For most people our recommendation for ultimate asset protection and tax efficiency is that with any structure you cause to be set up, that you be neither manager, beneficiary, stockholder, officer or trustee - in other words it must be totally at "arms length" from you. But this may not be enough to protect you. Many countries' tax authorities impose tough sanctions on those who do not disclose their signatory authority on foreign bank accounts. To disclose the details of such accounts and give up the very financial privacy that you are seeking, obviously makes little sense. Hence nominating a third party professional to act as signatory, who is not subject to such reporting requirements, is a solution.

Many people are reluctant to allow a third party signatory authority for fear that it will be abused in some way, either by the signatory absconding with the assets or by the signatory blackmailing the beneficiary of the assets with threats of revealing this information to that person's tax authority. Under Panama's business confidentiality laws, this is a serious offence punishable by jail sentences, which itself provides a significant deterrent.

However, in order for a company or other entity to qualify for signatory control by an officer or other closely supervised employee, it will be necessary for there to be substantial involvement in the business of the company, and it's business operations, so that there is total familiarity with the business and its sources of income. The "know your customer" rule of course applies to all who wish to open a bank in a privacy oriented jurisdiction. For a managed entity provided with such signatory services, this will just be applied a little more rigorously.

Of course many other law firms can provide you with this service, and are probably unlikely to abuse this trust either. However, our experience has been that these service offerings tend to be more expensive and instructions can take a while to get executed. Unlike our firm, most law firms have to be more diverse and have many client needs to attend to and often have to be in court or out of their office working on behalf of one or other client. This type of transaction oriented management services for them can be more then a nuisance then anything else

For our firm, this is one of our core competencies, since corporate administration is our speciality and a big part of that includes the detail work of executing transactions. We also provide this service for considerably less then what other law firms do. Our price for this service is only a base annual fee of $750 or 0.75% or whichever is the greater. We undertake to get your transactions completed exactly as fast as if you had transacted them directly with the bank.

We also provide escrow services for one-off transactions, such as real estate purchases so that both buyer and seller are protected.  See below for more.

BENEFITS: This option provides you with the maximum protection on all fronts. In addition to the benefits offered by the appointment of nominee directors to the Company Board you get true arms length management of your structures, including the company bank account. This will:

• Help you avoid foreign account reporting requirements that many countries now have (such as the USA and Germany). Because of the privacy surrounding the account, it is unlikely unless you are careless, that such information will ever reach the authorities. It is also wise to know that many government tax authorities now provide for severe penalties for not reporting signature authority on a foreign bank account.
  
  
• Provide you with the needed extra element of removal from your assets, so that your official legal capacity is one of a behind the scenes advisor only. You neither own nor "control" the assets in any function. Also, you are not named as a beneficiary in any way.

To set up a non-controlled foreign company with Professional Management with account signatory services click here to order.

Escrow Services

We offer escrow services to buyers and sellers of real property in Panama (or any other asset or service outside of Panama), and to handle the receipts and payments for these transactions.
In the case of a real estate transaction in Panama, we would receive the full payment from the buyer, and at the closing, we would disburse payment to the seller, disburse payment to the broker (for realtor commissions, if any), disburse payment to the construction company (for property development, if any), disburse payment to the attorney (for legal work such as title search, buy/sell contract, title transfer, etc.), and disburse payment to any other party directly involved in the transaction that must be paid as part of the buy/sell agreement.

The primary purpose of an escrow service is to;

• Provide the seller with the assurance that the buyer has the funds to pay for the transaction, since we can confirm that the funds have been paid into the escrow account.

• Provide the buyer with the assurance that the property has had a proper title search completed, a proper buy/sell contract has been executed, and the legalities of the transaction have been met to protect the buyer’s interests.

• Provide the buyer with the assurance that the various parties involved in the transaction will be paid according to the buy/sell contract, so to avoid any after purchase claims

Escrow Fees

See here for more information on property purchase transaction steps.