In an environment of growing global mobility of many families and heightened regulatory and compliance pressures, many U.S. estate planning advisors are encountering international issues for their clients with increasing frequency. For example, U.S. clients may marry non-U.S. citizen spouses, move overseas, invest in foreign real estate or companies, inherit from foreign persons, set up accounts in other jurisdictions, to name a few. Foreign clients may have children who come to the U.S. for school and then decide to stay, invest in U.S. property, open accounts in the U.S., make gifts to U.S. beneficiaries, etc. Advisors to these clients must understand the applicable rules in order to offer proper counsel.
Reprinted from the October 2017 issue of ALI CLE’s Estate Planning Course Materials Journal.