Nevis Island LLC Asset Protection

What Can a Nevis Island, LLC Do For Me?

A Nevis LLC will be organized under laws to create an entity much like a Florida LLC, but with additional Asset Protection. Upon registration your Nevis Island LLC and its Operating Agreement will (1) have the available name of your choice (2) be a separate entity created under the laws and jurisdiction of Nevis, (3) have separate legal existence apart from its members, (4) shield from personal liability the members of your Nevis Island, LLC, (5) handle the company’s operations, and (6) determine how and when the entity will come to an end.

Much like a Florida LLC, a Nevis LLC is an LLC and can be a single member LLC. It is neither a partnership nor a corporation. Likewise, it is a distinct entity created under the governing Nevis law that offers businesses an alternative to partnerships and corporations by combining the best parts of corporations and partnerships. You will enjoy the corporate advantage of limited liability with the partnership advantages of pass-through taxation.

The Structure of the Nevis Limited Liability Corporation or LLC is Extremely Flexible

We can register you to be the initial manager of your Nevis Island, LLC or you can choose to have an initial foreign manager to control your assets. We can also arrange for you to be the initial member with a successor foreign manager. If you choose to be your own manager, understand that you will not have the best protection available. US courts do not have jurisdiction over Foreign Managers. It is important that you have an operating agreement disallowing you to remove/change the foreign manager. Thus it is vitally important that you carefully investigate and interview your choice of a foreign manager. Some clients may wish to, and should in this advisor’s opinion, vacation to the island of Nevis and in doing so visit, speak with and interview one or more practicing managers.

What About Stock? There Are No Nevis Island LLC Stock Share Requirements

– Helping to reduce costs, there is no reason to deal with subscription agreements, stock certificates or registered shares.

What are the Nevis Island, LLC Tax Reporting Requirements?

– Good news. There are no corporate tax, income tax, withholding tax, stamp tax, asset tax, exchange controls or other fees or taxes that are levied in the jurisdiction on assets or income originating outside the island. No tax returns or other filings need be filed with Nevis.

Nevis LLC Records – These records may be kept anywhere in the world.

Nevis LLC Management Titles – In governing an LLC, the members are free to adopt any
titles they wish to use. For example, they may call themselves directors or owners. In
addition, if managers or officers are to be appointed to direct the affairs of the company,
they may assume any titles that the members decide such as President, Secretary, etc.
The members and managers of an LLC are free to issue powers of attorney to third parties
to conduct business on behalf of the LLC. Generally these are notarized and sometimes
apostilled as well.

Nevis LLC Operating Agreements

– This is the nuts and bolts of your firmest Asset Protection strategy. A carefully crafted and customized Operating Agreement can effect the protection you need for your assets against domestic creditors. Further, your Operating Agreement is a private document not filed anywhere. The Nevis Island LLC Operating Agreement also controls the management of your LLC. The operating agreement typically names the members of the LLC which can be natural or corporate persons along with their proportionate share or interest in the LLC, and sets forth the internal structure of the LLC. Additionally, the LLC may issue “membership interest certificates” to all the members (similar to shares or stock of a corporation), which certificates will typically bear the name of the LLC, the name of the holder of the certificate, which can be a corporation, foundation or trust, and the proportion or percentage of the interest in the LLC the certificate represents. Some examples of powers that can be granted in Operating Agreements are, Nevis LLC’s can have perpetual existence, protect the members from personal claims against creditors of the LLC, allow members to transfer their interests freely, and elect managers (or directors) to run the LLC. In addition, like by-laws, operating agreements can allow for the issuance of certificates to members in the LLC with differing or preferential rights with respect to voting and/or the types of distributions they may receive.

Nevis LLC Liability Limitations

– If a good Operating Agreement and poperly structured, owners of a Nevis Island LLC are not exposed to personal liability. Likewise, the owners can participate in management without becoming personally liable for the company’s debts.

Will My Name Be Kept Secret?

Yes, the owners names are kept secret in a Nevis Island LLC as there is no public filing of their identities.

What assets can I put into my Nevis Island, LLC ?

The Nevis LLC can own shares of other corporations, be beneficiaries of trusts, own real estate, boats, airplanes, and of course have bank accounts. For example, your Nevis Island, LLC can control a bank account in Florida or in another offshore Bank like Seychelles or in Switzerland.

How Exactly Will My Nevis Island LLC Protect Me Against Creditors and Judgments

– You may have judgments or creditors seeking judgments against you personally. However, your assets will be protected through the Nevis Island LLC. Just to attack your assets owned under the LLC, your creditors must try try to bring an action in a Nevis court. This is expensive, time consuming and they will often have to post a cash bond with the court for damages. Because Nevis attorneys are not allowed to work on a contingency basis, they will only work for cash in advance. If there is a lawsuit in Nevis or the country where the LLC bank account is then the court in that country must have the legal jurisdiction over those matters. Most likely the events leading to the lawsuit transpired outside of the jurisdiction and the courts will generally consider that they have a lack of competent authority and decline to adjudicate the matter. Another factor granting protections is venue. If a case IS FILED, which it likely won’t be, in Nevis it must be a case that legally belongs in Nevis. A creditor seeking to domesticate a judgment in Nevis which originated in another jurisdiction faces an uphill battle. The process is expensive, has a poor chance of being successful and is rarely done.

How Does Charging Order Protect Me in Nevis ?

– A couple things must happen before you even need this. First, a creditor of a member personally somehow discovers the Nevis Island LLC interests which would require the member to actually reveal this information since it is not in any public records. THEN, even if a creditor somehow manages to front all of the costs and jump through all of the hoops to get to your Nevis Island, LLC and SUCCESSFULLY wins in a Nevis court it will still be nearly impossible for the creditor to get to your assets. This second level of asset protection is rarely, if ever, needed but is associated with “charging order” protection. Upon winning, a creditor can be restricted exclusively to obtaining a court order requiring that distributions to the member’s interest be directed to the creditor instead. The good part is that when your LLC’s manager refuses to make distributions to the your interest, then the charging order (or even the membership interest itself) is of little value to the creditor. Thus the creditor collects nothing even though he has a win in the Nevis court which is something rarely seen to start with.