The Need for Cross-Border Planning

Cross-border clients face special financial planning challenges including:

Tax:

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• Reporting obligations and compliance

• Tax planning strategies made available by multiple jurisdictions and the tax treaty

Retirement

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• Accrued obligations in various countries

• Distribution strategies

Investments

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• Finding brokerage firms that will work for a given pairwise countries

• Purchase and management of real estate and other assets from abroad

• Foreign country mortgage

Estate Planning

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• Creating compliant/effective wills, trusts, and plans

• Asset protection strategies

Insurance

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• Relative strengths and weaknesses of different country policies

Client Knowledge, Behaviour and Other

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• Healthcare planning

• Comparing cost of living - post-tax

Banking

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• Foreign exchange / International Money transfers

• Opening accounts, managing accounts in home jurisdictions, understanding bank costs, and how banks think and work.

• Global Anti Money Laundering

Advisors working with cross-border clients face special challenges including:

• The known unknowns (i.e. pension transfers and withholding)

• Where to find answers?

• Differences in cross-border planning to domestic planning (fact-finding, banking/custodial relationships, understanding of taxation of income/assets/estate, working with professional team)

• Investment restrictions

• Strengths and weaknesses of the US financial system

• Definitions of residency and domicile

• Source of Income and effect on tax/estate planning

• Various treaties (Income tax, Totalization and Estate tax)

• Different kinds of expats - (working holiday, domicile uncertain and permanent mover) & their fact patterns

• Insurance opportunities

• Immigration

• Challenges in working with expats

About the Global Financial Planning Institute

 Formed in 2020, the Global Financial Planning Institute exists to provide education, community, tools/resources and ongoing research for financial planners, wealth managers, private bankers, CPA/accountants, and other advanced financial professionals working with international and cross-border clients in the US and Americans abroad.

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Education

The GFP Institute offers the Master Class series in US Inbound/Outbound International financial planning. This course is the foundation for US financial planners seeking to work with incoming or outbound expatriates or Americans abroad.

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At launch, the focus of the GFP Institute will be on rolling out the GFP Master Class series. In 2021, we plan to launch the community, tools/resources and research functions. These will be offered for GFP Institute members only. In future years, we plan on offering specific pairwise country cross-border education, so that our members may provide 'book-ended' financial advice.

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Community

None of us are smarter than all of us. From connecting with international and cross-border peers to obtaining a referral to a service provider, we all appreciate the value of community.

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Tools / Resources

From PFIC tax calculations, to a 'Covered expatriate' exit tax illustrator, we shall be offering a suite of tools to make the work of an international and cross-border financial planner that much easier.

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Research

We shall be providing up to date information to do with regulatory and legal changes affecting the international and cross-border financial planning world.

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