Selecting an off- shore country

Quote from praetorian2:



I am using GTT for my work, they gave me a much lower cost quote. I have been pretty happy with them, but it still is a significant expense.
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I doubt seriously whether GTT gave you a quote on what I referred to which was Administration and Auditing your offshore fund. The reason they wouldn't or shouldn't give you a quote is that they would have nothing to do with it. It's beyond the scope of their influence.

They may have given you a quote on formation (i.e. they will subcontract the legal work), but not offshore Admin and Auditing.

Every offshore fund has something called an "Administration Agreement" this is negotiated between you and the administrator. It has NOTHING to do with your ONSHORE accountancy service provider(GTT). This is a VERY important relationship. The reason for this is that your administrator will run your life. He will be the main point of contact for both onshore and offshore investors. He will do your Mark-to-Market accounting. He will handle all subscriptions and redemptions for both onshore and offshore investors. He will coordinate any on-legal compliance issues. You as the Fund manager will interact will him on a daily basis.

Contrast this with your onshore accountancy firm (GTT) you only see or talk to them only once a year, when they presumably do your management Company's Tax return.


You must remember that you will have formation costs of both onshore and offshore entities AND then you will have on-going cost of both onshore and offshore entities. The vast fraction of those expenses are beyond the control and influence of an onshore accountant no mater what they tell you.


Just so you are clear in a Master-Feeder setup will you have the following entities and service providers:

Onshore management Company- Onshore Legal and accounting

Onshore feeder- Onshore/Offshore Legal and Accounting

Offshore Feeder- Offshore Legal, Accounting and Administrator

Master Entity- Offshore Legal, Accounting and Administrator


The only one of these entities in which an Onshore Accountancy firm such as GTT, has any significant input is the first one; your own onshore Management Company. With all the others they will sub-contract the work in which case they become the subordinate advisor, meaning that they would have NO jurisdiction in advise or any input in the ultimate cost.

Rest assured young friend that when going offshore you will incur cost that you never dreamed of. And hear this well, EVERYONE will lowball you to get your business.


Regards,
Dr. Zhivodka


BTW: after writing this response I went to GTT's website to see what they are offering as a service. They plainly state in the cost section of their site on Funds that they have no input on Offshore Administration and Auditing.
 
I was just checking. They say there is only a total of 20,000 living on all the BVI. I would be a bit nervous of security of my funds run out such a small place. What about out of Monaco or Luxembourg.
 
Your fund showed up in my scans a few months ago, good to see you are having a stellar year, I believe you're up 79% for the year ! Your fund leads all others in YTD and MTD tabulations.

At the risk of deviating from the original thread, could you please share with us what your experience has been like after publishing your performance on various Hedge fund monitoring services? Have you had great interest, is it both from private + institutional investors?

One things that stands out in your funds profile, is your Discretionary trading style. We hear that most large investors prefer systematic trading style and will only look at funds greater than one million dollars. Just curious what has your experience been like?

Thanks
 
Quote from chessman:

Your fund showed up in my scans a few months ago, good to see you are having a stellar year, I believe you're up 79% for the year ! Your fund leads all others in YTD and MTD tabulations.

At the risk of deviating from the original thread, could you please share with us what your experience has been like after publishing your performance on various Hedge fund monitoring services? Have you had great interest, is it both from private + institutional investors?

One things that stands out in your funds profile, is your Discretionary trading style. We hear that most large investors prefer systematic trading style and will only look at funds greater than one million dollars. Just curious what has your experience been like?

Thanks
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I am going to contact GTT in a minute and get a "prepared statement" from them. No sense me talking out of my ass when I can get an official story. I intend to email them your post to see what they say.

As per my fund.... What can I say, I really have had a great run this year. It is a continuation of the hot streak that I started in early Nov of last year. It hasn't been as much a factor of really great trading, my trading has been off for the past 2 months now because I keep trying to operate on the short side. Instead, I have had tons of really great setups (mainly GNP). Most importantly, I have not had any serious drawdowns. I think my max so far this year has been 5% from peak to trough.

My style is discretionary on the trading side, and pretty deep value on the investing side. I think the average PE of my fund based on my estimates is around 6 or 7 for 2003.

I have gotten quite a few responses from people who have seen my YTD return. It is way too early to say much about how that will work. It can't hurt can it? I have thus far had one completed prospectus returned to me, and have sent out about 5 others. I don't know if they will be returned or not.

Most of those interested are private investors and not institutions. I think that I am too small for most institutions. Most institutions have told me to put them on my monthly mailing list and they'll get back to me in 18 months or so (LOL). I think they want 2 years of results or so. It helps them do all their sharpe crap so they feel safe and can justify an investment to their bosses. My fund is also way too small to make it worth while for them to do all their due diligence.

I think my performance has probably scared away a few investors who think I am probably taking too much risk or something. If I were up 30% instead of over 80%, I think I'd get more interest. (Funny isn't it). A number of people told me they wanted to see how my fund could handle a down period.

This does not concern me now. I am making good contacts so far. I refuse to grow the fund more than 30% or so a month, and it is already fully subscribed for the next 2 months for additions.

I would like to once again thank Aaron for giving me the links to these great sites. I think that if you are interested, you should email him. He has way more experience with them than I do.
 
I went looking in their website. This is what they say:

5) Accounting services for offshore funds are often handled in name only by the on-island representative. The work is often farmed back to the US to ensure it is done correctly.

http://www.greencompany.com/HedgeFunds/OffDocFeeExpSummary.shtml

This is what I had discussed with them before. GTT is actually not my auditor. My auditing is done by an outside company that GTT put me into contact with. GTT does all my back office and accounting stuff for me however.

If you would like, I can send them off a quick email, but this is what I spoke with them about before.

I trust you when you say that this will result in expenses that I can not imagine. Running the onshore fund is expensive enough already.
 
Quote from praetorian2:

My lawyer was saying that the recent tax treaties will scare off foreign capital and investors who like being anonymous.
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That's why I think the islands might not be safe in future.
 
Quote from praetorian2:

My lawyer was saying that the recent tax treaties will scare off foreign capital and investors who like being anonymous.
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That is an issue anywhere; the Bahamas are talking about repealing some of there legislation.

We have companies domiciled in the BVI too; no great difference. Any serious investor in a tax haven has his interests structured in such a way that your concerns are not an issue.

The Caymans are the one that rolled over ...
 
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