Doing business in Bermuda is just about as easy as doing business anywhere. The difference between Bermuda and other world financial centres is that in Bermuda, everything the business person needs can be found within a very small space, the few square miles which constitute the City of Hamilton, to be exact.

If you think of Bermuda as somewhere to lie on the beach, watching the surf roll lazily in and out, you might be forgiven for thinking that you'd need to go a very long distance to find people who understand complicated international financial matters – and you'd be wrong.

Bermuda has almost 1,000 qualified accountants and attorneys. Bermuda wrote the book on offshore finance, literally. The international offshore company was invented in Bermuda in 1935 and now more than 10,000 offshore companies and partnerships call Bermuda their home.

In some respects, Bermuda's international business industry is like an exclusive club. Three-quarters of the Fortune 100 companies have Bermuda businesses not just to provide a little R&R for their employees. They have chosen Bermuda as their domicile of choice because, in international matters, Bermuda works.

The City of Hamilton
The town of Hamilton was founded on 30 June 1793 and became Bermuda's capital in January 1815, about six months before Napoleon met his Waterloo. By New York City standards, what is now the City of Hamilton is small. Its resident population is about 1,100, and its average daytime population nearer 30,000, including visitors.

Hamilton is a port, through which flows both human and container cargo. Half a million visitors arrive each year, by cruise ship and airplane, and almost all visit or stay in Hamilton.

The centre of the city comprises about half a dozen blocks by half a dozen blocks. For a small place, Hamilton has achieved some very big things. The overwhelming majority of Bermuda's international business happens in Hamilton, putting everything the business person needs within a few blocks' walking distance. Like Beverly Hills and Monte Carlo, Hamilton is a relatively small place with a huge concentration of wealth.

Unlike Beverly Hills or Monte Carlo, Hamilton has retained a certain architectural charm. Bermuda has a long and closely-chronicled history, spread across nearly 400 years. Although life today is not what it was, even 20 years ago, Bermudians hold their heritage in peculiarly high regard - thank Goodness.

Most of Bermuda's international business takes place in Hamilton. Here, within a few blocks of each other, are some of the world's largest insurance and reinsurance companies, mutual funds, insurance brokers, underwriters, lawyers, accountants, actuaries and international trading companies.

More than 300 of Bermuda's 10,000 international business entities maintain a physical presence in Bermuda, almost all of them in Hamilton. Surrounding them are the myriad companies who supply services to them and the international business world.

For lunch, or when the business day is over, the city has any number of restaurants. Italian is the flavour of the late 1990s in Bermuda, but Chinese, French, Mexican, West Indian and – of course – Bermudian cuisine are all easy to find in “town”, as Bermudians confusingly call their city. Local fish is often available, and well worth trying.

For culture, Hamilton is the place for the annual Bermuda Festival in January and February and the Bermuda International Film Festival in May, and becomes a hub of creativity when Jazzscape comes to Bermuda in September. The city is home to several drama societies and boasts three fine dance schools and several schools of music. Displays of dance, music and drama are staged regularly at City Hall. International artists often visit the Island to perform. In the summer, outdoor concerts are frequent, and for the reggae fan, every year sees regular visits from perhaps a dozen of the biggest and hottest Jamaican recording artists.

Hamilton also has two movie theatres showing first-run movies at the same time as they are seen on the U.S. eastern Seaboard.

The miracle of all this is that so much happens in so small a space. But that's Bermuda's secret: small, intense, efficient and unique.

Accountants
Bermuda is particularly well-served by accountants. More than 650 men and women hold down accounting jobs which require formal training and qualification, and perhaps three times as many individuals work as book-keepers, auditors and in other accounting positions.

The Island also has several large public accounting firms and a number of smaller partnerships and sole practi-tioners. Each of the larger firms is associated with one of the major international accounting practices worldwide.

Not enough Bermudians are able to qualify each year as accountants to keep up with demand. More than half the total number of accountants in Bermuda are expatriates, working on temporary permits – usually for two years. The large firms cycle their staff though various world-wide offices.

Bermuda law requires company financial statements to be drawn up according to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles of any of the major countries, and American, Canadian and British GAAP are among the most widely-used by Bermuda companies.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bermuda, which conducts an active education programme is affiliated with its Canadian counterpart. Other branches of the profession are also well represented in Bermuda.

Attorneys
Bermuda's size can be misleading when you consider its legal profession. Those who live in Bermuda will tell you that there are times when it seems like every other person in Bermuda is an international lawyer. That's not quite true, but Bermuda does have a disproportionately large legal community, and offers a range of services no other community of 60,000 anywhere in the world can begin to match.

Bermuda has two major law firms, Appleby, Spurling & Kempe (AS&K), and Conyers, Dill & Pearman (CD&P). Each employs more than 250 people, and has offices in a number of other offshore jurisdictions, offering a range of services which extends far beyond giving advice. Both firms employ more than 30 lawyers and a staff of qualified Chartered Secretaries, litigators and other professionals in related fields.

In addition, Bermuda has more than two dozen smaller firms, which offer a full range of services from drafting a will to setting up the affairs of the largest international companies.

Bermuda law is based on British law, although a separate body of law has developed over the years. Both the large firms and a number of the smaller firms have second and third generation Bermudian attorneys working in their offices.

Both the large law firms are members of international legal organisations. AS&K is part of Terralex and CD&P is a member of Lex Mundi. This way, if a client has multi-national needs, the Bermuda firms can liaise with attorneys of equally high standing anywhere in the world.

Most larger Bermuda law firms have their own in-house trust and administration companies, and can offer a complete range of trustee and administrative services.

Banking
Bermuda has three licensed banks, The Bank of Bermuda and The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Ltd. are both more than 100 years old — Butterfield's, the oldest, celebrated its 140th anniversary in 1998. Bermuda Commercial Bank, the smallest of the three, was established about 30 years ago and limits itself to corporate business.

The three licensed banks have balance sheet assets of about $15 billion, which makes them small by international standards, but growth for its own sake has never been a goal. In addition, they hold assets worth about $60 billion, not counted in their balance sheets, under custodial arrangements.

The banks' size is limited by three main factors: the size of Bermuda's retail market, which, with a population of 60,000 is limited; the rate at which Bermuda grows its international business sector, which it does carefully and in such a way as not to swamp the Island's infrastructure; and regulations contained in Bermudian law which limit the ownership of banks by non-Bermudians to just 40 percent of the total capital.

But don't let the comparatively small size of the Bermuda banks fool you. They maintain international offices around the world, in almost every other offshore jurisdiction, as well as New York, Hong Kong and London, England. With decades of service, the banks have developed a remarkable degree of sophistication and experience.

Bermuda's bankers are a surprisingly welcoming breed. Pay them a visit if you're on the Island, or contact them by telephone, fax or e-mail if you're not, and in a short space of time, they'll be able to outline exactly what they can offer.

Each of the banks maintains a family of offshore mutual funds, and each offers a variety of account services. All three banks have overseas networks of offices, in as many as 16 other jurisdictions, to allow the banks to offer, literally, the best service in the world.

A small number of Bermudian investment houses operates alongside the banks, offering all the services your local bank and stockbroker offer, and then a whole lot more. The largest of these, Lines Overseas Management, is also in several other offshore jurisdictions.

Bermuda is also home to a number of overseas banks who service their international clientèle from Bermuda, with names such as Coutts, Lombard Odier and Schroders.

Computer Consultants
Bermuda probably has more computers per inhabitant than any other country in the world. And, as you'd expect in so computer-literate an environment, a considerable industry has grown up to support the Island's computers.

The Island boasts a number of suppliers who sell and service the brand names you'll be familiar with: names like IBM, Dell, Compaq, Gateway and a host of others. Just as it is in other countries, some dealers have rights to sell and repair particular brands, while other firms cover a range of services for almost any machine. Bermuda is as up to the minute on the computer scene as the most advanced cities in the world, and whatever you can't find on the shelves can be ordered and shipped down by courier for next day delivery.

An active Bermuda Computer Society holds an annual trade fair in April at which all the manufacturers and service companies are represented. Members of the Society welcome enquiries from those with questions.

The Bermuda College and other education facilities offer a range of “how-to” courses to help beginners and advanced users learn every aspect of computers, from operating a spreadsheet to building your own machine.

Not for nothing does Arthur Sculley, the Chairman of the Bermuda Stock Exchange, the world's first truly offshore electronic exchange, call Bermuda “the Information Island.”

Corporate Communications
Surely, you're saying to yourself, Bermuda can't have much in the way of corporate communications or an advertising industry. After all, among 60,000 people, how many men and women can have opted for a career in communications?

Well, once again, the world's leading offshore jurisdiction is also the most misleading, size-wise. Bermuda is home to almost two dozen advertising agencies, graphics firms and corporate communications consultants. Several are affiliated with the largest global firms – which should come as no surprise. After all, some of the world's biggest companies are based in Bermuda, and they are able to satisfy the majority of their needs locally.

What is unusual, perhaps, is the degree to which women dominate this service industry. Most of the corporate communications companies in Bermuda are owned and managed by a group of extraordinarily creative women.

Local Insurance Companies
When the subject of insurance companies in Bermuda is raised, it is natural to think of the 1,500 international companies which use the Island as its base. But a number of local insurers thrive alongside the international sector, providing insurance services directly to the Bermuda market – which the international companies, being established as exempted companies, are not permitted to do.

The Bermuda insurers are long-established companies which provide a complete range of insurance coverage. Car, bike and boat insurance is available, as is real estate and commercial coverage. A full range of commercial insurance is also offered, including life insurance, health, dental and disability insurance for employees and public liability and other workplace coverages. Travel insurance is popular among Bermudians, who take an overseas trip – when you leave Bermuda, everywhere else is overseas – an average of twice a year.

Bermuda's remote location also requires local insurers to offer special services such as hurricane insurance, but they also offer a range of investment products and services such as pension management and administration.

Most of the larger local insurers have subsidiary companies which provide management services to international insurance companies. These management companies allow overseas companies to operate their own captive insurance companies in Bermuda, with local administration reliably managed by a Bermuda insurance company with substantial experience.

Bermuda's local insurance companies are, therefore, a unique hybrid, with experts on traditional insurance working alongside those skilled in the international arena.

Real Estate
Bermuda had 22,061 occupied dwellings in 1990, the last time anyone counted. An occupied dwelling in Bermuda can be a studio apartment, a twelve-bedroomed mansion on a private island, or pretty much anything in between.

Not just anyone can buy a home in Bermuda. Some of the housing stock has to be reserved for Bermudians; after all, we live here. Based on Bermuda's property tax system – called, more accurately, Land Tax – only houses above a certain rating can be sold to non-Bermudians. In practice, that means that only superior homes are available to non-Bermudian buyers.

Some condominiums are available for sale to non-Bermudians, although Bermuda has fewer condominiums than many other countries.

Anyone can rent a home in Bermuda. Rents are not inexpensive, for a variety of reasons. Because a percentage of Bermuda's workers are foreigners working temporarily in Bermuda on permits, the demand for housing can be severe. Monthly rents vary across a wide range.

As you've probably guessed by now, the Bermuda real estate market is sophisticated and competitive. More than 50 real estate companies operate in Bermuda. Some of the larger agencies cover the entire market, while a number of specialist firms concentrate on sections of the market. Rentals and sales are advertised in the daily and weekly newspapers.

Telecommunications
If you've been wondering how a small group of islands about 700 miles from the nearest land could possibly have developed into the world's leading offshore business centre, one of the keys has been telecommunications.

For more than half a century, Bermuda has lived on the cutting edge of telecommunications and today the Island is undergoing a revolution in the provision of telecommunications service as the industry is being demonopolised.

Two long-distance servers now compete. Cable & Wireless, the British giant which has for many years dominated global communications, particularly in the mid-Atlantic and Caribbean regions, has now been joined by TeleBermuda International, which is constructing a global telecommunica-tions system.

Both companies sell pre-paid telephone calling cards, which enable you to make any telephone in Bermuda your own. The cards come in various denominations, and for the regular visitor, there are rechargeable cards. Many people who visit Bermuda buy a card just to keep as a souvenir. Coin-operated telephones are to be found all over the Island.

Domestically, the Bermuda Telephone Company, for so long the sole provider of local service, is also being challenged by several companies who will offer a range of cellular services for those who visit Bermuda but want to stay in touch.

Bermuda has two Internet service providers, keeping the Island one of the most interesting places in the world to visit on the World Wide Web. As you'd expect from a technologically sophisticated community, Bermuda is a riot of Web sites and information. The daily newspaper, The Royal Gazette, and both weekly newspapers are published on the Net and accessed daily by Bermuda-lovers everywhere.

Businesses run a variety of intranets and extranets from Bermuda, and almost any telecommunications need, no matter how complicated, can be managed. Larger financial institutions maintain round-the-clock networks, tying their distant locations in to the Bermuda home office. Companies which are subsidiaries of companies overseas can be data-linked to their parent company by a variety of means.

Trusts and Trustees
The provision and service of trusts have for a long time been a core business for Bermuda.

Bermuda trusts are employed to achieve a variety of personal and business planning objectives.

The trust is a concept developed under English law, in which the owner of assets can transfer them to the custodianship of a trustee, who then uses the assets in the way the original owner has directed.

The trust can be a useful tool in the hand of the business planner. Trusts can be used to make provision for spouses and dependents; to protect assets; to keep taxes to a minimum; to create charities; and to provide pension plans and the like.

A range of trust vehicles is permitted in Bermuda, for all manner of reasons. In most individual circumstances, the beneficiaries of trusts tend to be family members or charities.

Corporate trusts serve a wider range of similarly-grounded needs, but on a larger scale. Bermuda administers the assets of hundreds of international mutual funds, whose managers invest, but do not administer, their clients' pooled capital.

Bermuda, not surprisingly, has a strong corps of trust service providers, who are licenced and closely regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority. The larger law firms own trust companies, staffed by professionals who work on nothing but trust business.

The larger accounting firms, who are all linked to their large international counterparts, also provide trustee services. Bermuda's banks, too, offer a range of trust services – for the banks, trust has long been a core product. The Bermuda Association of Licenced Trustees has been formed to address issues in the trust area and keep members informed of the latest developments.

As significant numbers of individuals, families and corporations have discovered, you can put your trust in Bermuda.