Ask HN: US citizens, do you use an offshore account?

I realize this might be a strange question for HN but I also think there are a lot of intelligent people here who typically make pretty good money so I thought I'd throw it out there.

I've been researching opening up an offshore account as a way of breaking the "all of your eggs in one basket" situation a lot of us are currently in. After seeing what happened in Greece and getting a better understanding of just what our financial situation is as a country I would like to start putting some money away into an offshore account, possibly in a country that might be a retirement location. I am not looking to evade the IRS or hide money away, I just want to remove my current single point of failure if you will :) In researching this topic it seems as if this has become quite difficult in recent years due to some regulations put in place making it less than beneficial for other countries to open up accounts for US citizens.

So my question is: if you are a US Citizen with an offshore account, have you had any issues with it? If so, has it been worth the trouble? Was it a hassle to setup (using a 3rd party, large initial deposit, etc)? Any alternatives outside of "hard goods" like silver or gold?

It seems most sites out on the web that discuss this topic want to sell you an e-book or a website subscription so any real-world experience would be great. And yes, I get that this is a great question for a financial advisor...