By now you're probably heard that Panama (link) is among the world's best retirement havens and is also a terrific place to invest for the long term. Many Americans are wondering how to take advangtage of the real estate investment boom that is heating up across Panama. If you are thinking about investing in Panama, there are several ways to invest with your IRAs (Link). Interestingly enought, most Americans are not aware that they can invest 100% of their IRAs in foreign real estate. Yes, you heard right, you can invest 100% of your IRA monies in foreign real estate!

Imagine, with all the great investment opportunities in Panama, you can invest now with your IRA money and have cash flow potential. How awesome would it be for your future retirment home to generate cash flow while you are waiting to retire? I'm betting you'd think that would be pretty amazing. Well, you can do that in Panama and my law firm Heygood, Orr, Reyes & Bartolomei (link) can help.

Here is how it works. Self Directed IRAs (link) have been around since 1975. These IRAs use a US Bank for custodian for the IRA. That is a legal requirement. If you don't have a self-directed IRA now, you can easily transfer your current IRA account into a self-directed account with the help of an IRA admininstrator. Further, your IRA will remain FDIC (link) insured. Once you locate your dream retirement property in Panama, my firm works with many developers and real estate brokers who can help you locate your dream property, simply complete a Buy Direction Letter for the property. Again, we can help with this process.

Want to buy a super premium property but are afraid you don't have the resources? Grab a couple of trusted friends and pool your IRA resources. You can form a Panamanian entity with my correspondent Panamanian law firm to hold a super premium luxury property so that you can use the collective power of multiple IRAs to buy a spectacular condo or beach house. The collective IRAs become the shareholders in the company that holds the property. In Panama, the IRA for the benefit of the IRA owner, would be the shareholder of a corporation, which in turn would hold the title to the property. That goes for whether you do a property with just your IRA for you pool your friends IRAs to grab a luxury property.

Once the agreement of sale is completed between you as the IRA holder, or you on behalf of the company that holds the property, your IRA administrator works with local attorneys, my partners (link bernal-bernal.com), escrow and title companies to make sure that your IRA or IRAs have ownerhsip to the property.
All money earned from rental income flows to and from your US FDIC insured bank account in direct proportion to your ownership.

It is important to know that you can't live in the property while it is owned by your IRA. You have to wait until you actually retire before you can live in the property. You can do that by taking a complete distribution of the house that your IRA owns. That will be a taxable event for US tax purposes. You will need the advice of a CPA to minimize your tax burden.

As the beach buys sang in the '60s, wouldn't it be nice...to own a luxury retirement home in the paradise of Panama? Act now, your IRA should be enough to get your started on your road to retirment in paradise.