Welcome to the Swiss American Wealth Advisors Financial Education Video Library! This is a free educational resource designed to help individuals and families with US and Swiss ties understand how to navigate their US/Swiss crossborder financial planning needs. What is US/Swiss crossborder financial planning? If you are an individual or family with US and Swiss financial ties, either because you are Swiss living in or relocating to the USA, American living in or relocating to Switzerland, the owner
Investments
Buying a home in Switzerland? Understand these key five issues first
Owning your own home can be very rewarding as ownership gives you a sense of security and pride, allows you to customize your home to your liking (of course within limits in Switzerland) and to build equity and benefit from future home price appreciation. But homeownership in Switzerland also carries some risks and comes with potentially unexpected challenges, especially if you are a US citizen or green card holder. The
Do you Have a Foreign Pension? It May be Invested in PFICs
In our blog post IRS Tax Relief for U.S. Taxpayers with Certain Foreign Pensions I wrote: Before anyone goes rushing into investing in a Pillar 3 or other individual foreign pensions, though, one final comment about PFICs. Swiss ETFs or mutual funds, and other foreign investment funds that are the typical investment vehicles used in foreign individual retirement accounts, are generally classified as PFICs for US tax purposes. PFICs are
Why Does ESG Investing Matter? One Advisor’s Journey
This year, ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) strategies have outperformed traditional portfolios. This is partially attributed to the outperformance of technology and the underperformance of the commodities sector during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Within different business sectors, companies have emerged as ESG leaders for having made strides to better understand the sustainability of their business models. These companies were likely better prepared to cope with the pandemic by incorporating ESG