Here
is more news about the world of the ultra rich, those shameless wealthy who treasure their stuff more than life itself — at least more than other
peoples’ lives. The Economist has
an extremely telling report
about Freeports.
Freeports are tax havens located at airports around the world. The super wealthy are
using free ports to hold very high end assets, like art collections. The
advantage is that if the assets are housed at a Freeport, it is not subject to
taxes, and the goods held in them are, well, anonymous, no government knows
what is held there, and thus they provide a fine new loophole for the
uber-rich.
From The Economist:
The worldâs rich
are increasingly investing in expensive stuff, and âFreeportsâ…are becoming
their repositories of choice. Their attractions are similar to those offered by
offshore financial centers: security and confidentiality, not much scrutiny,
the ability for owners to hide behind nominees, and an array of tax advantages.
Excellent. The free ports (as far as I understand) were a valuable and useful arrangement that allowed merchants the ability to ship and consolidate and reship. In an era of slow communications this was useful, now it should be used only for valid reshipping.
The Wrongologist
@ Terry: I understand that insurance companies are refusing to write new coverages for some of these free ports because of concentration of risk and extremely high value of the assets. Have you heard about that?
Terry Mckenna
No. But I am primarily Life Ins and some health/disability. We only read about commercial insurance in industry new.
But overall, with the low return on investment, we find commercial insurers (our reinsurers) dropping out of treaties, and trying to avoid payment of claims. Everyone wants low risk right now. In the past, our reinsurers treated our business as a partnership. Now we are held at arms length and even can become adversarial.
Excellent. The free ports (as far as I understand) were a valuable and useful arrangement that allowed merchants the ability to ship and consolidate and reship. In an era of slow communications this was useful, now it should be used only for valid reshipping.
@ Terry: I understand that insurance companies are refusing to write new coverages for some of these free ports because of concentration of risk and extremely high value of the assets. Have you heard about that?
No. But I am primarily Life Ins and some health/disability. We only read about commercial insurance in industry new.
But overall, with the low return on investment, we find commercial insurers (our reinsurers) dropping out of treaties, and trying to avoid payment of claims. Everyone wants low risk right now. In the past, our reinsurers treated our business as a partnership. Now we are held at arms length and even can become adversarial.