Expat Tax Tips: 8 Secrets to Managing Your Financial World Across Two Continents

By: Nick Hodges Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Whether you are a long-time American Expatriate overseas or one just beginning your multi-continental adventures, you need to find a way to organize and focus your financial world on a global basis. Packaging up all your personal and financial information and carrying it with you is not always the best solution. What if something happens to you? What if something happens at home? Is there a solution that can bridge your global circumstances?

I think there is. With the development of new technologies and higher levels of digital security, there are services available that will help you gather all your financial information and critical personal information in one place. The most convenient method for storing and accessing your critical information across multiple continents is via the Internet, on a secure server and technology platform. Here's what you should look for:

1. All your information should be stored and accessed through SSL 128-bit encryption, which to-date, has never been cracked. It is the most secure information storage available today - even more secure than your paper folder at home.

2. The application servers and the database storage servers should have additional internal, intranet firewalls between them with 24/7 intruder monitoring on all systems.

3. Actual physical access to the servers and systems should require multiple levels of authentication - including biometrics (fingerprint recognition.)

4. Access via the Internet to your information should be READ-ONLY, or non-transactionable. No one should be able to make monetary transfers or request changes to your accounts. Transfers or changes should only be implemented directly with the carrier.

5. Look for a platform that will automatically update your account values each night. You want this service to be able to connect with hundreds of financial institutions, on accounts held with a variety of vendors or advisors.

6. Make sure your information can be securely shared with your multiple advisors, allowing each of them to see only the information you want them to see.

7. AND it should include secure, backed-up storage space for your digital files. I like to call this a Vault, where you can securely store digitized copies of your most important documents, like passports, drivers' licenses, insurance policies, mortgage documentation and legal documents.

8. However you decide to manage your financial information, make sure you add to it the valuable services of a knowledgeable financial professional you can trust to understand your entire financial picture. The best information organization system is no substitute for good advice when and where you need it.

Gone are the days when all your information could be conveniently and securely stored in a safe-deposit box at your local bank. Your global lifestyle requires a new solution, one that focuses and organizes your entire financial world. This new box is a virtual one, securely connecting you with your information, your accounts and your advisors. It has been my experience in helping families pick up the pieces after a death or disaster that they would have much preferred having "risked" keeping all their information in one secure place if they had just known of one. Instead, families usually go through a great deal of personal pain and confusion trying to put all the pieces together during what is usually a very difficult emotional time.

For those folks who are genuinely concerned about the security of storing their identity and financial information online, I would recommend they additionally consider implementing Life Lock. For about $120 per year, they will block unauthorized use of your information and guarantee up to $1,000,000 in damages if unauthorized use is reported in the first 30 days it happens.

In the end, we each need to make our own decisions about how we will handle our personal and financial information. We each have to weigh the security considerations against the difficulties associated with our living on multiple continents and what might happen to our finances and families in the event of a personal tragedy or disaster.

Copyright (c) 2009 Nick Hodges

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Nick Hodges, President of NCH Wealth Advisors, provides US expatriates with the best tools, strategies and planning techniques to help expats manage their tax and financial goals and dreams on a day-to-day basis regardless of their location. To claim your free gift, ExPat Life Portfolio Kit, visit his site at =======> ExPatCFO.com