Joan, I subscribe to Harry Schulz's market letter, and he has commented a couple of times that one should store part of one's assets outside one's country of citizenship. He has indicated that this should be done for a range of different assets, such as gold coins and shares of stock. I have been wondering what value this would provide, in a real crisis. It would seem that if the US were to be put in a position where the government was recognized as bankrupt, what would they do? Would they put a tax on personal assets, perhaps, and claim part of our savings? If they were to do this, would it really be a protection to have, for example, gold coins and shares in a deposit box in Canada? It seems likely that Canada would cooperate with the US and divulge information about these assets, so the protection would not be effective. Or, if one had a brokerage account with a Canadian broker, it also seems likely that this information would be made available to the US government. I use Canada as an example because I live within a few hours drive of Canada and could easily set up some accounts there, but it seems most other accessible and trustworthy places would have a similar problem.
I am wondering what is the best way to protect ones assets in such a case, and avoid taking actions that really would not protect me in any event. Your comments would be appreciated...
Robin |
