The perfect Plan B for US HNWIs is more about personal preferences than anything else.
Consider your lifestyle and your social expectations, more than that, it is a matter of how much you are willing to invest.
The world’s most popular and affordable citizenship by investment programs conveniently lie just off the coast of Florida and are known as the Caribbean Five:
- St. Kitts and Nevis
- St. Lucia
- Grenada
- Dominica
- Antigua and Barbuda
All five of these Caribbean sovereigns offer citizenship in exchange for an investment into the nation’s community and economy.
All five programs offer:
- A donation option
- A real estate option
The donation option is exactly how it sounds. Each country maintains a fund from which capital is drawn to pay for various projects in the country; such as new hospitals, schools, road improvements, etc.
The real estate options, with some exceptions, tend to only be investments into luxury hotel developments in the form of either fractional or full ownership shares.
These shares can generate some financial ROI and do provide a set number of free days for investors to utilize the accommodation they have invested into.
The biggest advantage that the Caribbean programs have is that due to the fact the programs convey actual citizenship, once the citizenship program has concluded, the investor and family members are eligible to receive passports.
Possessing a second passport is, without any doubt, one of the most important tools and resources for a real-world Plan B.
For a US citizen, having a second [or backup] passport is the best insurance policy, as under US federal law, the US government maintains the authority to revoke passports, and can do so for issues such as:
- Unpaid taxes
- Unpaid child support
- Affiliation with a group the government deems is subversive
- Criminal convictions
In fact, while the Department of State issues US passports, the IRS and the justice system maintain significant authority in deciding to revoke or deny a passport to any American citizen.
The Caribbean programs provide many of the essential assets that a real–world American Plan B requires, including access to offshore banking with citizenship protections using a legal alternative identity instead of your US identity.
This places your banking outside the jurisdiction of US courts and thus provides a financial cache to access when, and if, needed.
Also, a second passport offers the ability to add privacy to your travel movements by making it far more difficult to unconstitutionally and illegally track a person without their consent.
All of the Caribbean Five nations recognize dual citizenship, so there is no requirement to renounce US citizenship to qualify for any of these programs.
It should be noted that one flaw with the Caribbean Five is traditional home ownership is not always an available option.
