Most people see a doctor before they travel abroad. They get the vaccines, they get the checkup, they make sure they are prepared.
Almost nobody does the financial equivalent before they move.
Christian Gulizzi, a cross-border tax advisor licensed in the United States, Germany, and Italy, calls it seeing a tax doctor. Get a full diagnosis of your financial situation relative to the specific country you are moving to before you establish residency there, not after.
The reason this matters: once you are in, the options narrow fast. ETF portfolios that were simple and tax-efficient in the US can be taxed at nearly double the rate in Italy. Retirement account drawdown strategies that made sense stateside can trigger unexpected obligations abroad. The restructuring that saves tens of thousands of dollars is straightforward before the move. After, it is often too late.
In this clip from Passport to Wealth, Arielle Tucker, CFP®, EA and Christian Gulizzi walk through what that pre-move financial diagnosis actually looks like and why it is the single most important step most Americans skip entirely.

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