Global Wealth in Practice 2026
Formed in 2020, the Global Financial Planning Institute exists to provide education, community, tools and ongoing research for financial planners, wealth managers, private bankers, CPA/accountants, and other advanced financial professionals.
Thank you to our sponsors
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Join us for an exclusive gathering at the Grand Hyatt Scottsdale Resort, following the conclusion of the Investments & Wealth Institute Experience conference. This post-con offers a unique opportunity for networking with and learning from cross-border planners and advisors.
Register TodayMeet the speakers behind the GFP’s most talented planners and advisors.
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Brian Dunhill
Brian founded Dunhill Financial in 2011 to provide wealth management and bespoke financial planning and investment services to U.S. expats worldwide. Serving clients across the U.S., UK, and Europe, his team help their clients navigate the unique regulatory and financial challenges of living abroad. To make investing more accessible, Brian also launched DF Direct - an automated, no-minimum platform offering overseas U.S. citizens tax-compliant, globally diversified portfolios.
Prior to founding Dunhill Financial, Brian gained extensive Wall Street experience in analyst, compliance, and Financial Advisor roles at prestigious firms including UBS, Lehman Brothers, and A.G. Edwards. This cross-functional background provides him with a full operational perspective on the financial industry.
Brian holds a B.S. in Finance with an International Business emphasis from the University of Central Florida and an MBA from the Masagung School at the University of San Francisco. An Accredited Asset Management Specialist (AAMS), he holds Series 7, 9, 10, and 66 securities licenses, alongside insurance licenses in California and Florida.
Deeply engaged in the international community, he currently sits on the board of the Sharkey Foundation. He has previously served on the ACA Advisory Committee and was the President of the American Club of Brussels. He is fluent in English and French.
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Mehdi El Kadiri
Mehdi El Kadiri is President of Global Citizen Solutions (GCS), where he leads the firm’s global commercial strategy, international expansion, institutional partnerships, and Government Advisory activities worldwide. With more than 20 years of experience spanning investment migration, wealth management, institutional banking, and international business, Mehdi has built and led businesses across North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Prior to joining GCS, he held senior executive and managing partner roles within the investment migration industry, with responsibility for multi-market operations, commercial growth, governance, and engagement with governments, institutional partners, and UHNW clients. His earlier career includes senior roles across private banking, institutional investments, commercial banking, and wealth management. At GCS, Mehdi focuses on accelerating global growth, strengthening strategic intermediary and institutional relationships, and expanding the firm’s Government Advisory platform across citizenship, residency, investment, and global mobility initiatives.
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João Pacheco Gonçalves
João Pacheco Gonçalves is the Head of Institutional Client Relations at Global Citizen Solutions. With an academic background in International Relations and having lived in multiple countries across three different continents, João has long been fascinated by how the world connects. His first step into global affairs came during his experience at the Portuguese Embassy in China, sparking a career dedicated to freedom of movement.
Today, he combines that early diplomatic exposure with his Swiss asset management experience in advising institutional clients. His focus is bridging global mobility with private wealth strategies, helping high-net-worth individuals pair assets with alternative residencies and passports.
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Lauris Lambergs
Lauris has more than 25 years of global professional experience in institutional investing, business management and family wealth facilitation. By recognizing that each client has a unique family logic in considering and making complex financial decisions, Lauris is better able to partner with families to create and sustain long-term financial well-being. He has taken his experiences in foreign countries, cultures and languages to working with cross-border families, or those that have financial roots in both the US and elsewhere. Lauris realizes that having ties to other countries can add complexity to financial planning, enabling him to better help clients through these situations.
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John McNertney, CFP® GFP Fellow
John brings over 16 years of financial planning experience from his tenure at Merrill Lynch, TD Ameritrade, and independent planning firms in the Bay Area. He holds both CFP and GFP designations, and earned his BS in Psychology from the University of Iowa, with minors in Philosophy and French.
John is an intensely creative professional who is energetic in the application of modern financial planning principles in the service of his clientele. Currently, John is co-located in Lisbon, Portugal, and San Francisco, California. His family lives in Lisbon, and they enjoy exploring continental Europe, meeting new friends, and learning new languages.
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Roger Mussa
Roger Mussa is a Managing Partner of Mussa-Weiner Wealth Management at Merrill and a Senior VP, Wealth Management Advisor, helping high-net-worth individuals, families, business owners, and retirement plan sponsors address complex wealth management challenges. With more than 27 years of experience, he specializes in investment management, retirement planning, tax-efficient wealth strategies, estate planning coordination, and multigenerational wealth transfer. Roger is actively involved in local leadership and national industry organizations. As a member of the Investment & Wealth Institute (IWI) since 2018, he has served on numerous committees and commissions and most recently served as Co-Chair of the Retirement Management Advisor (RMA®) designation helping advisors achieve better outcomes for retirees and as IWI Executive Board member help shape the future of the industry, advice and the elite advisor. He earned a bachelor's degree in International Marketing and Finance from Ramapo College of New Jersey, with minors in Spanish and Italian, and is fluent in five languages.
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Alison Ngai
Alison’s academic foundation spans two continents. She holds a Bachelor's in Business Management and Economics from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Master's in Trust and Wealth Management from the Lundy-Fetterman School of Business in Campbell University, North Carolina.
This combination reflects the dual focus she brings to every client relationship: technical financial planning expertise grounded in a genuinely global perspective.
Before transitioning into comprehensive financial planning in the U.S., she spent decades working at global Fortune 500 private banks in Hong Kong. That experience shapes how she thinks about wealth, not just how it grows, but how it moves across borders, generations, and purposes. She works with clients across three pillars: personal financial security, family legacy, and purposeful giving. For clients with cross-border complexity, those three things are rarely simple, and rarely independent of each other.
About Philanthropy Financial Planning
In addition to traditional financial planning, Philanthropy Financial Planning emphasizes helping clients align their financial resources with the impact they want to make.
Founded to bridge the gap between the for-profit financial planning world and the nonprofit charitable sector, our approach is one that brings together deep experience in both finance and philanthropy to help clients develop, protect, and direct their financial and generational resources toward what matters most to them.
With close connections to an extensive network of global tax and legal professionals, the office delivers comprehensive, cross-border financial planning for globally minded individuals and families; across estate planning, tax strategy, foreign trust compliance, and legacy and philanthropic planning.
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Jamie Vrijhof
Jamie Vrijhof is a Swiss expert in cross-border wealth management, renowned for her dedication to providing tailored solutions that empower U.S. clients. As the driving force behind the business development at WHVP, a Zurich-based registered investment advisor, Jamie specializes in advising clients on international diversification and offshore bank accounts. With a keen understanding of the evolving landscape of global finance, Jamie ensures her clients are equipped to mitigate risks such as USD devaluation, accessing international markets, legal liabilities, and privacy concerns. As a board member of the Swiss Association of Wealth Managers, she is shaping standards in wealth management and advocates for industry interests. She is also a member of the board of a regional bank. In 2021 she completed her MBA at the University of St. Gallen. Lastly, she is the co-author of "Swiss Money Secrets" (Banyan Hill Publishing, 2018).
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Brian Wruk
Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Brian is a Certified Financial Planner™ specializing in high net worth individuals making the transition between Canada and the U.S. He founded Transition Financial Advisors Group, Inc. in 2001 as a fee-only, comprehensive Canada-US financial planning, investment management, tax planning and preparation firm. A dual Canada-US citizen, Brian holds both the Canadian and U.S. CFP designations, is a Registered Trust and Estate Practitioner (TEP) with the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners in the U.K. and holds the Canadian Investment Manager (CIM) designation. Based in Arizona, Brian is the author of “The Canadian in America: Real-life tax and financial insights into moving and living in the U.S. – 3rd Edition” and “The America in Canada: Real-life tax and financial insights into moving and living in Canada. – 2nd Edition” In addition, Brian has written many articles, been quoted in numerous newspapers and journals and speaks frequently on Canada-U.S. financial planning matters. Most recently, Brian was featured on Passport to Wealth™, where he authored “US to Canada Relocation: 5 Tax and Financial Planning Mistakes Americans Make” and sat down with them to discuss the tax traps, retirement account decisions, and healthcare realities Americans face when relocating to Canada. Watch the full interview here.
He founded and co-chaired a Canada-U.S. International Tax Council with the IRS, in addition to having personal experience with his own Canada-US moves. Brian has been working with Canada-U.S. cross-border transitions since January of 1997. In addition to his professional designations, Brian holds an MBA from the University of Arizona, a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta, a Business Administration diploma from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), and a Certified Advertising Agency Practitioner designation from the Institute of Canadian Advertising. Brian assists the community by speaking on financial matters, doing pro bono budget counseling, financial planning and tax work. Brian loves watching reality tv, following his beloved Edmonton Oilers and Arizona Cardinals, travelling, playing in a recreational Texas Holdem league, riding bicycle and recently became a grandpa.
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Tom Zachystal, CFA CFP®
Tom Zachystal is the founder of the firm and our President and Chief Investment Officer. Prior to starting IAM, he was Vice-President Europe based in Prague, Czech Republic for another US RIA firm and worked for a major Wall Street investment firm. Tom also spent five years as an international business consultant and seven years as an engineer for oil services firm Schlumberger. During this time he worked in a dozen countries on four continents and it is his combination of international experience and investment knowledge that allows IAM to offer tailored financial solutions to expatriates and non-US investors as well as to American residents and citizens.
Tom has an MBA in Global Management from Thunderbird University in Glendale, Arizona, a BSc in Civil Engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) credential as well as the British Investment Management Certificate (IMC), and is a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP™) practitioner. He is a past President of the San Francisco Financial Planning Association, has been managing investment portfolios on a discretionary basis since 2002, and oversees investment management and financial planning for all our expatriate clients.
Agenda
Opening Remarks
Table Topics
Table Topics & Panel: Running a Cross-Border Practice 101: Challenges to Building a Sustainable, Compliant Global Advice Firm
Speakers: John McNertney, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Green Ocean Global Advisors;
Tom Zachystal, President, International Asset Management; Brian Dunhill, Portfolio Manager, Dunhill Financial; Brian Wruk, President, Transition Financial Advisors Group
As more clients live, work, and retire across borders, advisory firms are under pressure to deliver planning and investment advice that spans multiple tax, legal, and regulatory regimes. This session will walk through the foundational elements of launching and running a cross-border financial planning practice, with a focus on repeatable processes, risk management, and profitable service models.
We will cover how to define your ideal cross-border client, structure engagements, price your expertise, and coordinate with tax/legal partners across jurisdictions. Attendees will leave with a clearer roadmap for scaling from “one-off” international cases to a durable, specialized global planning business.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the key operational, tax, legal, and regulatory considerations involved in establishing and managing a cross-border financial planning practice.
- Develop a scalable service model by defining an ideal cross-border client profile, structuring client engagements, and implementing pricing strategies for international planning services.
- Apply best practices for coordinating with cross-border tax and legal professionals to build repeatable processes, manage risk, and deliver comprehensive advice to globally mobile clients.
Break
Real World Cross Border Planning: Two Case Studies in Global Clients
Speakers: Alison Ngai, Philanthropic Financial Planner and Global Family Legacy Advisor, Philanthropy Financial Planning;
Roger Mussa, CPWA® RMA®, CPFA®, Managing Partner, Mussa-Weiner Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch
This interactive session will walk through two real world cross border client case studies, highlighting how seemingly routine planning issues become substantially more complex when multiple tax, legal, and regulatory regimes are involved. We will unpack each client’s fact pattern, illustrate the diagnostic questions to ask, and trace the planning decisions step by step from initial engagement through implementation.
Topics will include residency and domicile analysis, coordinating advice across jurisdictions, structuring investments and retirement assets, and managing ongoing compliance and reporting obligations. Attendees will come away with practical frameworks and checklists they can apply immediately when a “simple” client suddenly reveals international ties.
Learning Objectives:
- Evaluate cross-border client scenarios by identifying key residency, domicile, tax, legal, and regulatory considerations that influence financial planning recommendations.
- Apply a structured framework to assess complex cross-border planning needs, including investment strategies, retirement assets, and ongoing compliance obligations.
- Demonstrate effective coordination strategies with tax, legal, and other professional partners across jurisdictions to develop and implement comprehensive cross-border financial planning solutions.
Break
Systematizing Cross-Border Complexity: Building a Repeatable Process
Speaker: Brian Wruk, President, Transition Financial Advisors Group
Cross-border client work often feels bespoke and ad hoc, which can limit capacity, profitability, and consistency of advice. This session focuses on how to translate complex international planning work into a repeatable, scalable process that your whole team can follow.
We will explore practical tools for standardizing intake and fact finding, building checklists and workflows for common international scenarios, and integrating specialist partners without losing control of the client experience. Attendees will leave with a framework for documenting and refining their own “playbook” so that international cases become an intentional part of the business model rather than one off exceptions.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop a standardized framework for managing cross-border financial planning engagements using consistent intake, fact-finding, and workflow processes.
- Implement practical tools, including checklists and documented procedures, to improve the efficiency, consistency, and scalability of international client engagements.
- Evaluate strategies for integrating tax, legal, and other specialist partners into the planning process while maintaining a seamless client experience and supporting a sustainable cross-border business model.
The Growing Role of Residency and Citizenship in Modern Financial Planning
Speakers: João Pacheco Gonçalves, Head of Institutional Client Relations, Global Citizen Solutions;
Mehdi El Kadiri, President, Global Citizen Solutions
Residency and citizenship planning is becoming an increasingly relevant consideration for internationally mobile and globally minded clients. This session explores why clients are considering these strategies, the most common options and typical investment levels, and the key listening cues that can help financial planners recognize when residency or citizenship planning may be relevant to a client’s broader financial plan.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify key reasons clients pursue residency or citizenship planning.
- Recognize common residency and citizenship options and typical investment levels.
- Identify client cues that may signal a need for residency or citizenship planning.
Global Portfolios for Global Lives
Speaker: Jamie Vrijhof, Managing Partner, WHVP
Traditional portfolio construction often assumes a single home country, a single tax regime, and a static life path, which breaks down quickly for globally mobile clients. This session explores how to design and manage portfolios for individuals and families who live, work, and retire across borders, with particular focus on currency risk, and jurisdictional constraints.
We will discuss practical ways to align asset location and product selection with cross border realities, manage multi currency cash flows, and navigate issues such as PFICs, fund reporting differences, and local product biases. Attendees will leave with a more robust framework for building evidence based, globally coordinated portfolios that can adapt as a client’s residency, family, and career evolve over time.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the unique portfolio construction challenges faced by globally mobile clients, including currency risk, tax implications, and jurisdiction-specific investment constraints.
- Apply strategies for optimizing asset location, product selection, and multi-currency cash flow management to improve tax efficiency and support cross-border financial planning objectives.
- Evaluate investment solutions for cross-border clients by assessing considerations such as PFIC rules, fund reporting requirements, and changing residency to build adaptable, evidence-based global portfolios.
Closing Remarks
Session Topics
Critique custodians handling global assets and other investments.
Analyze your client's global financial situation to plan for that time of year.
Learn how to help clients set goals and plan for transitions globally.
Learn about stable and dependable global sources of retirement income.
Cover clients across borders to ensure generational wealth.
Know what holdings to maintain after your client leaves the workforce.
Navigate complex immigration issues for businesses and individuals.
Optimize workflows dealing in the currency of other countries.
Evaluate risks and learn which global coverage mitigates those risks.
Check out the best moments from past events
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