CITIZENS INTERNATIONAL (CI) is a Cross Border Financial Planning blog written from an offshore financial perspective by the author, a qualified professional in international tax, finance, and estate planning.
Citizens International focuses on the challenges of managing finances when crossing borders, changing lives.
Whether you are a globally mobile citizen, a Bermuda island resident, or a multinational multi-jurisdictional family with United States, Canadian, United Kingdom, Europe, or Far East connections, your finances and immigration crossings can be complex and often problematic.
MARTHA HARRIS MYRON The author of MoneyWise Bermuda, a weekly Personal Finance column in the Royal Gazette, Bermuda, DEDICATED this non-profit educational website to providing easy to use information and clarity to all things financially important in our complex international finance centre of Bermuda.
Moneywise:Bermuda is focused on financial education relative to the Bermudian environment for Bermuda residents, multinational citizens, guest workers and business owners living, working and retired on the island. See Mission Statement.
BERMUDA is a beacon, a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic. Discovered more than 500 hundred years ago, settled four hundred years, Bermuda has had a marine history of astonishing proportions to her size and population. From the first voyage to Jamestown to revitalize the remaining starving settlers, to commerce on the high seas, to the vital support of military allies at war, Bermuda islanders have produced seafarers, superb ships, and pilots of extraordinary skill and daring.
OCEAN Poetic. THEY THAT GO DOWN TO THE Sea in Ships, that do business in great waters....... Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate, As we voyage along through life.
In Bermuda, the primeval influence of the sea is everywhere. It is part of us, not easily separated from us. It is the salt in our blood; the spray on our faces; the essence of moisture in our lungs. We are of the sea, surrounded by the and the sea is with us, always. Bermuda citizens are independent, survivalist-minded, risk-takers confident with their unique position in the global economy.
Visit the Bermuda Maritime Museum, now incorporated into the National Museum of Bermuda, to see hundreds of years of marine history of Bermuda and her people.
The Island of Bermuda is still the leading single top offshore risk financing center. More than 13 of the world’s top 40 reinsurers are based in Bermuda, and Bermuda is the fourth largest reinsurance market in the world after Germany, the US and Switzerland. http://www.bermuda-online.org/insuranceadvantages.htm
According to recent studies:
Bermuda supplies 50% of Florida’s homeowner catastrophic insurance market, and offers Florida homeowners premiums that are less expensive than competitors in the United States and Europe.
Twenty-three Bermuda reinsurance companies supply 40% of the catastrophic event property and casualty coverage for the entire U.S. market.
Bermuda insurance companies have helped stabilize the U.S. economy in the wake of numerous catastrophic events. In the 15 years between Hurricane Andrew (Florida, 1992) and Hurricane Ike (Texas, 2007) the United States sustained $500 billion in property and casualty losses, inclusive of earthquakes, terror attacks, etc. Of this total amount, Bermuda covered $84 billion or 16.8% of these losses.
After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, businesses in eight Gulf Coast states, from Texas to Florida, needed $65 billion in private and public assistance to rebuild (in addition to assistance needed by homeowners). The federal government supplied $34 billion, while the rest came from insurance. It is estimated that Bermuda insurance payments to U.S. businesses supplied more than 10% of that assistance. Bermuda insurance restored or created more than 20,000 jobs in 2006 in those regional economies.
Bermuda is also a major insurer of American agricultural cropland. Thirty-five percent of U.S. crop insurance is underwritten by six Bermuda-owned insurance affiliates, and 55% of the gross premiums ceded by insurers to reinsurers come from Bermuda.
In 2009, more than 250,000 U.S. farms in 40 states depended on Bermuda insurance and reinsurance firms to hedge annual crop-related risks.
Bermuda’s captive commercial liability insurance and reinsurance sector fills an important capacity shortage for U.S. companies. Approximately 75% of the 500 leading companies in the U.S. have captive insurance subsidiaries in Bermuda, which help provide worker’s compensation and other lines of liability coverage.
For further references, go to Business Bermuda website.
http://www.businessbermuda.org/bm/news/press-releases/business-bermuda-2010-economic-impact-study-demonstrates-depth-and-mutual-importance-of-bermuda-u-s-economic-relationship
Bermuda Current Economic Activity in the Year of our Lord 2011. Budget deficits, increasing debt with the debt ceiling raised again on June 24, 2011, and economic slowdown woes continue to impact our economy.
The Bermuda Government Budget for the 2011 / 2012 fiscal year is not a balanced budget. Expenses still outstrip projected income by more than $147 million. Borrowing of 17% of net projected revenues will have to be undertaken just to cover current year operating costs. The Government Budget discussion and breakdown will be discussed in future commentaries
Individuals and their families are certainly watching their budgets closely this year. If they think cash will be short, they will economize further since there may be little recourse for a personal line of credit, or additional savings to see them through to an anticipated economic recovery. READ the Financial Survival Section for help on coping with the recessionary downturn. The common sense information has been culled from the author's personal and reader experiences. We know; we've been through a recession.
LINKS TO Professional Pages >>>>>>
We take great pride in linking to websites and passionate individuals who have earned our respect for substantive content in providing unbiased current wealth of information content for, and about Bermuda. I thank those professional friends and illustrious organizations for their support of the Moneywise:Bermuda website.
Bermuda Online www.bermuda-online.org was the first, and is still, the preeminent website (launched more than twenty years ago) to actively promote the beauty, history, governance, tourism, environment, international industry and many more topics about our island of Bermuda and international finance centre. Bermuda Online is continuously updated, detailed in scope and linked to The Royal Gazette, Bermuda's only daily newspaper.
It is well worth a visit to explore Bermuda Online with its 125+ comprehensive unique sites on the most important aspects of Bermuda.
