Our valued sponsor

Best way to protect company owned assets

Reawake

New member
Jul 12, 2023
23
14
3
33
Germany
Visit site
Hi all,

I sold the assets of my main company, and now I have nearly 1M in the company account.
Besides this company, I have another LE, which has around 150k in the bank account. Both LEs are registered in Germany.

I have no use case for these funds right now, but I would like to find a solution to keep them protected for the future from possible liability to third parties. This would save me some sleepless nights.
Is there anything you can recommend? I need to be in Germany from time to time, so just take the money and run is unfortunately no option.

Apart from this, which methods would you recommend for protecting financial assets which are already in my personal possession?
I was considering keeping something in cash, something in physical gold and maybe something in crypto. What is the current situation about keeping some funds in a bank which is not participating in CRS? Any bank you can recommend? What are expected costs?

Thanks a lot in advance
 
  • Like
Reactions: EliasIT
I advise you against looking for NON-CRS banks ! You can expect even more sleepless nights! There are no safe non crs options,
For smaller amount EMI would be fine but for you it's a bad choice

See this thread for reference, customers have their funds frozen for over 1 year and don't even know if they will recover it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: aragon and EliasIT
Nothing prevents your company from buying crypto and gold
Theoretically correct, but I do not achieve the protective effect that I am aiming for.

Perhaps I have not described my “problem” clearly enough.

When I sold the assets, I had to give a catalog of guarantees for which, in the event of a breach, both my company and I are personally liable without restriction.

Whether a breach occurs or becomes known, I can only have indirect influence, as at the present time I am not aware that I would breach any warranty.

I am absolutely aware that my construct that a liability case occurs and I lose everything represents the worst-case scenario. Nevertheless, I would like to make possible precautions so that in the case of the case by the creditors, no access can take place. Actually, there is only one way, the money must be transferred out of the company to a place where possible creditors have no access to it.

One possibility would be to pay out the money to me personally, but the problem is that A) it would be difficult to pay out such a large amount in a reasonable period of time B) in the end only half of it would be left due to taxation.

I have absolutely no concern with taxing the money as soon as I need it privately, but as long as I do, I would like to use the whole amount for investments.

Therefore, as far as I know, the only option would be to transfer the amount by some means to a company (outside EU) to which access is impossible.
However, I do not know how I could proceed in concrete terms. Founding an Offshore-Company might not be the biggest issue, but how to get the money there? Do you have any suggestions?

I advise you against looking for NON-CRS banks ! You can expect even more sleepless nights! There are no safe non crs options,
For smaller amount EMI would be fine but for you it's a bad choice

See this thread for reference, customers have their funds frozen for over 1 year and don't even know if they will recover it.
Yea, I have already read about it... unbelievable.
 
you already found the key to your solution. This is how you want to do it if you don't trust the bank with your money!
Actually, I totally trust the bank. It's just that in case of liability, the government can get access to the bank account, freeze the money or seize it.

Just for clarification... I am not doing any kind of illegal or gray-zone business. I just want to find ways for asset-protection without the need to wait 5 – 10 years until the “protection effect” takes place.
 
I was considering keeping something in cash, something in physical gold and maybe something in crypto. What is the current situation about keeping some funds in a bank which is not participating in CRS? Any bank you can recommend? What are expected costs?
Just so I get this straight: you are afraid for your funds' safety and then you want to go to a (probably 3rd-world-shithole) bank that doesn't participate in CRS? And You want to put your money in ponzi-magic-crypto-coin and in useless-Yellow-metal?

I think you need to look at historical performance of all the assets you wrote, and do some honest due-dilligence on all your options. There is nothing safe in Gold, you still need to store it and trust whoever it is that stores it for you. There is nothing safe about crypto, it can be stolen in a nano-second, faster than Gold (or you can just fall down the stairs and forget your pass phrase...). Or in the 'best' case it can just crash -90%.

Don't fall for the doom and gloom.
 
Just so I get this straight: you are afraid for your funds' safety and then you want to go to a (probably 3rd-world-shithole) bank that doesn't participate in CRS? And You want to put your money in ponzi-magic-crypto-coin and in useless-Yellow-metal?

I think you need to look at historical performance of all the assets you wrote, and do some honest due-dilligence on all your options. There is nothing safe in Gold, you still need to store it and trust whoever it is that stores it for you. There is nothing safe about crypto, it can be stolen in a nano-second, faster than Gold (or you can just fall down the stairs and forget your pass phrase...). Or in the 'best' case it can just crash -90%.

Don't fall for the doom and gloom.

It's about protecting myself in the extreme case. Let's assume that in the future there will be a lawsuit about something, which will result in a claim for the other side, whereby I would theoretically lose everything. In this case, it would be a great advantage to still have funds in places that no one knows about or suspects. I would never have thought of investing large sums in s**t-coins, but rather in stablecoins which give me a buffer in case of emergency. Gold may not be an investment that promises a high return, but it is anonymous and relatively easy to liquidate if necessary.

Protection from what? What have you done that they can come after you for? What risks do you face?

You always have risks when running a business, and there's also always a risk of going bankrupt.

In this concrete case, I gave guarantees to the buyer for the assets I sold. Here's an example to make it easier for you guys to understand: Let's say the sold assets are including a brand and the brand has a total worth of 500k of the assets sold. Someday, some issues arise I never thought about and the brand cannot operate anymore. By this time, the brand was not only worth 500k anymore but now 1.5M. Let's assume the reason the brand cannot operate anymore is covered by a misrepresentation of my guarantees. This means I have to cover the whole damage that occurred.

I know it's a very abstract example, but we have tons of rules and regulations in Germany. You can never be sure you did everything right in the past. Consequences can be very fatal.
 
why not? How can someone take away from you crypto/gold/cash that is properly stored?
Well, basically they cannot. But they can trace the money I spent on it with my company, and then I cannot simply say "I lost the gold, someone stole the cash, I'm a gambler, blabla". This might work in some way with private capital, but not for business capital. It would be a shortcut to jail, for sure.
 
Well, basically they cannot. But they can trace the money I spent on it with my company, and then I cannot simply say "I lost the gold, someone stole the cash, I'm a gambler, blabla". This might work in some way with private capital, but not for business capital. It would be a shortcut to jail, for sure.
there is no legal way to protect something against those who make/apply/control/interpret the laws. Your property is really safe only if it is beyond physical reach.
 
Talk to a lawyer who specializes in asset protection.
Something like a foundation (probably in Liechtenstein) or a holding company might make sense.
Look up Gierhake,. As far as I know, he is not a lawyer, but I believe he is very popular in Germany and has also written books on asset protection. He specializes in Liechtenstein foundations though - maybe check other options as well to make sure you understand different alternatives.
 
When I sold the assets, I had to give a catalog of guarantees for which, in the event of a breach, both my company and I are personally liable without restriction.
That's very stupid. Now your only possible option is to move your assets into another company without such a guarantee! You can either do that by invoicing your current company from the new one (I would set this up in Cyprus, Switzerland or UAE) and move money that way to later buy the mentioned assets or you move current assets into the new one by paying the market price for it.

Anyway, you have made a bad mistake with the guarantee, but I know, sometimes you have no choice as an entrepreneur!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Onassis
Talk to a lawyer who specializes in asset protection.
Something like a foundation (probably in Liechtenstein) or a holding company might make sense.
Look up Gierhake,. As far as I know, he is not a lawyer, but I believe he is very popular in Germany and has also written books on asset protection. He specializes in Liechtenstein foundations though - maybe check other options as well to make sure you understand different alternatives.
Yea, that's also the plan, I just think most of the lawyers cannot speak openly about gray-zone-options. Gierhake might be a suitable alternative here, thanks for the tip!

Theoretically creating a foundation can be an option, practically it's not that easy as the German legislators thought about numerous cases. Donations to a foundation can be revolved up to 4 years in case of bankrupt or liability.

That's very stupid. Now your only possible option is to move your assets into another company without such a guarantee! You can either do that by invoicing your current company from the new one (I would set this up in Cyprus, Switzerland or UAE) and move money that way to later buy the mentioned assets or you move current assets into the new one by paying the market price for it.

Anyway, you have made a bad mistake with the guarantee, but I know, sometimes you have no choice as an entrepreneur!
I know giving guarantees can break your neck, and that's why I'm facing this situation right now. Unfortunately, there's in most cases no other choice if you want to sell assets in a specific value range.

The invoicing sounds good, but how can I move that amount of money by invoicing? I guess it must be something like consulting or other services no one can retrace.

What do you mean with:
to later buy the mentioned assets or you move current assets into the new one by paying the market price for it.
? The only thing I need to protect is the money which is currently in the company's bank account. The rest actually doesn't matter.
 
Hi all,

I sold the assets of my main company, and now I have nearly 1M in the company account.
Besides this company, I have another LE, which has around 150k in the bank account. Both LEs are registered in Germany.

I have no use case for these funds right now, but I would like to find a solution to keep them protected for the future from possible liability to third parties. This would save me some sleepless nights.
Is there anything you can recommend? I need to be in Germany from time to time, so just take the money and run is unfortunately no option.

Apart from this, which methods would you recommend for protecting financial assets which are already in my personal possession?
I was considering keeping something in cash, something in physical gold and maybe something in crypto. What is the current situation about keeping some funds in a bank which is not participating in CRS? Any bank you can recommend? What are expected costs?

Thanks a lot in advance
You've got them in the bank, when the central bank of Germany is openly insolvent?

Have a look at Cyprus and bail in's.

There is nothing safe in Gold
Gold has lost 4% against spending power year on year since 2013, S&P500 is flat, Nasdaq is 6% PA (+), Crypto is exponentially more (tech = Blockchain, AI, Green etc) will provide the productivity requirement that is counter to the decline in productivity caused by demographics + debt re-folding within the 3 yr financial cycles.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jafo