sovereign-investor.com / By Bob Bauman / February 4, 2013
Take a look at these names and you will know what unites this disparate group:
- Pop icon Tina Turner
- Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin
- French movie star Gerard Depardieu
These three individuals have in common good sense and a keen grasp of the bottom line on a profit and loss sheet.
And they all recently have been in the spotlight for ending their native citizenship and moving their residence elsewhere. They were sensationalized by the news media and accused by politicians of unpatriotically avoiding high taxes at home.
Tina Turner has gone to Switzerland, and has been joined by Gerard Depardieu, and Saverin, a native Brazilian, went to Singapore.
They also joined an illustrious list of fellow expats, such as Bill Clinton buddy and Clinton Library donor Denise Rich; rock star Johnny Hallyday, tennis star Amelie Mauresmo, racing driver Alain Prost, singer Charles Aznavour; Canadian Shania Twain; Italian actress Sophia Loren; British pop star James Blunt and rock star Phil Collins; German Michael Schumacher, former Formula One race car driving world champion (all Switzerland); and grand slam German tennis star, Boris Becker went to Monaco.
Then there was Swede Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Ikea and one of the richest men in the world (Switzerland); billionaire Campbell Soup heir John (“Ippy”) Dorrance III (Ireland); Michael Dingman, chairman of Abex and Ford Motor director (The Bahamas); J. Mark Mobious, leading hedge fund manager (Germany); Kenneth Dart, heir to the billion dollar Dart container fortune (Belize); Ted Arison, head of Carnival Cruise Lines (Israel); and millionaire head of Locktite Corp., Fred Kreible (Turks and Caicos Islands) – to name but a few.
One of the forerunners of this phenomenon, the late Sir John Templeton, respected international investor, businessman and philanthropist, surrendered his U.S. citizenship in 1962 to become a citizen of The Bahamas and the U.K. as well. That saved him more than $100 million when he sold the well-known international investment fund that still bears his name (Franklin Templeton) and that also saved his heirs millions more in estate taxes.
