The second step of our wealth structuring practice is the selection of financial institutions.
The financial institution could be a bank, an investment fund company, or even a safe deposit company, as in the case of some hard assets.
We look for financial institutions in stable countries with strict privacy laws.
We also look for financial institutions without branches in the client's home country so that information leakage will be minimized.
Financial institutions where an employee has stolen and sold information about the institution's clients are ruled out.
Financial institutions that have chosen to divulge information about clients are also ruled out.
We also prefer financial institutions with long and stable operating histories.
One risk that became very apparent during the financial crisis of 2008-2009 was institutional imperative risk (peer pressure for CEOs). This risk was exemplified by the herd behavior of so many banks to buy the same toxic assets and adopt the same bad lending practices.
So we would prefer financial institutions that show some independence of thought and action.
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