Holding company with bearer shares

An holding company with bearer shares is the best way to manage your real estate assets while guaranteeing the beneficiary’s privacy.

A holding company with bearer shares significantly limits the risks of investing in the sector and, at the same time, protects your assets.

The holding company is formed to manage different types of assets, such as real estate, shares, participations, fleet of vehicles, ships, etc. In this way, your identity, as the real owner of these assets, is concealed behind the company. The holding company has the legal possibility to operate in different jurisdictions. Therefore, you can have properties in several countries, all under the same holding company.

This type of company operates without a bank account and conducts no other type of activity. In case you have several properties and you want to rent them, you can place them under a holding company.

Our firm can help you structure your holding company with an offshore company registered in Panama with bearer shares. Upon amendments to the Panamanian laws, these shares must remain under the custody of a bank or an Authorized Agent (this is a service offered by our law firm). This way you guarantee the greatest possible anonymity.

Advantages of holding company with bearer shares

Additionally, another advantage of a holding company with bearer shares is the easy transfer, even in the event of the death of the beneficiary. The heirs only have to claim ownership of the shares. Thus, it is not necessary to resort to court claims, which are often costly and time-consuming.

One of the most common variants is to place, as beneficiary of the bearer shares of the real estate holding company, a private interest foundation in Panama. This Foundation will also allow you to organize the distribution of your inheritance in the way you consider most appropriate. We can also help you create a Panama Private Interest Foundation.

Alternatively, if you plan to invest in several real estate properties, you may also choose to acquire each property through a specific offshore company for each asset. Such strategy ensures that when you sell that property, you will only have to transfer the shares of the offshore company that owns it. By doing so, you avoid the payment of transfers taxes which tend to be very high. The holding company can be the owner of real estate, shares, bonds, personal property, etc.

Three ways of using bearer shares

Bearer shares have been banned in many parts of the world, but there are ways to use them.

Authorities consider this document to be one of the avenues used by individuals to evade anti-money laundering regulations. However, there are still ways to use bearer shares today. Read more about them here.

What are bearer shares?

A bearer share is issued by a company and is not nominal. Therefore, it does not bear the name of its holder, unlike registered shares. The person who physically holds the certificate is considered the owner of the share. These shares can be easily transferred to another person, whether natural or legal.

Currently, companies holding bearer shares are required to collect all the details of the holder of that share and deliver the information to the company’s resident agent or to a bank, as an authorized depositary.

What can you do with a bearer share?

Maintaining anonymity is becoming increasingly difficult. However, it is still possible to use bearer shares for profit in different holding company scenarios.

Transfer properties anonymously

Through a holding company with bearer shares, real estate can be purchased anonymously. For example, it is only necessary to transfer the bearer shares to the company that owns the real estate. This saves the payment of property transfer taxes. In reality, the ownership of the house never changes. The company that issued the bearer shares is the owner, but the owner of the bearer shares can change without complications.

Holding cryptocurrency in a holding company with bearer shares

Bearer shares can be used to hold cryptocurrencies. If you do not want to hold the cryptocurrencies individually, the companies that issue the bearer shares can be the holders of those cryptocurrencies. This way, you can deny that you have those assets under your control. However, in reality, since you are the holder of the bearer shares, you do manage those cryptocurrencies.

Ownership of precious metals

You can own precious metals through a holding company with bearer shares. The ownership of these metals will change when the bearer shares are delivered to the new owner.