A family that lives across three countries rarely plans to. It happens one decision at a time: a business in one place, schooling in another, a home where the grandparents are. By the time anyone looks at the whole picture, the holdings are spread across jurisdictions that do not talk to one another.
Start from the family, not the assets
The useful first exercise is a simple map: who lives where, who is likely to move, and which assets are tied to which place. Most structuring questions answer themselves once that map exists, because the goal is for ownership to follow the family rather than to anchor it.
Three questions for every holding
For each significant asset we ask three things. Who should benefit from it, now and later? What happens to it if the person holding it moves, marries, or dies? And who, in each country concerned, has a claim on it or a say over it? The answers reveal where a structure is needed and, just as often, where it is not.
The best structure is the simplest one that survives the next move.
Work with advisers who speak to each other
Cross-border families are usually advised by excellent people who have never met. Part of our role is to be the one point of contact who keeps the lawyer in one country and the accountant in another working on the same plan. It saves money, and it prevents the kind of contradictions that only surface at the worst moment.
Written by
Besharat Advisory, Dubai