R. Christopher Hunter served as a member of the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys and presently supervises the The Academy of Offshore Consultants, LLC, located in Chapel Hill, NC.

This book, depending on the reader, addresses some of the ideal, academic, practical, or even misguided aspects of offshore planning. Hunter does not propose to discuss the pitfalls or complaints that an individual, business, planner, or regulatory authority may experience. But because offshore planning is nearly impossible to master in its entirety, his objective is that no part of his work be in error; that, where error exists, it be amended; and that some part of it be a practical contribution and improvement, though naturally minor and limited, between idealizing and demonizing the private and regulatory field of offshore planning.

Hunter attempts to demonstrate who the prosperous are and why transfers of wealth offshore become, or may become, a part of their planning. The underlying human, economic, political, and legal reasons for going offshore are more or less embedded in complex discussions of international relations and organizations; laws, lawsuits, and damages or awards; government regulations of business, confiscations of individual or business property, and government prosecution or imprisonment of individuals, businesspersons, or professionals; taxes and tax policy, property rights and the civil liberties that emanate therefrom; business or estate planning, which involves asset protection; and investments and investment planning.