Advantages of Opening An Offshore Bank Account

While offshore bank accounts are not for everyone, they can offer huge benefits to the right person. For many small businessmen and entrepreneurs, a good offshore bank account has provided the "key" or competitive edge to unlock vast potential wealth. But first I want to dispel two big myths about offshore bank accounts. #Myth 1 - Only the super-rich can afford offshore bank accounts. You don't need to be rich to open an offshore banking account. While it is true that a "wealth-management" service with a personal banker might require an initial investment of US$1MM, accounts with no minimum deposits certainly exist, and smaller minimums of US$500-5000 are quite common.

Myth 2 - Offshore bank accounts are illegal, or used only by criminals. The confidentiality that offshore banking accounts offer has led to abuse by criminal gangs, but in fact these days many offshore banks have stricter due diligence than their onshore competitors. Criminal activity, wire fraud and money laundering will just as likely take place in New York or London (government sponsored or otherwise). Furthermore, ownership of an offshore bank account is never illegal, although not declaring that you have it can be illegal (laws will vary from country to country). What can an offshore bank account do for you? Here are some of the advantages that have helped investors make their choice.

1) Privacy - Shield your assets from prying eyes. The phrase "If you're not doing anything wrong, you've got nothing to hide" is often used, but the brutal truth is that many citizens from countries all over the world are exposed to corrupt authorities and criminal elements. Even in more stable countries frivolous litigation can decimate a man's wealth, while he cannot trust the government to rule in his favour. Why take the risk? By shielding your financial identity with an offshore bank account you can escape the attention of greedy lawyers and experience the kind of total economic freedom that a domestic account can't offer.

2) Asset protection - Wealth held offshore is harder to reach for anyone who might want to get their hands it. Often the physical distance and legal complexity of attempting to seize an offshore account will ensure that a case against the account holder never takes off.

3) Earn tax-free interest - Many offshore accounts will not have interest taxed at source like your home bank account. In addition the offshore account can open up for you some of the best investment opportunities not available in the domestic market .

4) Multiple currencies at your fingertips - swiftly change between foreign currencies at a fraction of the cost of doing it at home. Some offshore accounts will also offer FOREX and Trading accounts, allowing you to instantly buy and sell at the click of a button from a tax-free offshore base.

5) Perhaps the best advantage of an offshore account is that it will allow you to make international transactions with little or no hassle and red-tape. If you try to transfer even relatively small amounts of money from your domestic account you will likely face a barrage of security questions and other invasive queries, but a good offshore account will allow you to make such transactions online effortlessly, and into the many millions of dollars.

Banking Solutions for Customer Convenience

When Banking started of for Independent India, you had Nationalized and regional banks handling the country’s finances. As the years progressed you had more branches opening up. The 80s and 90s saw a whole lot of Global Banks like Standard Chartered, Barclays, Grindlays opening their banks up in India. Still banking didn’t seem to be convenient. The modus of transaction was pretty gloomy and boring with people having to wait their turns to visit the teller’s counter to complete their transactions. With technology coupled with the internet coming into play banking solutions have become more custom made for the average consumer. Online Banking ensures that a person is tuned completely with his finances at any given point from any part of the world. Ditto for mobile banking. The last couple of decades also saw numerous Indians migrate abroad on a bid to pursue their lives and carrier. Getting monetary transactions wasn’t easy then. Postal services and courier faux passes weren’t that convincing. Now with banks offering many solutions NRI Banking has also been made easier.

When Banking started of for Independent India, you had Nationalized and regional banks handling the country’s finances. As the years progressed you had more branches opening up. The 80s and 90s saw a whole lot of Global Banks like Standard Chartered, Barclays, Grindlays opening their banks up in India. Still banking didn’t seem to be convenient. The modus of transaction was pretty gloomy and boring with people having to wait their turns to visit the teller’s counter to complete their transactions. With technology coupled with the internet coming into play banking solutions have become more custom made for the average consumer. Online Banking ensures that a person is tuned completely with his finances at any given point from any part of the world. Ditto for mobile banking. The last couple of decades also saw numerous Indians migrate abroad on a bid to pursue their lives and carrier. Getting monetary transactions wasn’t easy then. Postal services and courier faux passes weren’t that convincing. Now with banks offering many solutions NRI Banking has also been made easier.

Banks also provide special facilities to their HNI (High net individual) worth customers. These people generally have a huge amount invested with the financial house and indulge in hefty transactions. They are provided with world class banking facilities termed as Priority Banking and Premier Banking, both words justifying their meaning. Savings account for the average investor has also been made easier where you no longer need a referral to open an account or minimum balance to save in your account (* condition applies in both cases). Currently the major Global players in the Indian Finance Sector include Standard and Chartered, HSBC and Barclays. Banks of Indian origin that have gradually made waves include ICICI, HDFC, SBI and Axis Bank. All in all modern day banking has every element that ensures Wealth Management Services for the longer run.

ATM Healthcare

Doctors are starting to redesign the way they work to link better with patients and to use the newly available multi-media technologies. This is an important process that will undoubtedly accelerate over the next 20 years. There is a need to substantially redesign many of the traditional processes used to practice medicine - and move to new ways of delivering health services, using what I call ATM Healthcare.

What, then, is ATM Healthcare?

When we think of the term ATM, most of us think of banks. The acronym ATM has entered our language so completely that many people don't even know what the letters stand for - they just know that undertaking an ATM transaction allows money to be drawn direct from their bank account, not from a credit account, and that they can do this at a special ATM machine usually in the street, or at a store checkout. ATM stands for Automated Teller Machine and is simply a direct electronic entry to your bank and your accounts. And it is very simple, convenient and consumer friendly. ATM has made banks and bank accounts much more accessible to customers, wherever and whenever they want. At the same time they have made the work of banks more efficient while dramatically cutting the cost of bank transactions to a few cents from an average of $10-15 per face to face transaction with a teller. This has happened because ATM machines now manage most of the simple bank transactions that used to take up a lot of the time of tellers. This frees up bank staff to spend more time on complicated transactions where human expertise is required. Who can now imagine a bank without widespread ATM facilities? And all this has happened in just a few years.

Computer scientists think of ATM in a very different way. For them ATM is a technical term describing how data can be passed across an electronic network. Here ATM stands for a protocol called Asynchronous Transfer Mode. This protocol was designed as a way of merging old telephone networks with more modern packet-switched computer networks in order to deliver data, voice, and video over the same channel. In other words it allows all sorts of differing data, from varying data sources, to be delivered at the same time. So what have these two types of ATM have to do with healthcare?

Think of the obvious parallels.

The doctor-patient consultation is in many ways similar to the traditional bank interaction with a teller. It is confidential, about 80% of consultations are relatively simple, and if complications arise, a second person can be called in to give specialist advice. There are also parallels with the computer scientist ATM, because this consultation nowadays involves typically several different types of data - voice, lab results, paper and electronic documents (health records), and increasingly video and digital images. The consultation itself can be described in both computer language and clinical terms as consisting of three information processes ? data capture (history and examination), data analysis (diagnosis), and business planning (treatment). What we in healthcare need to do is start thinking like bankers, and focus on providing our services in a more consumer friendly way. As we do this, doctors need to follow two core principles. The first is the complementarity principle - computers do well, what humans do badly, and vice versa. Computers never forget, and are great at scheduling, remembering and reminding, but humans are much better at data analysis and decision making. So computers should be able to do many simple health transactions, remember and order prescriptions and lab tests, schedule appointments, and provide preventative health information. The second principle is the importance of redesigning business processes before introducing new technologies. There are a lot of similarities between banking and the practice of medicine. And doctors can learn from bankers in this area. There is no reason why we should not introduce ATM Healthcare, in just the same way as bankers have introduced ATM Banking.

What would ATM Healthcare look like?

Firstly, lets assume that, like banking, ATM Healthcare is going to be used for relatively straightforward consultations in many specialities, and will not replace the complicated face to face consultation or intervention that makes up about 20% of overall medical consultations, and will always remain the health "gold standard" consultation. We already have most of the tools of ATM Healthcare at our disposal. Electronic Medical Records, lab results and x-ray images are the health equivalent of bank statements. Telemedicine - video consulting either in real time (synchronous), or delayed time (asynchronous) - is now a proven technology, is already available in some supermarket clinics, and is the equivalent of the teller machine. Email and wireless telephony provide more mobile access to providers, and the whole internet is an amazing educational and clinical communication platform that is already delivering all sorts of ATM Healthcare. We have lots of systems to combine different types of data and present them simultaneously to doctors and patients, just as per the computer scientists version of ATM.

Patients need to encourage doctors to think of ways of redesigning their practice processes to make better use of available multimedia technologies so that they can continue to provide better and more available care. I am sure this will happen, especially as more of the younger generations start receiving care. They will demand that doctors use these technologies, and increasingly change their ways, and hopefully use the example of banking as we move increasingly to ATM Healthcare.

4 Major Myths About Banking

If you listen to the news about banking these days, be it on TV, in the paper or from the radio drive-time talk shows, it’s mostly doom with a heavy sprinkling of gloom just for good measure:

* “Banks aren’t lending money anymore!”

* “You’re just a number at those banks anyway!”

* “Online banking isn’t safe; they’ll steal your identity or sell your personal information!”

So many myths about modern banking abound that one bank president has decided to clear the air by debunking the four major myths of banking during lean times. Or, for that matter, anytime at all. According to Robert Sumner, CEO of First National Bank of Pasco (FNB Pasco) near Tampa, Florida, “Banks do have money to lend; in fact, we’re lending every day.”

Sumner adds, “All banks aren’t created equal. Maybe some of the big banks are in trouble, but try a small community bank and you’ll realize that we operate under a much less stringent set of rules. In fact, not only do we make our own rules but we get to call the shots as well.” If you’ve been fearful of approaching one of your local community banks for a loan recently, or have doubts about their safety or security, let Mr. Sumner dispel the four following myths for your convenience:

Myth # 1 – Banks Aren’t Lending Money Anymore: Some of the bigger chain banks, gridlocked with federal red tape or their own corporate lending policies, have cut back on personal and even professional lending as they “restructure.” However, many small community banks are actively taking loan applications and eager to help those customers seeking reasonable personal or professional loans for a variety of reasons.

• Myth # 2 – Bankers Don’t Get Personal with Customers: Community banks are famous for personal customer service. Why? Because they are part of the community. While bigger banks deal in quantity over quality, smaller banks have more time, energy and staff to keep their customers happy.

• Myth # 3 – Banks Have Unlimited Money to Spend: No bank, big or small, has unlimited money to spend. In fact, the bigger the bank, the more systems of checks and balances they have to go through in order to lend you money. A customer requesting a loan from a large chain bank in Florida might have to get approval from a regional or even headquarters office two or three states away. A small community bank can answer you on the spot.

• Myth # 3 – Online Banking Isn’t Safe: Horror stories have happened to online banking customers, big or small. However, online banking is a big customer draw for banks of any size, and they have taken special pains to make it as safe as possible, with a variety of safeguards. With a community bank, of course, the biggest safeguard is walking through the front door.

If you’ve been holding off on either personal or professional banking because of unreasonable fears or mass media hysteria, don’t delay; visit your local community bank today.