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Corruption as it Relates to Asset Protection

By John Dietz - Email Editor

Date : 08-Nov-2005

Corruption As It Relates To Asset Protection

Transparency International (TI), a German civil society organization, just completed the yearly figures on the state of corruption around the world. TI has ninety chapters around the globe and actually uses a corruption index to decipher the state of world affairs. This Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)—not to be mistaken for the U.S. consumer price index—is a one-to-ten measurement of government corruption with one being the worst rating.

While this may come as no surprise, the index reveled that seventy countries have rampant corruption, and a full one hundred fifty-nine countries have a CPI score of less than five.

David Nussbaum, TI’s Chief Executive, gave an almost poetic response to these latest facts: “Corruption isn’t a natural disaster; it is the cold, calculated theft of opportunity from the men, women and children who are the least able to protect themselves.”

Mr. Nussbaum is fundamentally speaking of developing nations where aide never gets to where it needs to be, and therefore, aide isn't sent very often.

While it is true that corruption is rampant in many poor nations, poverty does not dictate corruption. Wealthy nations such as Ireland and Canada have moved down the index ladder in the last ten years. You know what a corrupt Irishman is, don’t you? He’s the one having good relations with the English. (Please, no nasty e-mails, just kidding…)

The winner, with this year’s best CPI is none other than Iceland. (More on Iceland in the future—you would be amazed.) Finland and New Zealand tied for second place. The UK ended up 11th, while Germany and U.S. were respectively 16th and 17th. The last ten years show lower income countries such as Bulgaria and Estonia with a much better ranking. It’s a good thing that the corruption perception index for the U.S. wasn’t tied to a vote; with a current 32 percent approval rating for President George W., I would have thought the U.S. would have fared a bit worse.

Corruption As It Relates To Asset Protection
One way corruption can seep into your daily life could be a corrupt court system where politics and law are somehow blended together to match any daytime soap opera drama. How about lawyers who hate other lawyers, and judges who know the defendant so well that they get irritated by just having the defendant in their presence. Corruption can start at the attorney’s office where, in many firms, a good case is one that has racked up the most billable hours. The point is that no one knows a better system, and the term “fair trial” can be somewhat subjective.

You should not fret over any of this because you can’t worry over things that you don't have control over; but what you can do is put yourself in the driver’s seat.

When you properly design an Asset Protection Plan, you have just completed everything you can do to protect your hard earned money. If you get sued, oh well, such is life. A Trustmakers Kinetic Plan never puts you in harms way.

Your plan never puts corruption between you and your money. A properly designed plan never makes you perjure yourself in a courtroom. Your plan does not rely on crazy things like bearer shares, where you walk into court telling a judge that you don’t know who owns the shares of your own company. Your plan never exposes you to a Foreign Trust Company, a family member, a former spouse, a new spouse or any other host of creditors.

A Trustmakers Kinetic Asset Protection Plan can stop the professional takers in their tracks, and at the same time, it never puts you or your wealth in harms way.

At the end of the day, corruption is, and will always be, with us. The answer is to stamp it out whenever you can and make sure you have some power to do so. Developing nations need our help. My mother used to say, “Charity begins at home.” So get your household in order (formulate a wealth protection plan), and then go help the rest of the world. One person can make a difference.

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