Portfolio reviews for internationally mobile clients

Published 19 October 2026 by Borderfolio

More clients now hold US funds through a European broker, live in the Gulf and plan to retire somewhere else again. Their portfolios raise questions that a domestic review never asks. This is how Borderfolio for Advisors sets those questions out, and where its model stops. It is decision support for a professional conversation, not tax or legal advice.

Fund domicile, read from the ISIN

Where a fund is domiciled decides how its income is taxed before it reaches the client. The domicile is read from the fund's ISIN, not guessed from the exchange it trades on. An Irish fund listed in London is Irish. Allocation by domicile is part of every consolidated view and every review.

US dividend withholding

Dividends from US sources are taxed at source. For a client with a W-8BEN on file, the rate is the treaty rate of their country of residence. Without one, the statutory 30% applies. The screen projects the year's US-source dividends from trailing distributions and estimates what is withheld.

In an illustrative case, a client resident in the United Arab Emirates has projected US-source dividends of 1,305 USD. At the 15% treaty rate, about 196 USD is withheld. About 98 USD of that comes from holding the US-domiciled fund directly rather than an Irish counterpart that absorbs the withholding inside the fund. These are estimates and are labelled as such.

US-situs holdings and the estate-tax threshold

For a non-resident alien, US-situs assets above USD 60,000 can be exposed to US estate tax. The screen totals the client's US-situs holdings in USD, using ISIN domicile, current quotes and conversion to USD, and flags them as they approach the threshold. Two accounts that are each under it can be over it together, which is why the figure is consolidated per client. Estate-tax treaties are not applied, and the review says so.

US funds and their Irish UCITS counterparts

For US funds with a catalogued Irish UCITS counterpart, the review sets the two side by side: expense ratio and where withholding on US income falls. A US fund has a lower expense ratio, but the withholding falls on the investor. The Irish fund costs more per year but takes the withholding inside the fund at the treaty rate. This is a structural comparison, not a recommendation to switch. The capital-gains and trading costs of a switch are shown separately.

A planned move

When a client plans to relocate, the screen can be re-run with the second residence for comparison. A destination the model does not support is named as unsupported rather than approximated. Capital-gains treatment on relocation is outside the screen.

What is not modelled

Saying what a model leaves out is as important as the figures it produces. The review states:

• Only US-source withholding is modelled. Distributions from other source countries are reported as unmodelled.
• The client is treated as a non-resident alien for US purposes. US-person taxation is reported as not modelled.
• Estate-tax treaties are not applied.
• Capital-gains treatment on relocation is outside the screen.

Each figure in the cross-border section carries its source and assumption. The review closes with a section on data sources, assumptions and limitations, so the adviser, the client and anyone they refer to can see exactly what the numbers rest on.