p>Andrew Fisher
The Cross-Border Family Wealth Guide
Copyright © 2017 by Andrew Fisher. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Fisher, Andrew, 1971– author.
Title: The cross-border family wealth guide: advice on taxes, investing, real estate, and retirement for global families in the U.S. and abroad / Andrew Fisher.
Description: Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2017] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016039868 | ISBN 9781119234272 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781119234296 (ePDF) | ISBN 9781119234289 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Americans – Foreign countries – Finance, Personal. | Aliens – United States – Finance, Personal. | Families – Finance, Personal. | Estate planning. | Wealth – Management. | International finance.
Classification: LCC HG179 .F53378 2017 | DDC 332.0240089/13 – dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016039868
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: © Ian McKinnell/Getty Images, Inc.
Foreword
Tim Kochis JD, MBA, CFP®
For well over 40 years, I have had the great professional gratification of helping clients to optimize the achievement of their personal financial goals. The first third of that time was focused nearly entirely in the United States, and for clients with virtually no tax or investment or financial issues that extended beyond the U.S. border. Times, of course, have changed dramatically. Business, capital flows, and, importantly, human talent are increasingly globalized. Our clothes, our cars, our food, our neighbors, even our spouses and partners, often come from some other country; the same is true for residents of Italy, or Malaysia, or Chile. But, awareness of related financial issues and the optimization of financial consequences for those whose lives cross-national boundaries hasn't kept pace. In recent decades, I've been privileged to be a small part of a large effort to develop a global profession of personal financial planners, under the certification rubric of the CFP® mark. The number of these professionals and those on a pathway to this certification around the world now exceed well over 200,000. But this is a still tiny response to the immense global need – and, sadly, almost none of these have genuine competency to practice outside of their own country's laws and domestic financial structures. There remains a huge challenge and lots of room for further professional development ahead. Perhaps ironically, due to its size, prominence, and highly unusual and exceptionally complex tax laws, the biggest part of that challenge exists in, and because of, the United States.
So, here, finally, is a book that speaks to this most underserved set of personal financial planning issues! Andrew Fisher's Cross-Border Family Wealth Guide comes to the rescue of those many (perhaps 30 to 40 million people around the world, with 20 to 25 million of them in the United States) who may not even realize that they need to grapple with tax, financial, and investment requirements and opportunities that are extraordinarily complex and often surprising, where mistakes are usually costly, and for which there is, today, almost no competent, comprehensive assistance readily available. This guide sets out an easy-to-grasp understanding of how to recognize the unique problems faced by non-U.S. persons with any financial connection to the United States (residence, job, inheritance, property, etc.) and by U.S. citizens with any parallel connection (residence, job, inheritance, property, etc.) outside the United States. But more than just entering into this sometimes nightmarish terrain, The Cross-Border Family Wealth Guide reveals proven pathways out.
Fisher is quick to acknowledge that he doesn't have all the answers; but then, no one person does – and there are very few who are even somewhat conversant with some of them. That is one of the core problems this book attempts to solve. Fisher shares decades of experience of practical solutions to very common issues and some that are uniquely challenging. And, he points the reader in the direction of more in-depth assistance where more specialized resources are required. For the many individuals and their families in need of this guidance, none of their issues are “common.” For each of them, the problem of navigating these challenges is direct, unique, and very often urgent. For many, this book will provide the complete answer; for others, it will permit a better-informed, more self-confident use of the additional advice that might be required.
The Cross-Border Family Wealth Guide makes an important contribution to the achievement of better financial outcomes for potentially very many people. The author's combination of talent and specialized experience is quite rare, but there is no attempt to self-promote or self-aggrandize here. Andrew Fisher's book reflects a genuine commitment to help.
Preface
The goal of this book is simple: to
