Why do we invest money in a particular busines? It is a question that you should answer first before you start any kind of business. Succesful investors always remember to include every detail on their planning activities– and they have answered every vital question that they should address first.

You invest money for profit. Thus, you need to consider investments that can give you a high return. You might consider gambling your capital in a stock market, where every cent can be doubled or tripled, depending on market conditions. Since stocks could be easily acquired and sold, it is one of the viable options that you may consider in choosing an investment portfolio.

However, a high return may also come with high risk. Do you remember the unwritten rule “high risk yet high return” and “low risk yet low return”? It is true that investing in the stock market may give you a huge profit, but expect your capital to be at a high risk. Unstable market conditions might cause you to lose all of your money.

If you do not like taking high risks, the stock market is not an ideal investment for you. You may look for an alternative that could give you the same return but with lower risk than investing in stocks. If you are under this category of investors, then you might consider investing in mutual funds.

Mutual funds are a good alternative for investors who do not want to take the risk when getting a huge profit. It is a “common fund” or amount of money pooled by a group of investors with a definite investment objective. Such pooled money would be managed by a fund manager, an individual who specializes in different types of investments, such as bonds and stocks. He would be the one responsible in managing and investing the pooled money in different securities.

In mutual funds, all profits and losses will be shared among the fund’s shareholders. In other words, all profits as well as losses will be shared among the group according to the percentage of individual share in the fund. For instance, if you are a group of five investors, investing $20,000 each, making your mutual fund to be worth a hundred thousand dollars. All profits as well as losses would be distributed on a 20-percent basis, thus reducing all possible risks.

Aside from the low-risk feature of mutual funds, you need not to be an expert in stocks or other forms of securities. The fund manager would be the one to take care of it. In addition, you can diversify your capital and spread it to other types of investment. Diversification means spreading all of your money into several investments. In case one investment is down, there are other investments that you can concentrate with. Thus, you will not be losing all of your money in a single investment as well as maximizing your potential profit through other types of investments.

The mutual funds will automatically diverse your investment across bonds or other securities. Again, the fund manager would be the one to handle all transactions and determine if it is viable for you to invest on that particular security.

Form a pool of investors and combine all of your capital into a single mutual fund. Share the huge profits out of diversified investments as well as enjoy the reduced-risk feature that comes along with it.

WealthCapfund offshore hedge fund services division is solely dedicated to the requirements of hedge funds, money managers and other types of funds. The condition of the equity market is such that many investors look at hedge funds to better their returns. Hedge funds are one of the most complex and misunderstood investment vehicles around. Depending upon the strategy of the manager, hedge funds can be used either for optimum safety or for out and out risk. The safety approach doesn’t aim to beat the markets but to match them.

Taxation:

You can consider setting up an offshore fund if you manage money for either foreign and/or US tax exempt individuals and businesses. But don’t consider offshore funds if you go offshore to avoid US taxation.

The consequences of tax to an offshore hedge fund are substantial. They generally engage in investment strategies in order to profit from capital appreciation and daily swings in the price of securities, stocks or commodities. These gains are generally characterized as gains from the sale of capital assets.

Offshore hedge funds are not taxed on

1. Interest from US bank deposits or interest entitled to the portfolio interest exception

2. Capital gains so long as the gains do not arise from the sale or exchange of a direct or indirect interest in real property located in the US.

Dealer Safe Harbor

An offshore hedge fund may trade in US stocks, securities and commodities (for its own account or for customers), whether or not a dealer in stocks and securities board. This can be done through a resident broker, custodian, commission agent or other independent agent provided that it does not maintain an office within the US through which or by the direction of which the transactions in securities, commodities or stocks are effected.

Forming an Offshore fund

The correct structuring of an offshore hedge fund is of critical importance and is a major determining factor in its overall success. There are 6 major issues to be addressed.

1. Tax Issues

2. Regulatory Matters

3. Day-to-Day business management

4. Investment Strategies

5. Marketing

6. Back Office Operations

These areas are closely related and addressing them prior to creating offshore hedge fund eliminates problems later .The benefits of investing in a fund of hedge funds is improved risk adjusted investment returns in the form of

1. Acceptable levels of volatility

2.Capital preservation

3. Portfolio diversification

4. Investing in a pool of top international investment managers through a single fund.

As an added advantage, the timing of entry and exit is significantly diminished, as the volatility of many hedge funds is much lower than equivalent traditional investment products.

For more details please visit www.wealthcapfund.com

Accidents can happen – may have been just a phrase in the past. Today, the equivalent phrase may well be – Accidents can happen, and if they do, the affected parties may sue!
As you can see, auto accidents are happening at an alarming rate in our country, and because of these the lives of innocent people and their families are adversely affected.
When a loved one in family is unexpectedly killed by a drunk driver, families are devastated and destroyed. They are affected not only physically and mentally but they are also financially strained.
A lawsuit loan, or litigation financing, is one good safe option for plaintiffs involved in a lawsuit to finance their daily needs. Lawsuit loans or Legal cash advance helps them to take care of their medical expenses, household bills, mortgage payments, auto payments, education expenses etc.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration there are about 43,000 people killed in fatal motor vehicles accidents each year in the United States. In addition to fatal accidents, about 2.9 million people are injured each year.
As you know in any type of motor vehicle accident there are always two or more parties involved. The victim or victims in the accident are entitled to compensation from the party that can be proven liable for the accident. They can take legal action by filing a personal injury lawsuit.
Mostly plaintiffs involved in auto accident have missed work or lost their job and can no longer meet their household regular bills. Keeping up with their household payments can be a huge strain on them. People who need cash funds while waiting for a lawsuit to be resolved, and a fair settlement to be paid, have very few options, but some carry more risk than others.
They can use their own credit cards to get cash. This is an expensive alternative and can actually put them even more at risk if the lawsuit takes longer than you anticipate to be settled. And if they lose the lawsuit they still have to pay their monthly credit card bills unlike lawsuit loan or lawsuit cash advance.
Plaintiffs involved in lawsuits can obtain a home equity loan or second mortgage. This option is extremely risky. If for some reason they do not win their lawsuit, they could lose their home. But that is not the case with lawsuit loan or lawsuit funding.
Most of the plaintiffs involved in lawsuits do not realize they can get lawsuit loan or legal cash advance before their case settles. It is called as lawsuit funding and often referred as legal funding, pending lawsuit loan, legal finance, legal financing, litigation financing, lawsuit advance funding, lawsuit cash advance, personal injury lawsuit loan and legal cash advance.
There are many advantages of lawsuit funding or lawsuit financing. It carries no risk to the plaintiffs. Some of these are as followings:
1. When you apply for lawsuit cash advance or litigation financing, there is no application fee. A good lawsuit financing company should not charge any upfront fee or any application fee, processing fee or any monthly fee.
2. No credit or bad credit is alright, because approval of personal injury lawsuit loan or pending lawsuit loan is based on the strength of your lawsuit. The lawsuit advance funding or legal financing is not based on credit history, unless there is a pending bankruptcy.
3. No employment requirement is required to apply for a lawsuit loan or legal funding.
4. Lawsuit cash advance is not a typical kind of loan. Loans are repayable absolutely. A loan is type of financial aid which must be repaid, with interest. But lawsuit cash advance, legal financing or lawsuit funding is actually purchasing an interest in your settlement. So, if you lose your lawsuit case, you do not owe the lawsuit funding or litigation financing, company anything.
5. When you apply for lawsuit advance funding or legal financing, all information is kept confidential and only parties who know about the transaction are you the plaintiff, your attorney, and lawsuit funding company.
6. Approval is always fast for lawsuit loan or litigation financing. Mostly in 24 to 48 hours (some times in 4-6 hours).
7. Once you get a lawsuit cash advance or litigation financing, you do not pay back until you win or settle the case. Unlike a typical loan, where you have to start paying back the loan right away and continue making payments until it is paid off, no matter when you receive your settlement and even if you lose your case and receive no money.
8. Lawsuit funding is actually a non-recourse lawsuit cash advance on the future value of your case. Unlike a loan, if you lose your lawsuit case you owe nothing in return.
9. Lawsuit funding or personal injury lawsuit loans are no-risk and a win-win help for plaintiffs involved in lawsuits. These are available for nearly all types of civil and commercial lawsuits.
A lot of auto accidents lawsuit plaintiffs are being forced to settle early for way less than they deserve because they simply can’t afford to wait any longer. There is no reason for them to settle for less than their case is worth.

You can be on your way to doubling your money in 3 years by trading Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) rather than individual stocks.

DIVERSIFICATION

The most important reason is the diversification that Mutual Funds and Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) provide. With an individual stock you are exposed to the possibility that one of your stocks could get hit by bad news and plummet in price. It takes a long time to recover from one of these massive hits.

PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT

Skilled Mutual Funds managers spend every day determining which stocks to buy and sell. These managers companies have teams that examine quarterly and annual reports, interview Company executives; visit factories and review market share trends to get know the companies on a comprehensive basis, and avoid buying stocks when they are over-bought from a technical standpoint.

No – Risk, Non-Recourse Litigation Funding

Litigation Funding: Providing cash advances to plaintiffs and attorneys even before their lawsuit cases are settled. It is a contingent transaction in which litigation financing is advanced based solely on the merits of a pending lawsuit. Litigation funding is repaid only upon successful verdict or settlement of the lawsuit. If the plaintiff or attorney loses the lawsuit case, the litigation loan is never paid back to the litigation financing company.

LITIGATION – A case, controversy, or lawsuit. A contest authorized by law, in a court of justice, for the purpose of enforcing a right. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.

For plaintiffs the litigation process is long, stressful and tiring. The legal system is uncharted territory for most of them. Many times litigation process is disruptive and painful life experience for them as well for their families. Even when they win their lawsuits, plaintiffs may not receive payment for months or even years.

Litigation: A machine which you go into as a pig and come out of as a sausage – Ambrose Bierce.

Litigation process, as every body knows, is mostly very expensive. Since the average plaintiff in a tort case does not have the money or the staying power to enter the arena against a giant opponent, the defendant, at this crucial time the litigation funding is a major help.

Litigation financing or litigation funding enables plaintiffs involved in lawsuits to receive cash money months or years before their cases have settled, some times even before the complaint is filed.

What are the other available alternatives?

1. You can use your own credit cards: This is an expensive alternative and you still have to pay your monthly credit card bills. But litigation loan is a non-recourse, which you pay back to litigation financing company only if you win or settle the case.

2. You can borrow money from friends or family: This also is high risk, especially if, you lose the lawsuit and you may not have the money to pay them back. But that is not with litigation funding as it is a non-recourse litigation loan.

3. You can take out a bank loan: Banks do not generally make loans against future lawsuit settlements, but may offer a personal line of credit to individuals, based on their financial situations and credit worthiness.

Even if you do qualify, you have to start paying back a bank loan right away and continue making payments until it is paid off, even if you lose your case and receive no money. But this does not apply to your non-recourse litigation funding or litigation loan.

4. You can obtain a home equity loan or second mortgage: This option is extremely risky. If for some reason you do not win your litigation case, you could lose your home. But that is not with the litigation funding or litigation loan.

Litigation Financing – Litigation Funding is safe and fast:

You can secure litigation financing or litigation funding in three easy and quick steps:

1st. Step – Submit the Application: When you apply for litigation financing there is no application fee. A good litigation funding company should not charge any upfront fee or any application fee, processing fee or any monthly fee.

2nd. Step

It seems a little odd to compare stocks to mutual funds. Actually, mutual funds are largely composed of stocks. It is important to make the distinction between the two as there are some very real advantages to using mutual funds.

It is fun to invest in individual stocks because each company has its own story to tell. However, you want to focus on making money! Investing is not a game and should not be taken lightly.

When you invest in mutual funds, you are able to diversify and reduce your risk of losing money. Do you think that those wealthy investors out there just put their money in a couple of stocks? No! Either they are investing in mutual funds or are buying large numbers of stocks.

When you purchase mutual funds, you are hiring a professional manager at a relatively inexpensive price. It would be a little off the wall to think that you have more knowledge than a mutual fund manager! Most managers have been around the track a number of times and have the academic credentials to back up their knowledge.

Mutual fund companies have the advantage of capitalizing on economies of scale because they pool investors? monies together. Since these companies have large amounts of money to invest, they usually have personal contacts at many brokerage firms and often trade commission-free.

Mutual funds are easy to take care of. The bookkeeper is much more challenged when there are hundreds of stocks to keep track of!

Mutual funds are very liquid. Put in your order for money in the morning if you are short on cash, and by the time the market closes you may have a check waiting for you. Stocks, on the other hand, are much more difficult. It all depends upon what you have invested in. CDs are not at all liquid and bonds are difficult as well.

If you are new to investing then mutual funds may be the way to go. You can invest small increments of money at regular intervals and not have to pay a trading cost. If you invest in stocks, you will find that they carry high transaction fees. This makes it quite difficult for the small investor to realize a profit.

If you are a wealthy stock investor, then you have it made because you get preferential treatment from the brokers. Wealthy bank account holders usually get the red carpet treatment from the banks. However, mutual funds do not discriminate. Whether you only have a paltry $50 or a huge sum of $500,000, you all get the same manager, the same investment and the same account access.

Generally speaking, mutual funds have a much lower risk than stocks. This is largely to diversification which was mentioned earlier.

With stocks, there is always the worry that the company you are investing in will go belly up! With mutual funds, that is next to impossible.

As you can see, there are many advantages in investing in mutual funds over stocks. It is not to be said that you should never invest in stocks, but if you are just getting your feet wet with investing it would be best to go with mutual funds!

If you are fed up with early redemption charges and ever increasing mutual fund management fees on top of bad-performing fund managers, read on. There is a quiet revolution going on in the no-load mutual fund industry and you, the individual investor, may benefit from it greatly.

I am referring to Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), which have been around for years, but have grown tremendously since their inception. There are currently over 100 choices with around $10 billion in assets.

In a nutshell, an ETF is a specific kind of no-load mutual fund that you might consider to be a basket of stocks. ETFs are diversified like mutual funds, only they trade like stocks. They are cheap to trade (as low as $8.00) and don?t hit you with any short-term redemption fees. And they offer investing opportunities across the board.

ETFs track every index under the sun including the S&P 500, the Nasdaq 100, The Russell 2000 and many others. Available through any discount broker, they basically fall into one of three categories: broad-based U.S. indexes, sectors and international.

The have esoteric names such as iShares, StreetTracks, HOLDRs and SPYDRs. The difference is in the index they are tracking and the company marketing them. You will see big name companies offering them, like the American Stock Exchange, Barclay?s Global Investors, Vanguard, and State Street Global Investors.

In my newsletter I track the currently most appropriate ETFs for you to consider. For more detailed information you can visit these web sites:

www.nasdaq.com

www.amex.com

www.ishares.com

In addition to inexpensive trades and no short-term redemption fees, how else can ETFs save you money vs. no load mutual funds? One way is on their annual management fees. That fee for ETFs is in the area of 0.45% vs. 1.5% on average for no load mutual funds. The fees charged by discount brokers are so low they almost can be disregarded, usually less than 0.1% of the transaction.

For example, I have used ETFs for some managed account clients during my last Buy cycle, which started on 4/29/03, and paid $27 for a $28,000 order ? and that wasn’t even with the cheapest discount broker.

So, if these ETFs are so great, why hasn?t your broker or financial planner recommended them to you? Simple! Brokers, and those advisors working on commissions, don?t make money on ETFs; no commissions up front or hidden on the back end. It’s simply not in their interest to promote them.

With all the positives for the investor, there is one disadvantage, which may not be applicable to you unless you are a hot shot no load mutual fund picker. It is that in any given economic environment really super performing mutual funds can outperform the indexes, but an ETF can never outperform the index it?s tied to. You would need to look at your own investment record to know whether this is a downside for you.

Here?s a real life example from my advisory practice. My trend tracking indicator signaled a Buy on 4/29/03. Based on my momentum indicators I chose 5 no load mutual funds and 4 ETFs. Over the following 3 months my ETFs gained anywhere from +10.02% to +22.36%, while my no load mutual funds gained from +9.15% to +36.35%. If you?re fortunate enough to make a superior selection you will outperform an ETF. Of course, that presumes you picked a very successful fund as compared to only a moderately successful ETF.

A word of caution! Just because ETFs are cheap and easy to buy doesn?t mean they will guarantee you a profit. You can lose money with them just as easily as you do with no-load mutual funds. You still need to make sure you have a disciplined methodology in place to help you get into and out of the market. If you don?t, you?re gambling no matter what you invest in.

Having gotten the disclaimer out of the way, hopefully these insights into ETFs will broaden your perspective on ways you can prosper in your investments.

If you are still in mutual funds, listen up. Because if you are a reasonable person, you will want to run to the login screen of your online brokerage and look for proof to what I am about to reveal to you. ETFs offer downside risk protection no mutual fund can match.

It is a difference that could cost you thousands in your investment or retirement portfolio.

Okay, maybe you do not HAVE thousands in your investment accounts. If you are just starting to invest your money, pay particular attention my friend. The following page should make your decision between an ETF (exchange traded fund) and a mutual fund clear enough to make an investment decision or take corrective action if necessary.

Here are some basics.

ETFs and mutual funds are similar in that they both hold baskets of securities. A balanced mutual fund can hold bonds, stocks, T-bills and some cash. An ETF is essentially derived from stocks but takes on many forms.

Before I tell you about the potential mistake that could cost you thousands, here are the important differences between ETFs and mutual funds:

* Mutual funds are actively managed by a person who gets paid by people like us usually from the money that WE give him to manage. ETFs are purchased by us and can be bought and sold all day long with few restrictions and almost no minimums.

* Mutual funds charge 2% or more between loading and maintenance, whereas ETFs typically charge between .5 and 1%. Mutual funds usually have no transaction fee. Brokerage commissions must be paid when purchasing an ETF.

* Mutual funds incur capital gains even though no distribution activity (money back to you) takes place. ETFs usually find a way to avoid these taxable events. This is a significant advantage for an ETF and worse, it is not always clear to the investor how and when it happens.

* Mutual funds mitigate risk by sometimes holding cash in anticipation of a down stock market. ETFs are not actively managed, therefore, YOU the investor and purchaser of the ETF must account for this risk when you decide to buy them. Position sizing is one important consideration with an ETF purchase to manage this particular risk.

Here we go now. The biggest mistake you can make in your decision to allocate to mutual funds or ETFs is to overlook one HUGE advantage an ETF holds over the mutual fund:

* STOP-LOSS order: This is a tool you can employ to nail-down a floor beneath which the price of your ETF cannot fall. You arrange this with your broker or click a button if you are investing with an online brokerage. NO SUCH PROTECTION IS AVAILABLE with a mutual fund. And do not expect your fund manager to point this out.

This tactic can stop the bleeding if things really go wrong with the stock market. Better yet, you can set the stop loss and put it on automatic.

This is proactive management of your money, not merely active.

Whether you are just starting your investment portfolio or are a qualified investor you will want to keep yourself informed about the risks and strategies inherent with each class of personal financial investments. It is now possible to acquire a comprehensive library of knowledge on personal finance in audio format if you know where to look.

Carefully consider the point of view of any financial adviser with whom you seek counsel: Is the person carefully considering your future plans for your job or business before advising you?

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By nature Mutual Funds are not tax saving instruments but some mutual fund investment products also offers tax saving plans. Generally income that is earned from Mutual funds is categorized under two heads dividend and capital gains. Given that the tax implications can have a significant impact on the return earned it is necessary to understand the tax for both these heads of income. Income earned through dividends is tax free in the hands of the investor. The tax on most occasions is actually paid by the Mutual Fund Company itself. Investors who fall in the highest tax bracket should opt for the dividend option in mutual fund schemes. Capital gains from mutual funds are of two types – short term (1-3year) and long term (more than 5 years). This classification is based upon the period of holding. If the investment is sold within a year 15 days from the date of purchase, any capital gain made would be treated as a short term nature. Hence the tax deducted will be normal. If the mutual fund investment is sold after a year from the date of purchase, any capital gain made during that period will be treated as a long-term capital gain. Here the tax that would be deducted will depend on how long the investment is kept after a year prior to getting it sold. The longer the fund is kept the lesser the tax to be paid.

A Good Fund that could be used to invest upon is the equity linked saving schemes fund (ELSS). They are strong favorites for investing as they provide tax concessions on investments and are also exempt from long term capital gains tax. Apart from ELSS schemes, diversified equity schemes are a good investment considering that capital gains in equity funds below one year are taxed at a rate of 10% and over a year are tax-free. This option can be best exercised using Growth Funds. The primary objective of Growth Funds is to provide investors long-term growth of the capital invested. Dividend paid in Dividend Plans