Cyprus, Isle of Man, Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, Anguilla, Antigua, St. Vincent, Grenada, British Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, Montserrat, St. Lucia, Dominica, Nevis, American Virgin Islands, Nauru, Gibraltar, USA, Vanuatu, Cook islands, Samoa, Bermuda, Jersey and many other jurisdictions.

Offshore insurance companies are uniquely one of the most up-to-date tools of offshore strategies. Their use reaches from the providing of proper insurance companies for the general public to family insurance services, which optimizes tax burden of a very rich individual or to the service of cash flow active management at international firms.

An offshore insurance company, usually referred to as a 'captive' insurance company, is usually a subsidiary of a large company or group of companies, and its purpose is to offer insurance within the parent company or group, thus saving external costs and generating profits in a low tax jurisdiction. The fiscal benefits are not necessarily the driving factor, but they can be significant. Direct access to reinsurance is another important advantage of a captive.

Some high-tax countries have legislated to prevent excessive shifting of income to captives, but usually without seriously reducing fiscal benefits. Apart from offering tax savings, it is usually also true that an International Offshore Financial Centre (IOFC) offers a less regulated and bureaucratic supervisory insurance regime than the home country of the parent company. The captive may for instance be able to employ its capital more effectively than a domestic insurance company.

The considerable advantages of captives have led to the development of a major worldwide captives industry, and IOFCs have vied with each other to establish attractive regimes for captives.

For income tax purposes, the build-up of income under an insurance product through compound interest is not subject to tax.

As a financial product, it enjoys the leverage that comes from the computation of insurance rates as a function of the law of large numbers For estate- creation purposes, insurance held in the proper structure can benefit a surviving family free of estate tax. If there can be a magic financial vehicle, it is insurance.

Life insurance is a product acquired when there is a perceived liquidity need. Sometimes a salesperson has to work hard to convince his or her clients of this need. Ignored or not, the need exists. Insurance provides an assured source of cash even for people who have a large net worth. Just because someone is wealthy, they do not necessarily have the funds readily available to meet their estate costs, tax, property conservation and family or business survival needs.

In terms of personal estate planning, insurance can provide the immediate cash to solve the income replacement needs of family members who are surviving the decedent. For many families, even wealthy ones, when the income earner dies, the ready and available cash, which in the past might have been paid on a monthly basis, disappears. Many times, a substantial amount of cash is needed to pay accumulated debts and expenses or to pay off mortgages or other debts, which have been personally guaranteed by the decedent.

Life insurance is a complex financial product. Evaluating different insurance policies is difficult to do, even for the experts. A plethora of variables make comparison-shopping difficult. The acquisition of insurance should be done in consultation with an experienced professional advisor.