For families allocating part of their assets overseas, or already holding assets in several countries. It covers the asset map, ways of holding assets (personally, through a company or through a trust), liquidity, currency and geopolitical risk, family and marital property, and tax and reporting.
Apart from agreed fees, we do not handle, hold or manage client funds.
01 Start with a map of the family’s assets
Cross-border planning usually begins with a review: list which country each asset is in, whose name it is held in, its currency, how quickly it can be reached when needed and the reporting obligations attached to it. Then consider family members’ tax residency and future living and education plans together, which makes it easier to see where assets are too concentrated and where gaps remain. The map also guides your family if they ever have to act for you, so keep it up to date.
02 Ways of holding: personally, through a company or through a trust
The same overseas asset can be held in different ways, each with different management, costs, reporting and succession. Which suits you depends on the type of asset, your family’s needs and the rules of the relevant jurisdictions:
In your own name
The most direct and the cheapest to manage, but the assets will usually have to go through inheritance procedures where they are located, so with assets in several countries your family may have to deal with several procedures.
Through a company
What you own becomes shares in the company, which can bring several investments under one roof; but the company has yearly maintenance costs, and CFC and other rules where the shareholders live may apply; see Tax Basics for Offshore Companies.
Through a trust
The trustee manages and distributes the assets under the trust deed and can pass them to the next generation in stages; its effect depends on the applicable law, and setting it up and maintaining it also has costs.
03 Liquidity: cash when you need it
Judge assets not only by their value but by whether they can be used when money is needed. Property, unlisted shares and investments with lock-up periods or early-exit charges are hard to turn into cash quickly. Keep enough liquid funds, in the currencies you will need, for example for children’s overseas tuition, family living costs and possible tax bills; some families also use insurance to provide cash for tax and living costs.
04 Currency and geopolitical risk
When your assets are in a different currency from your future spending, exchange-rate movements directly affect what your money can buy. Spreading currencies reduces the risk of relying on one, but brings conversion costs and fluctuations of its own.
Spreading assets across banks and jurisdictions helps reduce the concentration risk of a single place, but it cannot remove market, bank credit, political, legal or policy-change risk. Financial centres such as Hong Kong, Singapore and the US each have different regulation, banking products and account-opening requirements; compare them against your needs and eligibility rather than assuming any one place is the safest.
05 Family and marital property
Who holds an asset also decides who inherits it and how it is treated if a marriage changes. Who owns marital property is determined by the applicable law and the facts; an overseas account does not on its own create legal separation. When family members live in different countries, also check the inheritance procedures in each and whether a will can be carried out there. See Family Trusts and Legacy Planning and Marriage and Family Assets.
06 Tax and reporting
Review family members’ tax residency, sources of income, overseas assets and reporting obligations in each place, and seek legal and tax advice where needed. Cross-border transfers also involve time, fees and banks’ source-of-funds checks, and information on overseas financial accounts may be exchanged under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) with the tax authority where you are tax resident; see CRS and Cross-Border Asset Compliance.
Frequently asked questions
Do ordinary families need cross-border planning?
What matters is not the size of your assets but whether your life crosses borders: children studying overseas, family members living in different countries, foreign-currency deposits or property abroad, or work overseas. Each of these involves currencies, accounts, tax and inheritance procedures, and a simple list of assets and family needs is a good place to start.
If something happens to me, how would my family deal with my accounts overseas?
Your family would usually need to apply to each bank, providing a death certificate, proof of identity and of the family relationship, and the estate documents required locally (such as a grant of probate or letters of administration issued by a court); foreign documents may also need to be notarised, certified or translated. Procedures and timeframes vary between jurisdictions, and the accounts may not be accessible until the formalities are complete. Preparing a list of your assets in advance, and checking whether a will or other succession arrangements will work in the relevant jurisdictions, can ease the burden on your family later.
Once a plan is in place, how often should it be reviewed?
Once a year is a good habit, and again whenever the family or the law changes significantly: a marriage, divorce or remarriage, a birth or a child going abroad to study, a move to another country, the sale of a business or a major asset, or a change in tax law in a relevant jurisdiction. Update the asset map, beneficiary arrangements and reporting obligations together.
How can a professional adviser help?
Nextrate starts from the needs of each case: we help clarify your goals, list the documents required, set out feasible options and the main risks, and work with qualified legal, tax and other professionals where needed. Any bank application, tax outcome or legal effect is determined independently by the relevant institution, case by case.