International Families

Making the move to a new country is a big ordeal. Finding housing and education, learning social and cultural norms, succeeding professionally – there is a lot to be managed – much of which has a financial aspect across borders.

As these early challenges are solved the financial impact continues well beyond the initial period of settling in. Cross-border families have unique considerations to factor into their financial goals. For most international families the length of time you expect to stay in your destination country impacts U.S. and foreign taxes for all income sources. Cognizance of Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) requirements and potential penalties related to Passive Foreign Investment Corporations (PFICs) is important to make sure that you are not adversely affected in future years.

Management of wealth across countries presents its own challenges and should be done with expertise and strategy with regards to where you believe you will finally retire. There are a number of potential pitfalls and partnering with an advisor who is familiar with the resources and services available to cross-border families is valuable. The benefits include partnership with international tax planning professionals, estate planning attorneys, suitable broker-dealers and custodians to service international clients (due to compliance burdens from FATCA not all will service international clients).

Aberdour Investments seeks to serve clients with an international aspect to their financial advising needs through first-hand experience and learnt expertise.