PUTTING YOUR IRA OR PENSION PLAN INTO INTERNATIONAL INVESTMENTS U.S. law requires that assets in pension plans be physically held by a trustee in the United States. Foreign investments are possible, provided that either the share certificates are held by the trustee, or that the foreign brokerage account is held in the name of the pension plan, and cash withdrawals can only be made by the U.S. trustee Until now, this has been difficult to accomplish, because most U.S. trustees have not wanted to do the extra paper work involved, nor have many foreign institutions understood the special requirements for U.S. pension plans. A solution to these problems has been created by International Financial Consultants of Rockville, Maryland. Using the services of the venerable Delaware Charter Guarantee and Trust Company. Delaware Charter was founded in 1899 and now manages over US$8.5 billion in trust assets, the largest of any non-deposit U.S. trust company. However, they will not offer their services directly, but only through intermediaries. Michael Checkan and Glen Kirsch of International Financial Consultants have created an offshore retirement fund package in which IFC handles all the year-end currency conversion accounting required by IRS rules, and Delaware Charter compiles the annual reports to the IRS. They are well known in the financial newsletter industry and at one time or another have been recognized as a "recommended vendor" by many of the writers in the newsletter industry. The principals, Michael Checkan and Glen Kirsch have been in the foreign exchange business for a combined total of 50 years. For further information write to International Financial Consultants Inc., Suite 400A, 1700 Rockville Pike, Rockville MD 20852 and ask for information on the offshore retirement fund service.