Sandy Springs Estate Planning for Offshore and International Assets

If you own a foreign bank account, hold real estate abroad, or have investments in another country, your estate plan needs to address those assets directly. Many Sandy Springs residents with international ties, whether through business, family, or investment, hold assets across multiple countries. Without a plan that accounts for both U.S. and foreign law, those assets can get caught in a tangle of tax obligations, foreign probate proceedings, and reporting requirements that your heirs were never prepared to handle. Slowik Estate Planning, located in Atlanta, Georgia, works with clients who have cross-border financial lives and need a plan that reflects that reality.

Table of Contents

• Why Offshore and International Assets Require a Separate Planning Strategy
• Federal Reporting Requirements for Offshore Assets
• Estate Tax Rules for U.S. Citizens With Foreign Assets and Non-Citizen Residents
• Trusts and Structures for Managing International Assets
• Coordinating Georgia Estate Planning Documents With International Requirements
• FAQs About Sandy Springs Estate Planning for Offshore and International Assets

Why Offshore and International Assets Require a Separate Planning Strategy

Owning assets outside the United States changes your estate plan in meaningful ways. A standard Georgia will or revocable trust may do nothing to transfer a bank account in Switzerland, a rental property in Mexico, or shares in a foreign corporation. Each country has its own rules about what documents it will recognize, what taxes apply, and how an estate is administered when the owner dies.

U.S. citizens are taxed on their worldwide assets, regardless of where those assets are located. U.S. citizens are subject to U.S. estate taxation with respect to their worldwide assets, even if they are not residents of the U.S. That means a Sandy Springs resident who holds property in Germany or a brokerage account in Singapore still has to account for those assets under federal estate tax rules. Failing to plan for that exposure can leave your family with a large tax bill and no clear way to pay it.

Foreign countries often require their own separate probate or administration process. A Georgia-based plan, even a well-drafted one, may have no legal effect on property held in another jurisdiction. That means your heirs could face two or more separate legal proceedings in different countries, often in different languages, just to access what you left them. Planning ahead, with structures that are recognized across borders, is the only way to avoid that outcome.

The attorneys at Slowik Estate Planning understand that residents near Perimeter Center and along GA-400 often have international financial connections. Whether you are a corporate executive with equity compensation in foreign subsidiaries or a dual citizen with inherited property overseas, your estate plan needs to reflect the full picture of what you own.

Federal Reporting Requirements for Offshore Assets

Before you can plan around international assets, you need to understand the reporting obligations that already apply to you. The U.S. government requires American taxpayers to disclose foreign financial holdings through two separate systems, and the rules for each are different.

Per the Bank Secrecy Act, every year you must report certain foreign financial accounts, such as bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and mutual funds, to the Treasury Department. You report the accounts by filing a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) on FinCEN Form 114. A U.S. person, including a citizen, resident, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust, and estate, must file an FBAR to report a financial interest in or signature or other authority over at least one financial account located outside the United States if the aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported.

Separate from the FBAR, FATCA adds another layer of disclosure. Under FATCA, certain U.S. taxpayers holding financial assets outside the United States must report those assets to the IRS on Form 8938, Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets. If you are single or file separately from your spouse, you must submit a Form 8938 if you have more than $200,000 of specified foreign financial assets at the end of the year and you live abroad, or more than $50,000 if you live in the United States. Filing one form does not substitute for the other. Both can be required at the same time.

The penalties for missing these filings are serious. Failure to file Form 8938 carries a $10,000 base penalty, plus an additional $10,000 for every 30 days of continued failure after IRS notice, capped at $50,000. FBAR penalties can be even steeper for willful violations. These are not theoretical risks. The IRS actively enforces these rules, and foreign banks now share account information with the U.S. government under FATCA agreements. Proper estate planning starts with making sure your current reporting is complete and accurate.

Estate Tax Rules for U.S. Citizens With Foreign Assets and Non-Citizen Residents

The federal estate tax rules work differently depending on your citizenship and where you are domiciled. Understanding which category applies to you is the starting point for any international estate plan.

For U.S. citizens and permanent residents, the estate and gift tax exemption is $15 million per individual for 2026 gifts and deaths, up from $13.99 million in 2025. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the $15 million gift, estate, and generation-skipping transfer tax exemption is now permanent and indexed annually for inflation. That is good news for high-net-worth families in Sandy Springs, but it does not eliminate the need for planning, especially when foreign assets are involved.

The rules are much stricter for non-citizen non-residents. Instead of the $15,000,000 exemption amount for 2026, to which United States citizens and permanent residents are entitled, a nonresident alien is entitled to an exemption of only $60,000 for their United States property. For estates of decedent nonresidents not citizens of the United States, the estate tax is a tax on the transfer of U.S.-situated property, which may include both tangible and intangible assets owned at the decedent’s date of death.

Married couples with a non-citizen spouse face additional planning challenges. The annual amount that may be given to a spouse who is not a U.S. citizen will increase to $194,000 in 2026. The unlimited marital deduction, which allows unlimited transfers between citizen spouses, does not apply when one spouse is not a U.S. citizen. A Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT) can solve this problem by deferring estate tax on assets passing to a non-citizen spouse. A non-U.S. citizen spouse can receive the benefits of citizen status through the use of a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT), where the estate tax is deferred until actually paid out to the non-citizen spouse, or the spouse becomes a citizen at some point.

Working with an Atlanta estate planning lawyer who understands both domestic and international tax rules is essential when your family includes non-citizen spouses or beneficiaries living abroad.

Trusts and Structures for Managing International Assets

The right legal structure can make a significant difference in how your international assets are taxed and transferred. Several tools are available depending on your goals, your citizenship, and where your assets are located.

A revocable living trust governed by Georgia law can hold certain foreign assets, but it will not automatically control how those assets are treated in the foreign country. For assets located abroad, you may need a separate trust or entity established under the laws of that country. Working with counsel who can coordinate with foreign attorneys is often necessary to make these structures effective on both sides of the border.

For U.S. citizens with significant offshore holdings, an irrevocable trust can be a powerful tool. Properly structured, it can remove assets from your taxable estate while still providing benefits to your family. A trust attorney familiar with international planning can help you determine whether a domestic or foreign trust structure makes more sense for your situation, and what reporting obligations come with each option.

Foreign grantor trusts and foreign non-grantor trusts are treated very differently under U.S. tax law, and the choice between them has long-term consequences. Transfers to foreign trusts can also trigger gift tax reporting under Form 709 and additional information reporting under Form 3520. These are not decisions to make without guidance.

Estate tax treaties between the U.S. and certain countries can reduce or eliminate the risk of double taxation. The United States has entered into estate and gift tax treaties with a select number of countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. These treaties generally allow a citizen of one of the treaty countries who owns property to avoid the possibility of both countries taxing the same asset at the time of death. If you hold assets in one of these treaty countries, your estate plan should take full advantage of the available relief.

Coordinating Georgia Estate Planning Documents With International Requirements

Georgia estate planning documents, including your will, power of attorney, and healthcare directive, are drafted to meet the requirements of Georgia law under Title 53 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. But a foreign country may not recognize a Georgia will without additional steps. Some countries require an apostille, a notarized translation, or a locally drafted document to transfer property located within their borders.

This means that for many Sandy Springs residents with international assets, a single will is not enough. You may need a separate will drafted under the laws of each country where you own real estate or hold significant financial accounts. These documents need to be carefully coordinated so they do not accidentally revoke each other or create conflicting instructions for your executor.

Your durable power of attorney is another document that often fails to cross borders. If you become incapacitated and your agent needs to manage a foreign bank account or sell property abroad, a Georgia power of attorney may be useless in that country. Some countries require a locally executed power of attorney that complies with their own formalities.

Portability of the federal estate tax exemption adds another layer of coordination. Under current IRS rules, an executor can transfer a deceased spouse’s unused exemption to the surviving spouse, but only if Form 706 is filed on time. Estate tax portability allows a surviving spouse to use the unused portion of a deceased spouse’s federal estate tax exemption, provided a timely estate tax return is filed for the first spouse to die. Missing that deadline can cost a family millions of dollars in unnecessary estate tax. An estate tax planning lawyer can help you build a timeline and checklist that keeps all of these moving parts in order.

Slowik Estate Planning serves clients across the Atlanta metro area, including Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Dunwoody, and the communities along the Chattahoochee River corridor. If your financial life extends beyond U.S. borders, your estate plan needs to do the same. Contact our office to schedule a consultation and start building a plan that works wherever your assets are held.

FAQs About Sandy Springs Estate Planning for Offshore and International Assets

Do I need to report a foreign bank account if I only have a small balance?

A U.S. person must file an FBAR to report a financial interest in or signature or other authority over at least one financial account located outside the United States if the aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported. That threshold applies to the combined total of all your foreign accounts, not each account individually. Even a modest account can trigger the filing requirement if your total foreign balances crossed $10,000 at any point during the year.

Will my Georgia will transfer property I own in another country?

Not automatically. Most foreign countries require estate documents that comply with their own local laws before they will transfer property located within their borders. A Georgia will may need to be accompanied by an apostille, a notarized translation, or a separately drafted local will to be effective abroad. Coordinating these documents carefully is essential to avoid conflicting instructions or unintended revocations.

What is a QDOT and when does my family need one?

A Qualified Domestic Trust, or QDOT, is a special trust used when one spouse is not a U.S. citizen. The unlimited marital deduction, which normally allows unlimited tax-free transfers between spouses, does not apply to a non-citizen spouse. A non-U.S. citizen spouse can receive the benefits of citizen status through the use of a QDOT, where the estate tax is deferred until actually paid out to the non-citizen spouse, or the spouse becomes a citizen at some point. If your spouse is not a U.S. citizen, a QDOT should be part of your estate plan.

How does the federal estate tax exemption apply to a non-citizen who owns property in Georgia?

An executor for a nonresident, not a citizen of the U.S., must file an estate tax return, Form 706-NA, if the fair market value at death of the decedent’s U.S.-situated assets exceeds $60,000. Instead of the $15,000,000 exemption amount for 2026 that U.S. citizens and permanent residents are entitled to, a nonresident alien is entitled to an exemption of only $60,000 for their United States property. That is a dramatic difference, and it makes advance planning critical for non-citizen investors with U.S. real estate or financial accounts.

Can estate tax treaties help reduce double taxation on my international assets?

Yes, in many cases. These treaties generally allow a citizen of one of the treaty countries who owns property to avoid the possibility of both countries taxing the same asset at the time of death. As far as the United States estate tax is concerned, a treaty might reduce or eliminate such tax on the United States property of a nonresident alien. The U.S. currently has estate and gift tax treaties with countries including Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia, among others. Whether a treaty applies to your situation depends on your citizenship, domicile, and the type of assets you hold.