All cultures have their share of proverbs, truisms and sayings that have become ingrained into our lives. They are so fundamental that they are part of our wiring or mapping as people. In my experience there are five situations that seem to present themselves regularly. You will find them below. It is also my experience that the people who find themselves in these situations and the often negative effects that accompany these situations in a cross-border financial planning context, never really doubted the wisdom or assumption they made.
I have listed my musings below. Please add your comments and/or experiences. Are there situations that are more common or is there a common belief/saying/proverb that better explains the genesis of the situation?
- Dual citizens of countries that include the USA who believe that transactions and plans that are put into effect in one country does not affect their plan in the other country; that their matters in each country are mutual exclusive of one another; What happens in x, stays in x
- The rule of keeping one foot in the door. “I don’t know what to do, so I will keep some assets here, after all I used to live here and I visit frequently. I don’t want “all of my eggs in the same basket” anyway. So, I have some assets in a few jurisdictions and I file a tax return from time to time… I’m hopeful that it will all wash in the end” ---
- This is closely related to 2, above, so it doesn’t get its own number. I also don’t have a proverb or common wisdom other than “have a backup plan”. Result is that the person maintains residency either through the failure to file final tax return in home country or doesn’t completely deal with the US Green card. Questions that needle the person in this situation: What if this new position doesn’t work out? Maybe we’ll split up some day? I might just want to come back some day…
- What’s good for the gander is good for the goose or my friends told me about a strategy that worked well for them…
- Take action first, think about it later – the opposite of “measure twice, cut once”—action speaks louder than words
- Assumption that the laws governing investment, taxation and immigration are similar between countries. The change in the look of the commercial landscape of many countries to include familiar multinational companies and franchises as well as similarities to common language a cultures amongst regions of the world may contribute and the increase of information from the world wide web could be three reasons for an increasing comfort felt by many people to extend their lives or see their family extend. However, this increased comfort also seems to bring an unfortunate by-product: the assumption that this increased visual similarity or recognition of symbols of similarity somehow translates to an actual similarity between jurisdictions in the areas of asset transfer, investment, residency and social systems.
