Creveling & Creveling protects its clients’ privacy. The following is a fictitious example designed to demonstrate the type of financial decision-making required to achieve financial security and does not refer to any specific case. The Situation John is a single American expatriate, age 45, living and working in Bangkok. Until recently, he has not been in a position to save and has accumulated only $100,000 for future financial goals such as retirement. Now that he...
Expatriate executives working for multinational corporations frequently receive part of their compensation in the form of long-term incentive (LTI) awards linked to their employer’s stock. Often, the expat executive has a choice of receiving restricted stock units (RSUs), nonqualified stock options (NQSOs), or a combination of the two. If you’re an expat executive being offered RSUs or NQSOs, you’ll want to think carefully before making your choice. Your decision to receive your LTI award as...
Many expatriates require some form of life insurance, especially those with either family members or other financial obligations that could outlive them. However, sorting through the countless options to determine the best policy for your situation can be time-consuming, and calculating the correct amount of insurance to purchase can be tricky. Insurance is a complex product, and many people don’t fully understand what they are buying or even if what they bought really meets their...
Creveling & Creveling protects its clients' privacy. The following case study outlines a fictitious example designed to demonstrate the type of financial decision-making required to achieve financial security. It does not refer to any specific case. The Situation To help invest for their retirement, Bill and Emily are considering using their cash savings to purchase a new condo in the Asian city where they live, and then renting it out to other expatriates. Purchasing the...
If you’re an expat who has been abroad for any length of time, you’re no doubt familiar with the various insurance-linked investment schemes (or unit-linked life assurance plans) peddled relentlessly in the offshore markets. We’ve been analyzing these products for years and have written about their pitfalls . The products have evolved over time, however, and unfortunately e xpats continue to get caught up in their aggressive marketing . For an update on what’s being...
This article is for general information purposes only and is not intended as specific tax advice. Please consult your tax advisor for advice relevant to your situation. As 1099 forms from U.S. banks and brokerages start to roll in, many Americans living overseas are collecting the various documents needed to file their 2016 U.S. taxes. Since there's a number of sometimes obscure U.S. tax forms that U.S. citizens living overseas are required to file, we've...
If you have lived in Asia for a while, chances are good that either you or someone you know has been offered the chance to purchase a life insurance savings scheme. Sold by independent financial advisors, armies of commissioned insurance agents, bank branches, and other financial institutions, insurance-linked savings and investment schemes seem like the Herbalife of finance. Many local insurance products are heavily marketed by “agents” of varying degrees of training and professionalism who...
This article originally appeared in the February 2017 International Investment magazine under the title “Taxes Your American Clients Need to Know About Before Investing Offshore” and has been shared with permission. With the advent of the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), most offshore financial intermediaries and expat Americans at last realise, if they didn’t before, that trying to avoid US tax by investing offshore doesn’t work. These days, American citizens and Green Card...
Does it make sense for expatriates to prepay a mortgage loan? With very low mortgage rates in many parts of the world, along with plenty of opportunities for refinancing, this may seem like a strange question. For expats, however, the answer depends on the circumstances. Expats tend to live and own properties all over the world, and not all markets offer the ultra-low rates currently found in developed countries such as the U.S. In Thailand...
One of the more confusing issues for many expats residing overseas is managing their currency exposure. If you're an American working in Vietnam and plan to retire in Thailand, should you be investing in the U.S. dollar (USD), the Vietnamese dong (VND), or the Thai baht (THB), or does it matter? Compounding the problem, many expats don't know what their actual currency exposure really is. Is it the currency stated on your brokerage statement, the...
Someone once said that nothing in life is free, and that definitely applies to investment advice. You may not realize it, and it may not be transparent, but when expats receive third-party investment advice they pay for it in one way or the other. Unfortunately, a bewildering array of packaging and clever marketing efforts can disguise the issue and make it difficult to tell just how much and exactly what the true costs are. To...
This article originally appeared in the American Chamber of Commerce of Thailand (AMCHAM)’s T-AB Magazine 5/2016 and has been shared with permission. For many employed expats in Thailand, Thai Long-Term Equity Funds (LTFs) and Retirement Mutual Funds (RMFs) can provide worthwhile Thai tax benefits. This article discusses the merits of both types of investments, and highlights an important 2016 change to the LTF holding period. For a period of time U.S. citizens were unable to...