You can use a limited liability company formed outside your home country as an international holding company. It, not you personally, would buy and hold the overseas investments you want.
An offshore LLC can be designed to be very unfriendly to your potential future lawsuit creditors, even more so than an LLC formed in the US. An additional plus is that while many banks, mutual funds, insurance companies, and other financial institutions shun business from individual Americans, many of the shunners will welcome business from a non-US LLC even if it is American owned.
An offshore LLC owned by a single US person (or by husband and wife) can elect to be treated as a disregarded entity for US income tax purposes, which makes it absolutely income-tax neutral. Or it can elect to be treated as a partnership, which makes it almost income-tax neutral. The LLC also can be used for estate planning in the same way as a US LLC.
By the ratio of benefits to cost and complexity, an offshore LLC rates especially high.
Be sure to get our comprehensive guide on the best offshore company options. Click here to download the PDF.