Like a Roth IRA for intellectual property, offshore assignment?
One can have a self-directed IRA. This is not like a Schwab, eTrade, etc IRA. It has a special type of custodian that knows how to manage it.  I became aware of such an account as a way to purchase a rental property. There were two issues. The type of property I looked at wasn't anything a bank was willing to finance. And the rules regarding self dealing added a potential layer of expense as I technically could not perform the simplest of things for the property.  For you, the obstacle looks like self-dealing. Any IRA can only be funded with cash or transfer/conversion from another IRA/401(k). I don't know how you would get the intelligent property into the IRA in the first place. Once you own a patent, or anything else, you can't sell it into the IRA.  It's at times like this that member littleadv would suggest this is the time to talk to a pro before you do anything hazardous to your wealth.
Annuities, like life insurance, are sold rather than bought.  Once upon a time, IRAs inherited from a non-spouse  required the beneficiary to  (a) take all the money out within 5 years, or  (b) choose to receive the value of the IRA at the time of  the IRA owner's death in equal installments over the expected  lifetime of the beneficiary.  If the latter option was chosen, the IRA custodian issued the  fixed-term annuity in return for the IRA assets. If the IRA  was invested in (say) 15000 shares of IBM stock, that stock  would then belong to the IRA custodian who was obligated to  pay $x per year to the beneficiary for the next 23 years (say). There was no investment any more that could be transferred  to another broker, or be sold and the proceeds invested in Facebook stock (say).  Nor was the custodian under any  obligation to do anything except pay $x per year to the  beneficiary for the 23 years. Financial planners loved to get at this money under the old IRA rules by suggesting that if all the IRA money were taken out and invested in stocks or mutual funds through  their company, the company would pay a guaranteed $y  per year, would pay more than $y in each year that the  investments did well, would continue payment until the  beneficiary died (or till the death of the beneficiary  or beneficiary's spouse - whoever died later), and would return the entire sum invested (less payouts already made, of course) in case of premature death. $y typically would be a little larger than $x too, because it factored in some earnings of the investment over the years. So what was not to like? Of course, the commissions earned by the planner and the lousy mutual funds and the huge surrender charges were  always glossed over. The LLC portion is completely irrelevant. Don't know why you want it. You can create a joint/partnership trading account without the additional complexity of having LLC. What liability are you trying to limit here? Her sisters will file tax returns in the us using the form 1040NR, and only reporting the dividends they received, everything else will be taxed by Vietnam. You'll have to investigate how to file tax returns there as well. That said, you'll need about $500,000 each to invest in the regional centers. So you're talking about 1.5 million of US dollars at least. From a couple of $14K gifts to $1.5M just by trading? I don't see how this is feasible. "This type of structured product is called a capital protection product.  It's like an insurance product - where you give up some upside for protection against losses in certain cases.   From the bank's perspective they take your investment, treat it as an ""interest-free loan"" and buy derivatives (like options) that give them an expected return greater then  They make their money: With this product, you are giving up some potential upside in order to protect against losses (other than catastrophic losses if the lower index drops by 50% or more).   What's the catch? There's not really a catch. It's a lot like insurance, you might come out ahead (e.g. if the market goes down less than 50%), but you might also give up some upside.  The bank will sell enough of these in various flavors to reduce their risk overall (losses in your product will be covered by gains in another). Note that this product won't necessarily sell for $1,000. You might have to pay $1,100 (or $1,005, or whatever the bank can get people to buy them for) for each note whenever it's released.  That's where the gain or loss comes into play.  If you pay $1,100 but only get $1,000 back because the index didn't go up (or went down) you'd have a net loss of $100. It's subtle, but it is in the prospectus: The estimated value of the notes is only an estimate determined by reference to several factors.  The original issue price of the notes will    exceed the estimated value of the notes because costs associated with selling, structuring and hedging the notes are included in the original issue price of the notes.  These costs include the selling commissions, the projected profits, if any, that our affiliates expect to realize for assuming risks inherent in hedging our obligations under the notes and the estimated cost of hedging our obligations under the notes." There are different strategies but the short version is that they set it up so the US corporation pays a legal entity in a low-tax jurisdiction for the rights to use the IP which the company has transferred there previously. One such strategy is called the [Double Irish (possibly with a Dutch Sandwich)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement) which is what Apple, Google, Facebook and many others use. "While you’re new or relatively new to this idea then the fitting idea is to perform a little research and primary get conversant in what’s possible with offshore investment opportunities.  I couldn't agree more. A good way to begin this research would be to do an online search for an investment opportunity called ""Royal Siam Trust.""" "hello – I am a natural born US citizen; I have worked 35+ years in the United States; I have a 401(k), IRA, Social Security benefits. I have researched the ex-patriot possibilities for several years. I've consulted both accountants and tax attorneys. The long answer is: hire tax consultants/attorneys to try to shelter what assets you can. 401(k), IRA, and Social Security benefits are all taxable worldwide to US citizens. unless you become the citizen of your new country of residence, these taxes are unavoidable. since all of the above assets are considered ""pretax"" to the US government, they are all taxable on distribution whether slowly or in lump sum. the short answer is: ""Hotel California""… ""Relax, said the watchman – we are programmed to receive. You can check out any time, but you can never leave…""" "There are countries out there that are known as tax havens, where they offer companies low or no taxes on earned revenue. I haven't looked into this in over a decade, but recall that countries like the Cayman Islands, Switzerland, Ireland, and Nauru, to name a few fit that tag. But like bstpierre stated, there's a reason why the IBM's of the world can pull that off easier then us mere mortals. They have the financial clout to make sure they have accountants that dot every i, cross every t, and close every loophole that would give an ""in"" to the folks at the IRS, CRA, Inland Revenue, or who have you." "While you want it to grow faster than inflation, there are things like I-bonds that can carry some inflation protection with them for an idea that may make sense for part of this. There are now some more details and I'd think this seems alright initially though I would suggest considering having some kind of on-going plan to handle periodically seeing how much more to invest here and what kind of taxes will this generate for you as taxable accounts can carry a mix of dividends, interest and capital gains that you may have to pay even though you didn't see the gain yourself. Keep in mind that if you do go with a big-name investment bank, this could well add more fees as well as other stuff.  Lehman Brothers was a big name investment bank once upon a time and they went broke.  While you may want to be hands-off, I'd still suggest having some kind of timeline for how often are your investments to be reviewed and things re-allocated.  Each quarter, semi-annually, or annual?  There isn't so much a right or wrong answer here as much as I'd point out that one should be aware of the trade-offs in each case.  If you take annual and wonder each week how it is doing, then something a bit more frequent may make sense.  On the other hand, some people may well ""set it and forget it"" which can work as long as there is something to know about where to go if something does go broke.  As these are managed investments, the SIPC check I'd make may not hold though this would be the equivalent of FDIC for deposits when dealing with securities. The REIT can be useful for diversification, sure.  You do realize that there may be some interesting taxes for you in the next few years given the nature of a REIT investment, right?  The ""Return of Capital"" that a REIT may pass through as a REIT to maintain its tax status must distribute 90% of its net income each year that can be quite a off shoot of funds.  Where would those proceeds be invested?  This isn't mentioned in your post and thus I'm curious as if the REIT passes out a dividend yield of say 5% then this is $2,000/year that could go somewhere." There are a few company they can help you open an offshore account. I searched and found rtrsupportslimited.com on another discussion forum. It is a company which does the exact same thing. I got my own company incorporation and bank account from them. "This kind of investment is called ""sweat equity"".  It is sometimes taken into account by lenders and other investors.  Such investors look at the alleged value of the input labor with a very skeptical eye, but they often appreciate that the entrepreneur has ""skin in the game"". The sort of analysis described by the original poster is useful for estimating ""economic profit"" -- how much better off was the entrepreneur than if he had done something else with his time.  But this sort of analysis is not applicable for tax purposes for most small businesses in the United States. It is usually not in the entrepreneur's interest to use this method of accounting for tax purposes, for three reasons: It requires setting up the business in such a way that it can pay him wages or salaries for his time.  The business might not have enough cash resources to do so.  Furthermore, setting up the business in this way requires legal and accounting expertise, which is expensive. If the entrepreneur does set up the business like this, the wages and salaries will be subject to tax.  Wage and salary tax rates are often much higher than capital gains tax rates, especially when one considers taxes like Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, and Business & Occupation taxes. If the entrepreneur does set up the business like this, the taxes on the wages and salaries would be due long before the hoped-for sale of the company.  The sale of the company might never happen.  This results in a time-value-of-money penalty, an optionality penalty, and a risk penalty." when investing in index funds Index fund as the name suggests invests in the same proportion of the stocks that make up the index. You can choose a Index Fund that tracks NYSE or S&P etc. You cannot select individual companies. Generally these are passively managed, i.e. just follow the index composition via automated algorithms resulting in lower Fund Manager costs. is it possible to establish an offshore company Yes it is possible and most large organization or High Net-worth individuals do this. Its expensive and complicated for ordinary individuals. One needs and army of International Tax Consultants / International Lawyers / etc but do I have to pay taxes from the capital gains at the end of the year? Yes Canada taxes on world wide income and you would have to pay taxes on gains in Canada. Note depending on your tax residency status in US, you may have to pay tax in US as well. "Well, I'm not an expert and you sound pretty credible however I still don't see anything to back up what your saying in the sources that I've found:  &gt; Active business income can still be earned by [foreign] subsidiaries (if you can prove to Revenue Canada that it is a ""real"" corporation) and taxed at better offshore rates if 90% or more of its income comes from third party transactions.   This seems to be consistent with my definition.  &gt;Active business profits earned by a foreign sub are taxed when profits are repatriated. Certain tax credits are available for foreign taxes paid and certain dividends out of surplus are tax free to the corporation (not individuals).   http://www.can-offshore.com/tax-planning/reporting-rule1-ccra.htm  So when foreign sub pays dividends to the parent corp they are still charged repatriation - just like in the US.  Again, this sounds consistent with my previous comment. Canada has a corporate tax rate that is over 10% lower than the US so this is still a very good deal in its own right.   Maybe you can explain in more detail or provide a source that has some additional detail? I also can't find any pieces on this or the Valeant deal that suggests beneficial repatriation rules." You are likely thinking of a individual variable insurance contract (IVIC) , better known as a segregated fund, or a principal-protected note (PPN). For a segregated fund, to get a full guarantee on invested capital, you need a 100/100 where the maturity value and death benefit are each 100% guaranteed. The PPN works similar to a long-term GIC (or CD) with a variable investment component.  The thing is, neither of these things are cheap and the cost structure that is built in behind them makes it difficult to make any real above market rates of return. In both cases, if you try to break the contracts early then the guarantees are null and void and you get out what you get out. You could buy debt/notes or other instruments that pay out periodically.  Some examples are  If there is an income stream you can discount the present value and then buy it/own the rights to income stream. Typically you pay a discounted price for the face value and then receive the income stream over time. So ... how are you going to have a bank run if you got rid of cash? I suspect big investors will attempt (have already attempted?) to pull their cash, but regular people? Not like running to the ATM will do much good and I don't think they have offshore accounts.  Excuse my naïveté, but that's the first thing that came to my mind...