Dictionary with Offshore Business Vocabulary

Bearer Shares

Bearer shares are physical share certificates that are owned by the person that is in possession of the share certificates. The ownership of bearer shares is not recorded and the ownership remains entirely private. Thus, the ownership of an offshore company with bearer shares is only known by the holder of the bearer shares and the bearer shares may... [Read more]

Beneficial Ownership

Beneficial Ownership refers to the true owner of an offshore company or any other entity or asset, or transaction no matter what is stated in documents, public records etc. The beneficial owner is the one that receives or has the right to receive proceeds or other advantages as a result of the ownership. It is common practice when creating offshore... [Read more]

Fiduciary

A fiduciary is someone who has undertaken to act for and on behalf of another in a particular matter in circumstances which give rise to a relationship of trust and confidence. A fiduciary is expected to be extremely loyal to the person to whom he owes the duty, who is often named as the “principal”. The fiduciary must not put his or her... [Read more]

IBC – International Business Company

IBC is short for International Business Company or International Business Corporation. An IBC is incorporated in an offshore jurisdiction and does not conduct any business in that jurisdiction. The IBC is almost always exempted from all taxes in the jurisdiction where it is incorporated even though it has to pay some annual fees to the local authorities.... [Read more]

Letter of Wishes

A Letter of Wishes is a document that has no ‘real’ legal status. A Letter of Wishes is often used in connection with offshore trusts in order to transmit the wishes of the creator or the alleged owner of the trust to the trustee. It is a separate document and not a part of the trust instrument. Letters of wishes are generally used by the... [Read more]

Nominee Shareholder

A nominee shareholder is when the real or beneficial owner chooses not to have his or her name on the share certificate or in the share register. Instead another person agrees to appear on the share certificates and in the share register. In order to protect the real of beneficial owner the nominee should sign Declaration of Trust to the beneficial... [Read more]

Offshore Company

The term offshore company is somewhat ambiguous. It can mean either a company incorporated outside of the jurisdiction of its primary operation or any company that is incorporated in a tax haven or offshore financial center. Most often the definition of ‘offshore company’ is a mix between the two above and an offshore company is defined... [Read more]

Offshore Magic Circle

The Offshore Magic Circle refers to a number of offshore specialized law firms which are considered to be the leaders in the field of offshore law. There is disagreement both with regard to the concepts as well as which law firms that should be included in the magic circle. The Legal Business magazine listed the following law firms as constituting the... [Read more]

Offshore Mail Forwarding Address

Often an offshore company address is nothing more than a mail drop assigned to the offshore company. Bank statements, invoices and any other type of company mail may be sent to this address. The mail will typically be picked up each or every two weeks by the offshore company administrator or facilitator. The mail will be put into a plain envelope and... [Read more]

Personal Investment Corporation (PIC)

A PIC, or Personal Investment Corporation, is a term used in the banking industry to refer to an International Business Company (IBC). PICs are generally created for the private bank’s client in order to hold the client’s investment assets.  Read More →