If U.S. employees assigned abroad are poorly advised on the management of their financial affairs overseas, they are apt to become “distracted” and less effective in their jobs, Jerry Zukauckas, Arthur Andersen’s Southeast region director, told GlobalFax in a telephone interview last week.
In severe cases of misjudgment, he added, the employees also are likely to turn to their company to bail them out.
Although companies have become more sophisticated in their abilities to consider housing costs abroad and other issues, he said that they still are apt to provide inadequate financial planning advice to their international assignees.
In addition, Mr. Zukauckas said that more small- to medium-sized companies are sending employees abroad. These companies, he added, are especially likely to provide inadequate planning advice for their employees abroad because of their lack of international experience.
Even executives of multinational firms, who have experience living abroad, may make mistakes because of faulty assumptions in their planning.
Mr. Zukauckas has been participating in a series of quarterly roundtable discussions dealing with international wealth management issues
including the parking of assets when abroad, transnational wills and legal issues, managing cash flow and alternatives to traditional benefit plans.
He is available at (404) 215-7692 for further information.