Sound estate planning can help individuals and families maximize their goals and minimize risk of loss and liability of assets. Setting up proper Estate Planning structures today can protect you from future unforeseen events or circumstances that can have a great impact on your financial security as well as that of your family or business.

A Private Interest Foundation (PIF) shares a similar structure to a corporation, but they differ in that a The PIF may not be profit oriented in Panamanian soil, therefore, are NOT TO carry out commercial activities in a habitual basis, although they may conduct occasional business transactions. A PIF is mainly used for estate planning and the protection of assets.

Why the private interest foundation is better than a Will?

The beneficiaries will receive the patrimony and assets of the founder according with what is determined in the private document.

The inheritance laws that apply in the domicile laws of the founder or beneficiaries shall not be effective against the foundation’s assets, or affect the validity of its objectives.

The beneficiaries will not have to wait to receive their legacy, as a procedure to establish the legal beneficiaries to the patrimony will not have to be filed. This will save time and money.

After three years have passed since an asset has been transferred to a PIF, those assets are not subject to liens or attachments, unless it is due to direct debts of the Foundation or in cases where the creditors prove that the transfer of assets to the PIF was made fraudulently by the founder in order to avoid paying its creditors.

Similar to an Offshore Corporation, an Offshore Foundation is tax-exempted when the assets or patrimonies come from abroad.

The identity of the beneficiaries may remain confidential. The beneficiaries are established in its by-laws, which are not a matter of public record, but normally are notarized.

The PIF requires a founder, who decides which assets are incorporated into the PIF. The founder may be a person or a corporation, and its name will appear in the Public Registry.

Our office may provide nominee members of the Management Council. The beneficiaries do not have control of the PIF and the Founder may change the By-Laws and beneficiaries at any time, and may withdraw any or all the assets from the foundation at any time if the PIF is revocable.