There are a number of things that all people need to do before they buy car insurance. Odds are that they will be feeling rather impatient to get the insurance in place because it is illegal to drive around without it, but they need to do these things to make sure that they get good rates that will not empty their bank accounts or have a huge impact on the way that they want to live their life. The following steps should be followed before any sort of contract is signed for a new policy. When you are abroad, find another HSBC. Present your U.S. HSBC banking bona fides and your account will be opened smoothly. Don’t put more than $10,000 in the account. HSBC is a synonym for any solvent foreign bank with a branch on U.S. soil. Most advisors say never do this. They’re right. But since it’s very hard to get an interesting campaign that folks can check-out as a U.S. citizen without reference letter from your U.S. bank, then I respectively disagree with the experts. Get a bank account at a local branch of a foreign bank and then go open the real account with your sterling U.S. credentials. Not perfect in the hide-and-seek game, but not much is anymore. The next thing you need to be aware of is if your bank is FDIC insured. FDIC insurance means, that if your bank fails, your deposit will be insured by the government. Be aware however, that if you are doing any offshore banking, they most likely will not have FDIC insurance. It’s not like Medicaid is available to anyone who doesn’t feel like buying health insurance or paying for their own health care. It is, after all, a means-tested program. You have to provide a statement of means (income, offshore banks, property, etc.) and, if you have the means, you ain’t eligible for Medicaid. If, on the other hand, you don’t have the means, you may be eligible. Before those ten years end, however, more communication and less transportation will hit home for me in a big way. Instead of executives pressing the flesh, in the future people will interact via video. Already on the drawing boards is interactive video creating a sensory feeling that distant colleagues and friends are actually sitting across the table. Your brain sees them as being in the same room and your mind sees them as community. The future need for meetings and transportation expenses will be reduced. But that is ten years in the making. What about the now? 1040X the year in question. Be as honest as you can, as soon as you can. Because if given the opportunity, the IRS may be looking for large corporations with big bucks in offshore accounts, your account number could easily show up, especially if some over eager computer programmer, includes a cross reference in the software program that could expose your cover. You can never know exactly what information the U.S. authorities will be privileged to.
