The Real Threat to Your Financial Privacy

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"The Real Threat to Your Financial Privacy" By Mark Nestmann, LL.M.

The headlines emerged in early October:

JPMorgan: 76 million customers hacked (CNN)

JPMorgan Chase bank hack: It gets worse (ZDNet)

This is why the enormous JPMorgan Chase hack is so scary (Fast Company)

The mainstream media had a field day with the story that thieves had hacked the data of nearly 80 million bank customers over the summer.

Everyday Americans were outraged, too—understandably so.

So why isn't everyone as teed off when other secretive groups can routinely "steal" the financial data of nearly 320 million Americans?

Who are those groups? They're our federal and state governments. They don't even have to be sneaky about it. They are sanctioned to ask your financial institution for information, and your bank has no choice but to deliver.

Sure, there have been some moves here and there to protect your financial freedom. The Right to Financial Privacy Act (RFPA) was enacted in 1978. It attempted to reinstate some of the constitutional protections that had been eroded by Supreme Court decisions relating to the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), an act that had effectively turned bankers and financial professionals into government informants.

Generally, the RFPA requires federal agencies to provide individuals with a notice and an opportunity to object before a bank or other specified institution can disclose personal financial information.

But in practice, it means little. The Right to Financial Privacy Act left so many loopholes and exceptions that it has been rendered practically meaningless.

For example:

The RFPA exempts most corporations, trusts, or limited partnerships from any protection by defining a "customer" as an individual or partnership of not more than five partners.

A state agency can obtain financial records and share them with its federal counterparts without violating the RFPA.

The RFPA doesn't restrict state or local government investigations.

Many government agencies, including the Treasury's financial intelligence agency (FinCEN), the Homeland Security Administration, and others, have obtained formal exemptions from the RFPA.

And, it's almost laughably easy for government agencies to obtain financial records. All the agency needs to do is to create an administrative, judicial, or grand jury subpoena certifying that the records are relevant to an ongoing investigation. While the RFPA stipulates that the customer must be informed of the investigation, in practice, such notification may be deferred indefinitely.

There's simply no way around it—and no way to say it more simply than—"we're screwed." At least here in the United States.

Thankfully, there are still protections available outside this country. With nearly 200 sovereign nations, "geographical diversification" can offer you a safer way to protect your cash from intrusive domestic government agencies.

Of course, you need to do it the right way. But there are plenty of information services to help.

Once you've identified your options and reviewed your personal goals and situation, it's just a matter of doing the due diligence needed to make sure it's the right path for you.

One way to inform yourself is to read my special report,5 Ironclad Asset Protection Strategies. It's free as part of an offshore resource that's dedicated to helping you reclaim your freedom offshore. Info about that offshore resource is here. Hurry—it's massively discounted but only until the end of today.