You should absolutely keep your US bank, brokerage, investment, IRA, or retirement account when you move overseas.
Opening financial accounts abroad exposes you to additional risks and a lot of reporting. This is paperwork not only for your tax return, but you may need to complete the FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report). The FBAR is not exclusive to just bank accounts, but also applies to life insurance policies with a savings component, mutual funds, brokerage accounts, etc.
Assuming you're not a retiree, your tax return will be much more subject to scrutiny if you have a lot of assets abroad. With FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), the US government will have access to foreign bank account balance and income information of US citizens living abroad.
Therefore, working expats are now much more on the radar screen than they were before. There are also reporting requirements. Given the fact that the Treasury Department and the IRS now have more access and could get greater information on a foreign bank account than they do a US bank account, in some respects, expats need to file their tax returns even more accurately.
For example, I have a client who stayed in Mexico who forgot about US $15 worth of interest income on a bank. He got a letter from the US government saying that he forgot to report that $15, which is amazing. Gone are the days when people actually had to look at papers. Now, the computers are doing all the reconciliation.
Foreign banks and foreign financial institutions are sending account information to the US Treasury Department. They are now able to reconcile that with the tax return and the FBAR. Expats filing their income tax returns must be much more accurate.
There are all kinds of risks of investing abroad such as country risks, political risks, and "know-how" risks. You may be subjected to scams. You can easily invest in foreign markets through US accounts. I would do this.
Leave accounts in the local country for liquidity purposes. For example, I would need funds in a bank account to keep a small amount in the money market or a CD (certificate of deposit) because I need an account to earn interest while I spend the money down.
For the most part, I would maintain most of my assets in the US.
I have a client who has been living in Guatemala for a long time. She has let go of all connections in the US, including her US bank accounts. The US has the PATRIOT Act. She has severed her ties to the US completely, not just for residence purposes, but also for financial account purposes. Now that she wanted to open a US bank account for another reason, she is having a ton of difficulty even though she is a US citizen because there is no recent record of her.
Flooding and earthquakes never happen here in the Yucatan Peninsula. The only disasters that we can get are hurricanes, and these vary in the damage they do based on where in the Yucatan Peninsula one is located. The state of Quintana Roo (which includes Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, etc., which is also called the “Riviera Maya) faces the Caribbean, while the state of Yucatan (which contains the inland city of Merida and several beach communities) faces the Gulf of Mexico.
Rent in Cayo starts at US $500 a month for a small two-bedroom home. For $1,000 you could rent a bigger two or even three bedroom home with two bathrooms. In most cases, the homes that are for rent here are partially furnished. A three or four-bedroom house could easily cost around $1,200 or more. On average, if you have $500 to $1,000 and you are not too discerning, you can rent a very decent home here in Cayo. But of course do not expect anything fancy. The home will not have the most....jpg)
The golf in and around Algarve is a hole in one! It’s not per chance that the Algarve has been voted the best European Golf Destination several times by the World Travel Association. If my memory serves me right, I think the Algarve has been voted The World’s Best Golf Destination on more than one occasion. .jpg)
Two bodies of water surround most of the peninsula of Baja California. On the eastern side is the Sea of Cortez (also known as the Gulf of California), while the western side faces the more familiar Pacific Ocean. These watery expanses merge at what looks like the large, natural arch you've seen pictures of at Baja’s southern tip, Cabo San Lucas, about 750 miles roughly south of the US-Mexican border. At its widest, the peninsula measures about 85 miles from side....jpg)
be asked to attend the AARP conference in Boston, MA just this past week, May 7th.