IRAs & 401(k)s for Americans abroad
Make every retirement account do a specific job.
We coordinate IRAs, 401(k)s and taxable accounts around retirement income, tax-aware asset location and the life you expect to fund while living abroad.
Discuss Your Retirement AccountsRetirement income engineering
Match future spending to future cash flows.
Where appropriate, we build ladders of high-quality bonds whose maturities line up with planned withdrawals. The aim is to fund known obligations without being forced to sell growth assets after a bad market year.
The ladder is illustrative. Security selection, maturity schedule and the share of assets committed to income matching depend on the client’s spending plan, risk capacity, tax position and available accounts.
Asset location
The account wrapper is part of the investment decision.
Holding the same portfolio in every account can waste the tax characteristics you already have. We use taxable, tax-deferred and tax-free accounts as different parts of one household portfolio.
Taxable
Tax-efficient growth & accessible liquidity
Often the home for tax-efficient ETFs, direct indexing and assets that may need to fund near-term spending. Tax-loss harvesting can also be useful where the wash-sale and other tax rules are properly managed.
Tax-deferred
Shelter assets with less favorable current tax treatment
Traditional IRAs and 401(k)s can be useful locations for bonds and other strategies whose current income would otherwise be taxed less favorably, subject to the client’s withdrawal and tax profile.
Tax-free / Roth
Preserve tax-free compounding where it matters most
Where suitable, Roth assets can be reserved for investments with greater expected growth or a long time horizon. The optimal placement depends on tax rates, estate goals and the rest of the portfolio.
Asset location is tax-sensitive and client-specific. We coordinate with the client’s U.S. tax adviser where the placement or withdrawal strategy has material tax consequences.
For founders & independent earners
Sometimes the best retirement account is the one that has not been built yet.
For an eligible owner-only business or self-employed client, a one-participant 401(k)—often called a Solo 401(k)—can create a useful U.S. retirement structure while living internationally.
What we help coordinate
Whether the business and employment situation fits the one-participant plan rules.
Contribution design, investment policy and coordination with existing employer plans and other retirement accounts.
Set-up with the appropriate provider and coordination with the client’s accountant or U.S. tax preparer.
Keep, roll or consolidate?
The rollover is a decision, not the objective.
An existing 401(k) can be perfectly good. An IRA can create more control. Consolidation can simplify the household portfolio. We compare the current plan with the proposed destination before moving anything.
Retain plan features, institutional pricing or investments that are worth preserving.
Move when an IRA meaningfully improves control, investment choice, servicing or integration with the wider plan.
Simplify where several old plans are making asset allocation, beneficiary planning or retirement withdrawals harder than they need to be.