As a middle aged, middle class, married, business owner, father of 3 (one in college….argh) freedom seeker, I have sought for many years to establish the knowledge, the relationships, and the resources needed to make a lifestyle of financial privacy and freedom available to me and my family. One of the most frustrating and problematic areas to resolve successfully has been that of how to establish a private banking relationship, for someone of moderate means, in today’s world of intrusive financial surveillance. Many have found that without doing something “shady” or “under the table” or downright illegal, and having to constantly be looking over your shoulder to see who is looking, having a workable private banking solution is, in real life, unattainable.
But I have found something that simply works…
If the above statement does not suitably impress you, perhaps you are not fully aware of what it takes to accomplish this in this day and time. Just because I said it is simple, do not underestimate the value of this “gem”. If you think it’s easy to find something that actually works…you have not tried…end of story. The Continental Trust and Credit Union has been the long sought answer to the banking relationships I required.
But before I give you a brief review of it’s qualities and benefits, let me stress that I am not talking about just going out and opening an offshore bank account. In my opinion, this is not a valid and workable relationship. First, unless you intend on having assets of less than $10,000 USD (I am talking about US citizens here) you are required to report this account; and secondly, anything with your name attached to it in the banking system is discoverable. Just having an account in a supposedly sovereign jurisdiction that will “keep your information private” is not good enough in todays financial landscape. Suffice it to look at the large number of “high rollers” who tried to “hide” a good portion of their assets this way and got in a good deal of trouble. This is not the way to do it; it’s not what I want, and I will presume it’s not what you want. “Hiding” things and privacy are very different arrangements, and you want to be involved in the latter….legitimate, legal, secure, workable financial privacy!
With that being said…let’s take a look at this treasure I have found…
The Continental Trust And Credit Union is a private savings and loan association domiciled in Stockholm, Sweden and registered in accordance with the Economic Associations Act (1987:667). The activities are regulated by the Swedish Banking Act (2004:297). As a legally designated ‘Ekonomik Foerening’ (EF) it is essentially a Savings and Loan association. Under the law that regulates Continental Trust, provided that it does not solicit to the public and keeps its membership ‘small’ by legal definition, an EF is exempt from the standard banking regulatory regime and the only reporting required is an annual tax return filed on net profits.
What this means is that this type of an organization is basically not required to report anything regarding its membership or financial transactions…ever! This is as good as it get’s! Now this does not mean you can get away with criminal activity, because if you give governments or courts a legitimate reason to come after you, they can eventually get just about any information they want…but as far as financial privacy, this is off the grid. This is a legitimate type of organization classified by the World Bank as a Non-Bank Financial Institution and recognized as “having an important role in a balanced and diversified financial sector”. In other words, it’s not some shady deal that you have to worry about being under the table. All of its officers have had background checks, the books are audited annually by a major, well recognized auditing firm.
That’s the legal stuff…now as far as its usability and benefits…here are the major points: