In the aftermath of the global financial crisis many investors have begun to reassess their finances and seek out more objective and honest advice.  As a result, investors are taking their money and migrating away from the traditional Wall Street brokerage houses in favor of independent investment advisors. 

But how does one go about finding the right advisor for their unique circumstances?  Today’s Wall Stree Journal featured an article which discusses how to choose the right advisor for you.  You can read it here.

   

We advise our clients to maintain their US credit cards while living abroad, as it is difficult, if not impossible, to get a new US card issued to a foreign address.  This blog post by ReloJournal.com speaks to the other side of this matter; maintaining your US credit.  Good credit takes time to establish and must be used properly in order to be maintained.  Reestablishing credit is difficult and time consuming, so repatriating without a US credit history can make life difficult.

Read more about maintaining your US credit here: http://tinyurl.com/mjxh9m

   

The US and Switzerland have agreed to new tax information sharing standards  in another bold step forward by the US government in their quest to find and penalize US citizens hiding assets in secret offshore accounts.  Read more here.

   

All US persons having an interest or authority over a foreign bank or financial account must file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with the IRS each year.  

Treasury Form TD F 90-22.1 must be received by the IRS - not just postmarked - by June 30th, 2009, in order to be considered on time.  Any foreign account which had a value greater than $10,000 at any point during the calendar year must be reported. 

Read more details and find out about recent changes to filing requirements here.

   

We have recently posted a new article to our online Knowledge Library entitled, “The World of Estate Planning for US Expatriates” by R. Scott Jones, Esq. 

This is the most comprehensive article on estate planning for expats that we’ve ever come across.  Thanks to our friend, R. Scott Jones,  an attorney practicing in the area of individual international taxation, and a founding partner of Goldstein Jones LLP in New York, for sharing it with us.

   

We thought the following article from the Wall Street Journal had a lot of terrific information for small investors on how they should evaluate their current and prospective financial advisors.  We believe strongly that small investors deserve an advisor who acts as a true fiduciary…keeping the clients’ best interests first.  Due the pervasive “sales culture” of Wall Street, this kind of financial advisor is rather hard to find.

Taking Control

Small investors have been whipsawed by the market turmoil. But there are some simple steps they can take to better protect themselves.

   

The IRS is preparing to subpoena more offshore banks in an attempt to uncover the names of US citizens that are hiding assets in foreign banks.  This comes on the tail of the US government’s ongoing case against UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank, that now admits that it helped American clients conceal assets from the US government.  Read more here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090427/bs_nm/us_tax_usa_irs_1

   

We are happy to see news that the IRS is working to facilitate the movement of assets which were formally hidden offshore back into compliance.  There is no reason for the U.S. Treasury not to work with these families…many of whom have been manipulated themselves by unscrupulous offshore investment salespeople.

IRS extends hand to offshore account owners
Penalties reduced, criminal prosecution unlikely for those who come clean

The IRS on Thursday offered taxpayers with offshore accounts a big carrot to fess up: Sharply reduced penalties, plus a reminder that criminal penalties are highly unlikely for people who come clean to the tax agency within the next six months.

MarketWatch 3-26-2009

   

We have been warning anyone who will listen for years that the business model of offshore private banks, brazenly pedaling secrecy and tax avoidance under a vail of exclusivity and elitism, was coming to an end.  The recent chain of events, which began with the German government’s deal to purchase the client list of LGT in Liechtenstein from a disgruntled former employee, has really been inevitable.  This business model is finished.

Of course we couldn’t be happier with these developments, given that our primary purpose is to advise wealthy international families who’s goal is to managed their investment assets in as efficient a way possible while staying in full communication and compliance with the IRS and international tax authorities.

See the article in Spiegel Online at:  Tax Havens Give In to EU Pressure

   

Expatwomen.com, a popular website for women expatriates, has added several articles from Maxim’s online Knowledge Library to the Money Matters section of their site. 

They have also featured our newest article, 5 Financial Steps to Take Before Moving Abroad, on their March homepage and Newsletter.