Passport Portfolios: Ultimate Wealth for Ultra-High-Net-Worth Families

Partner content by Alex Recouso, Co-Founder and CEO at CitizenX.

Real wealth is optionality. In other words, the capacity to pivot, adapt, and explore various paths at will is a core definition of affluence—it's not simply the ledger of how much capital and how many assets you control.

You're not truly wealthy if you have no options—options for travel, options for alternative residences and domicile diversification, options for banking, options for the safe storage of assets, and the protection of you and your loved ones.

Without choices, no amount of money can compensate for the limitations placed on your freedom.

A core limiter, sitting at the "root level" of the operating system of our societies, is citizenship. Most people's default situation at birth is one nationality, from their home country. Some are lucky to be born into multiple citizenships.

And citizenship dictates not only where you might pay taxes, but also your overall quality of life, where you receive health care, use roads, enjoy liberty and freedom, benefit from the protections of civil law, rely on the security of borders, and physically reside.

Being able to claim multiple citizenships can offer safe harbors and leverage in times of global volatility. Nationality is optionality.

Warren Buffett likes cash because of its liquidity. He values the ability to quickly capitalize on opportunities, which is a hallmark of having the flexibility to act on short notice. It's not just about liking Apple or GEICO stock, it's about having the dry powder to buy it.

That’s also what nationality gives: optionality. Citizenship grants you a legal foundation to move, work, and invest with fewer restrictions and greater peace of mind.

Citizenship isn’t merely a passive asset that yields minimal returns; in the same way that cash is a store of value and a piece of leverage, citizenship provides a strategic advantage that opens doors to far more things than mere residency rights.

It's a call option to exercise your citizen rights anytime you choose. You can invoke these rights when circumstances demand, or simply as a pathway to broader horizons. Citizenship is a call option with no expiration date, it's a generational asset that you will pass on to your heirs. By securing it now, you ensure that future generations can also enjoy the prosperity that comes from having the ultimate form of optionality.

You might not exercise that option for years, much like idle cash, but you value it for the optionality it gives you at some point, as yet undetermined, in the future.

In both cases, there's a tradeoff—whether it's missing out on higher returns from securities or bearing the cost of acquiring and maintaining a second passport—in earning the right, but not the obligation, to act.

Optionality is the true value.

Here are some tangible examples of the optionality and benefits that multiple citizenships provide:

1. Plan B

The only insurance policy you can buy against your government is another citizenship. There is really no other way to achieve freedom at the root level.

2. Mobility freedom

Mobility is not just visa-free travel, measured by a number of destinations as is displayed on passport rankings, but having an additional travel document that's a second identity not tied to your main nationality.

But in addition to the abstract concept of a second identity, there is the physical reality that you have a safe location you can turn to when needed, and protection from state infringements on freedom such as lockdowns and exit denials.

3. Tax optimization

US citizens face global taxes no matter where they live. The so-called citizenship-based taxation taxes your worldwide income on the basis of citizenship, not residency. This means that, unless you renounce US citizenship, you will always owe taxes to the IRS (the negligible Foreign Earned Income Exclusion notwithstanding).

However, a second citizenship gives you the optionality to do that: the ability to give up your citizenship at any point without rendering yourself stateless. It's an option that you can choose to exercise, meaning you have more control and are not at the mercy of a single government agency leveraging the single point of failure of statelessness against you.

Plus, President-elect Donald J. Trump supports ending the double taxation of overseas Americans. If this happens, your second citizenship can open up doors to some of the best tax-friendly jurisdictions that safeguard your wealth.

For example, with a St. Lucia passport, you can get permanent residency anywhere in the Caribbean Community, where many countries, like Antigua & Barbuda or St. Kitts & Nevis, have 0% income tax.

Family office professionals, wealth advisors, and service providers should recognize citizenship planning as a core component of comprehensive wealth management.

By incorporating citizenship optimization into their service offerings, advisors can provide clients with enhanced asset protection strategies, expanded business opportunities, and greater geographical flexibility. This value-added service not only differentiates their practice but also addresses a critical need in today's growing global instability.

As wealthy families seek to preserve and grow their legacy across generations, the ability to offer strategic citizenship solutions positions advisors as true stewards of their clients' long-term prosperity and freedom of choice.

More on CitizenX

CitizenX works directly with countries that grant citizenship to investors and families in exchange for significant economic contributions, with investment opportunities ranging from real estate to private funds to even direct donations.

By combining Swiss engineering with 24/7 concierge service, CitizenX helps high-net-worth individuals and families acquire supplementary passports in a secure and private way via the fastest, most reputable, and most straightforward citizenship by investment programs.

Get in touch to start the conversation on passport portfolio diversification.

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