bank interest. Our fee for the Panama Stock Broker introduction is $495.00 USD.

Panama Legal will become your law firm and you can feel free to call on us at any time as your attorney. We do answer questions without billing you for simple questions. If we need to do research that is another matter.

Our fee for the corporation and the foundation is $3300.00 USD including a bank account for each (two bank accounts in Panama). If you wish to add in another foundation to be the beneficiary of the first foundation the total fee is $4500 for two foundations, one corporation and a Panama bank account for each (3 Panama bank accounts).

There is an additional $75.00 USD courier fee (with all orders) to cover courier expenses involved in sending you bank signature cards and bank forms, corporate or foundation documents, etc. You will also incur some courier expenses returning the bank signature cards. You cannot send anything to Panama using the postal service of any country – too unreliable.

***When signing bank signature cards and bank documents make sure you sign the way you signed your passport using all names (middle name included) in your passport signature .***

We want you to feel free to ask as many questions as you like any time. There are no bad questions.

PLEASE USE OUR ONLINE SECURE ORDER FORM:

Click here for our Secure Order Form

The form asks for all the required information.

Documents Required for Corporation, Foundation, Bank Account or Stock Brokerage Account in PANAMA ONLY.

1) Letter of reference from a bank. Can be made out "To whom it May Concern". Could also be made out to us- Panama Legal or even made out to yourself. You could tell the bank that you have retained a law firm to handle some international matters for you and they need the bank reference as part of their know your client due diligence. A sample letter would look like this on official bank letterhead:

Mr. John Doe has had an account here since June of 2003. The account is in good standing or is currently open. If the Bank is resisting writing such a letter ask the bank to write you a letter addressed to you about the status of your account. It should be on a bank letterhead signed by a bank employee. It should state type of account, account number, date opened, and status of account currently such as – open, current etc. along with current balance and average balance. Yes I know in this format we are asking for balances but you can blank them out with a marker pen.

2) Business reference letter from a business that knows you such as a stock broker, real estate broker, travel agency, insurance broker, dental clinic, medical clinic, an attorney or an accountant on a letterhead. Should say they know you and for how long, have done business with you, you are a good person and they recommend you. It can come from any business with a letterhead.

3) A copy of a passport. Please have the picture page and the facing page photocopied and notarized. Then it needs to be apostilled. If there is no apostille then the notarized document needs to be sent to the nearest Panama Consulate or Embassy for them to certify the notary. This costs $30 and they do this service fast and are quite polite and cooperative. Our website has a section on apostilles and a list of where to find them around the world. An apostille is a government employee who certifies the notary as being a real notary. You can generally mail the document in to them with a self-addressed envelope and have it done and in your hands in a few days. You can also walk in if you are near their offices.

4) Please also have a copy of a driver’s license or other government issued photo id notarized and apostilled as well.

We can get you an account with an Ecuador bank in 24 hours from today. We need a notarized copy of a passport and driver license only. No reference letters, no apostille, no embassy certification. We use a Panama Shelf Corporation to get it all done in 24 hours. The ID is sent by email attached as scans. If you wish to wait a little longer we can custom form a Panama Corporation or Foundation, which takes an extra 3-4 days, and you can select the name. For an extra $280 we can custom form the corporation in 24 hours. The payment is by western Union. The bank is over 100 years old and has assets over $100,000,000. There is online banking. There are secured visa cards available in corporate name only. There are also ATM card without your name on them. For more details go to this web page:

Ecuador Bank Account

Please feel free to call us for assistance with the notary and apostille process. In the USA Mailboxes etc. and the UPS store have notaries that will stamp the copies of the ID documents to be true copies of the original for $10. It sounds worse than it is and North Americans are not familiar with this process, which is common in the rest of the world. Passport and driver license can be on same page. generally. We will be glad to help and hold your hand with this process, just ask.

Only send documents to us by courier – DHL, UPS or FedEx. NEVER use the postal services (including express mail) of any country for any reason.

Apostille

To learn more about the Apostille Process go here:

http://www.panamalaw.org/apostille.html

For a list of Apostilles in USA go here:

http://www.panamalaw.org/apostille_usa.html

If getting a document apostilled is inconvenient or you are in a country like Canada which does not have apostilles then you simply take or send the document with the notary stamp and signature to your nearest Panama Consulate or Panama Embassy and they will authenticate the notarized document for you.

Document Review and Processing

To have your documents reviewed by us before sending them by courier they can be scanned and sent by email to: panamalegal@hush.com as file attachments or uploaded to our secure server.

https://www.panamalaw.org/upload/

Sending as jpg files with 300 dpi scans is appreciated, but other formats welcome too. Documents are usually not readable from faxes.

Documents MUST also be sent by courier, see our courier address in this letter. It is faster to send us scans and best to send hard copies by courier since the banks ask for them.

When you use our secure encrypted order form you will be emailed information allowing you to access a secure encrypted web page that will allow you to securely upload our documents to our server. It is easy; you just need to know where in the computer the files are and their names.

We will confirm by email - receipt of documents, receipt of wire, formation of company and/or foundation, sending of bank signature cards with tracking numbers, and opening of bank account. We usually confirm receipt of a wire or documents the same or next day. We do check the bank for wires daily. Repeat: We check for wires every day and will email you when the wire arrives. If you are sending the wire from a corporation please email the name of the corporation sending the wire and the country and amount so we know to associate this wire with your order. Documents come in and one of our attorneys needs to open a file and review the documents and this can take a day at times but we will email you as to the receipt and status of the documents by the next day.

Below is the Shipping address for courier packages. Please DO NOT USE the postal services of any country. DHL is best; Fed Ex and UPS are also acceptable.

Panama Legal
Edificio Global Bank
Calle 50
Piso 18, Oficina 18-02
Panama City, Panama

Payment Information

Bank Wire Info:

Correspondent or Intermediary Bank:
CITIBANK, New York
ABA 021000089
Beneficiary Bank:
Global Bank Corporation
SWIFT: GLBLPAPA
For Credit to Account No. 36024434
(This account number 36024434 is the account number that Global Bank has with the correspondent bank Citibank).
For Further Credit to:
Account No: 17-101-23037-7
Account Holder Name: Panama Legal
(This is the name and number of the account that our law firm “Panama Legal” has with Global Bank).

If the bank sending the wire transfer demands an address for Global Bank in Panama it is as follows, there are no zip codes and buildings do not have numbers in Panama:

Global Bank Building
Calle 50
Panama City, Panama
(Please note if asked for a postal code that Panama has no postal codes)

Just print these wiring instructions and take them to the bank, they will understand. No worries. If the bank wishes to try and send the wire directly to the Global Swift: GLBLPAPA it should go right through but we include the correspondent bank since many banks request this.

Western Union

If a bank wire is not desirable we are also able to accept Western Union transfers. With Western Union the fees will need to be paid by you so we receive the correct amount net.

Send Western Union to:

Gisela Martinez
El Cangrejo, Calle F
Panama City, Republic of Panama
(507) 648-01279

Request western Union to require ID.

Email us the name of the sender of the money and city, state, country, the amount and include the Western Union Money Transfer number, this is a tracking number which is needed for pickup, they will give it to you. We will confirm by email that we have picked up the funds.

We do not like to accept money orders or cashiers checks. They will take 2-4 weeks to clear and we will not begin work until they have cleared.

Credit Cards - Western Union will let you send us a money transfer paying with your credit card by telephone from eight countries.

Other Information

We are assisting you to have the bank open up a zero balance bank account for you which should be funded as soon as possible. You can call the bank (we will explain how) to verify you are the only signature on the account before funding the account. If anyone including nominee directors or nominee council members attempted to add, or remove a signatory, the bank would contact the existing signatory(s) for permission. You can not be removed from the bank account by others and no new signatories can be added without your permission. The banks do not wish to be sued for any resulting fraud damages and the banks have deep pockets.

Please do not send us any checks, drafts, money orders, bank checks or wires for deposit into your bank account. We cannot accept them unless you open a special account with us for this service, see price page for details. Funds should be wired into your bank. If you are coming to Panama you could open the bank account with the minimum deposit of $1000 in the form of cash or American Express Travelers Cheques.

Panama banks have to fill out special forms on any transaction over $10,000 cash (cash means green rectangular pieces of printed paper with denominations on them) and they do not like doing this.

Questions email: panamalegal@hush.com
Or telephone - 507-648-01279
(507) is the country code for Panama, not an area code.
Skype account number or name is – panamalaw.org