A three-phase process - built around your life.
Financial planning for expats isn't a one-time event. It's an ongoing process that evolves as your circumstances, the tax landscape, and the regulatory environment change. Our three-phase model keeps your plan current.
Creating Your Plan
We begin with a thorough 360° analysis of your complete financial picture - across both tax systems, your investment portfolio, estate exposure, and life goals. Six dedicated 90-minute planning sessions form the foundation.
Implementing Your Plan
Once your plan is complete, we move into action — opening accounts, executing strategy, and coordinating with the specialists your situation requires. Portfolio management is available as an optional add-on for full execution support.
Monitoring Your Plan
Financial planning is not a set-it-and-forget-it process. Life changes, tax laws evolve, and regulations shift. We maintain ongoing contact — adjusting your plan so it stays aligned with where you are.
Built specifically for Americans abroad.
Every financial plan we deliver is built with cross-border complexity as the starting point -
not an afterthought.
Tax treaty analysis
All applicable tax treaties between the US and your country of residence, linked directly to your financial picture.
Foreign tax expertise
Deep knowledge of IRS forms, international deadlines, FATCA, FBAR, and PFIC reporting requirements.
Global investment awareness
MIFID II-aware portfolio strategy that accounts for what US citizens in the EU can and cannot hold.
Fiduciary standard
Every recommendation is legally bound to serve your interest - not commissions, not product sales, not third parties.
How our service actually works.
Questions about timeline, process, who we work with, and what coordination across three disciplines looks like in practice. Ask us directly.
Do I need to be living in Spain already to work with you?
Many clients engage us 6–18 months before their planned move, which is often the most valuable point to intervene. Pre-move decisions — residency timing relative to the US tax year, Roth IRA conversion strategy, state tax exit planning, retirement account restructuring away from PFIC-exposed positions — are significantly more tax-efficient when addressed before you become a Spanish tax resident. See our cross-border optimisation page for what pre-move planning covers.
How do financial planning, tax prep, and investment management actually connect?
For American expats the three disciplines are tightly interdependent: your investment allocation affects how much foreign passive income you declare in Spain; your Roth conversion amount affects your IRPF bracket; your estate plan has different succession tax implications under Spanish and US law. We coordinate all three inside a single engagement — which is how you avoid the most common expat problem of receiving good advice from two separate advisors that conflicts when combined.
How often do we meet, and what happens in those meetings?
Ongoing clients (Sailor and Settler packages) meet quarterly by default, with additional meetings triggered by life events — a property purchase, inheritance, job change, change in residency status, or a new Spanish tax law. The quarterly session is not a portfolio performance call; it is a structured planning meeting against your financial plan, updated for anything that has changed in your life, the tax code, or your goals. You receive a written summary of agreed actions after each meeting.
Can CBWA help if I have years of unfiled US tax returns or unreported foreign accounts?
Coming into compliance is one of the most common first steps for new clients. The IRS Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures allow expats with non-willful non-compliance to file three years of amended Form 1040 returns and six years of FBARs (FinCEN 114) without the standard failure-to-file or FBAR penalties. Victor Gersten's Enrolled Agent credentials give him full representation rights before the IRS throughout this process. Contact us to discuss your situation confidentially before deciding how to proceed.
What kinds of clients does CBWA work best with?
Our best-fit client is a US citizen or green card holder who is living in Spain or planning to move there, with meaningful financial complexity — significant US retirement assets, self-employment income, a property transaction, or investment portfolios that need restructuring away from PFIC exposure. We work with both working-age professionals and retirees. We are not the right fit for clients seeking purely US-based investment management without cross-border tax coordination, or those with no connection to Spain.
Is there a minimum asset size required to work with CBWA?
The Sailor package has a minimum annual fee of $6,000 per household and no stated asset minimum. The Settler package, which includes discretionary portfolio management, has a $10,000 annual minimum fee — which at 1% AUM implies approximately $1M in managed assets to reach the minimum organically. We do not enforce a rigid asset threshold because some clients with modest portfolios have highly complex cross-border tax situations that justify the engagement. See our pricing page for the full fee structure and package comparison.