A Panama Foundation is a distinct legal entity. It has no ownership and provides the utmost anonymity and privacy to the beneficiaries, protectors and founders. It is neither a corporation nor a trust. It is instituted by a mere registration into the Public Registry and you do not have to obtain an approval from any public authority.



If you live in a highly taxed country and you have many assets that you wish to be sheltered from your country's heavy taxes, the Panama Foundation can be perfect for you. Through a Panama Foundation, you can retain and acquire ownership of corporations, bank accounts, trusts, and other assets without the usual responsibilities. This is crucial to residents of countries where interests or assets in offshore and international accounts have to be reported and declared. If you have a Panama Foundation, you do not have to declare these assets because you do not directly own them. Your Panama Foundation does.

To illustrate the usefulness of having a Panama Foundation, imagine yourself a target of a grave lawsuit in your home country or somewhere else. In such instances, especially if you are charged with a crime abroad where your own home country does not have any influence, that country can move for the transfer of your assets from Panama or other offshore territories so that they can be confiscated. This is what is called a repatriation order. All your assets are recalled to where you are being held and tried so that they can be forfeited.

If your assets are being held by a Panama Foundation and all possible safeguards have been put in place against repatriation, then you can rest assured that you will still have assets when the storm blows over. What are these safeguards?

Some very powerful safeguards are your standing orders and your Foundation Protector. Instructions could be left with the Foundation Protectors through legally binding documents (that are of course anonymous and only known internally but no less valid because of it) that in no way will the Foundation Protector release any funds or release the Foundation's assets for repatriation to you when you're in the situation outlined above. Thus, even if you were pressured to release your assets, you will not be able to do anything because only the Foundation Protector has the power to release the funds of the Foundation. And because the Foundation Protector is bound by valid instructions not to release funds when you are in such a situation, then the Foundation protector will have legal ground to deny repatriation.

This is just one of the many means that a Panama Foundation can protect your assets. But even this is enough inducement to check out the Panama Foundation asset protection route.