“Welcome to Rethink Expats, where global life meets financial reality. I’m Janice Diaz, joined by Robert Rigby Hall. Together, we unpack what it really takes to build wealth, structure, and sanity across borders.

From tax traps to relocation myths, we bring you stories and strategies that cut through the noise of expat life. Disclaimer, Rethink Expats is an educational program. It does not provide investment, tax, or legal advice.

Listeners should consult licensed professionals before making financial decisions. Opinions are our own, based on experience in the global financial industry. Let’s get started.

Hi, Robert. I’m excited that after a decade of working together, producing financial education for Americans abroad, living the expat life, we are bringing our conversations to life here.

Hey Janice, well, it’s great to be back talking about Rethinking Expats and what expats could be doing when they think about moving overseas. And this really is some of the foundational things to be thinking about. And there’s a lot in the press right now, lots of coverage about Americans thinking about moving overseas, particularly places like Spain, like Portugal, like Costa Rica.”

“And I think the stats from the US State Department said that there’s over 9 million Americans living abroad, which is a huge number. And it’s worth thinking about, so what does it take to move overseas? And in particular, what do Americans need to think about when they start planning for that move from a financial perspective?

So let’s start with just in general, thoughts about moving overseas. What are your thoughts on that?

So from my own experience moving overseas, I think that now there’s an insistence of how do we do it? How do we do it? You know, there’s a lot of movement of we want to move overseas, and you’re here every day, people are moving to all those places that you mentioned.

But when I was moving over about 10 years ago, I just moved over. I didn’t even wonder about taxes. I didn’t wonder anything.”

“Now, granted, I was single, and maybe that’s why I thought it didn’t matter, but it matters to all of us. And I think that what they’re looking to understand now, those people who are actually becoming expats, is how do we do this? And how do we make sure that we’re not making mistakes?

And how do we make sure that we understand what to look out for? Like the Pfic, you know, things that only until I was doing financial education did I start really educating myself on what that was. But you know, what a nightmare even something like that can be, you know, talking to an accountant who doesn’t understand, and you have to file taxes, you have to do so many things.

So I think people are really looking to be more prepared now and to understand what living abroad really looks like.

That’s a great point. And interestingly, differently for me, when I first moved overseas, what, 15 or so years ago, more than that, I did it with a company. So I had the benefit of being given that tax advice, that financial advisor.”

“And now I reflect back on if I’d had to do it myself, some of the challenges of doing that would have been pretty substantial. And there’s a lot of misbeliefs, I think. Okay, they’re fine.

I can just leave them alone. Don’t worry about that. It’ll just sit there.

But we know there’s penalties for early withdrawals. There’s required minimum distributions. There’s a lot of tax confusion.

And again, I think I saw a stat that said there was like $1.3, $1.4 trillion in abandoned F&Ks where people had just forgotten about it. And it seems like there’s a large number of expats that either move and leave F&K or even don’t think about what they need to do for retirement planning. And you and I have talked about this a lot in the past.

The banks have increasingly started scrutinizing accounts for Americans living overseas and for US-connected people living overseas. And they started monitoring IP addresses. They’ve started monitoring phone numbers that people call in from.”

“And we’ve known professionally that they’ve started closing down those accounts. And I certainly got a number of personal friends who’ve had those accounts closed down. So that’s creating a real challenge when we look at how people can best plan for their financial stability while they’re overseas or if they’re permanently overseas.

And then if I think about the politics, Janice, what are your thoughts around changing tax laws, the evolution of what’s going on in the US and how it impacts people living in Ash Valley?

So I think that there’s a hot political environment, but being an expat, I’m in the line frame that I have to pay attention to everything US no matter where I am because I’m a US citizen. And so I don’t really stop thinking about taxes ever. I have to follow what it’s looking like.

But at the end of the day, I’ve accepted that I have to maintain good status with the United States because I’m an American expat. But living outside of that, then, you know, I like I’m in Italy right now. So what does that look like in Italy?”

“What are those tax situations look like? And you see so many things online and you know, you try to understand, you go to people, they don’t know certain things from the US. US people don’t know things from Italy.

And then quickly you understand that you have to have almost like an entourage of consultants who have to really help you understand what those situations are. All we know is that we watch TV and we see things going up and down. But at the heart of it, we’re American, right?

Unless you’re giving up your citizenship and moving along, everything in America affects you no matter how long you’ve been outside.

Yeah, and certainly when I talk to expats, there’s a sense that what happens in the US and the sort of political shifts does negatively affect their financial life because it creates a level of uncertainty. And, you know, those political shifts, whether they’re tax treaties or as we’re now seeing in the US., a lot of movement, a lot of discussion, a lot of changes to tariffs.”

“But there’s also things like foreign bank account rules. And we saw Fatca come in many years ago now, which led to a lot of bank account closures. And you’re right, having to follow US tax laws means that no matter what happens, if it’s something occurring in the US.,

it’s inevitably going to have a knock-on effect to you as an expat living somewhere else, which I think is a great point and leads really well to the sort of trigger points for needing to seek advice. And I’d love to hear your thoughts around how you vet a cross-border advisor when it comes to finances. Seventy-two percent of Americans abroad don’t have a financial advisor, according to CNBC and their Global Wealth Survey.”