Latest / IMI Podcasts / He Helps Americans Flee Abroad: What to Know in 2026
Transcript
- 0:00SPEAKER_00: Hi there, my name is Mikhail Thorpe from expatmoney.com, and in today's video, we're gonna be talking to you about the huge shift of Americans and Canadians moving overseas and what that means for you.
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: So as per data that is coming out right now, we're really seeing that the US is growing as one of the strongest markets in the world.
- 0:17SPEAKER_00: I've definitely noticed this in my business.
- 0:19SPEAKER_00: I would say probably about 45% of my business is Americans, with another 45% coming in as Canadians, and only 10%, which would be Europeans, Australians, New Zealanders, things like this.
- 0:30SPEAKER_00: We've helped hundreds of families move overseas, and we've seen a huge increase during the last, say, five or six years in this type of market.
- 0:40SPEAKER_00: So with my company, what we've seen is really it goes into two buckets.
- 0:44SPEAKER_00: About half of my clients are just looking for a plan B, somewhere that they're gonna be able to move to if things get untenable in their home country.
- 0:51SPEAKER_00: We're talking about offshore bank accounts, second companies, maybe a home, definitely a residency or a second passport.
- 0:58SPEAKER_00: Usually about half of my clients are looking at these types of things.
- 1:01SPEAKER_00: The other half, things have already gotten bad in their home country and they've already crossed the line.
- 1:07SPEAKER_00: So they're moving to the new country.
- 1:08SPEAKER_00: So it's the same type of work.
- 1:10SPEAKER_00: The difference just is being in are they staying in continental the United States or Canada, or moving overseas and actuating a lot of these plans.
- 1:18SPEAKER_00: So I'm definitely noticing a huge push for my clients moving overseas.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: So what I'm talking about is a lot of the policy changes that are happening in the home country.
- 1:26SPEAKER_00: We're talking about more taxation, more regulation, really a war against productive members of society.
- 1:33SPEAKER_00: Now, a pull on the opposite side would be better taxation of the country that you were going to, better weather, lower cost of living, higher standard of living, still excellent medical facilities, things like this.
- 1:43SPEAKER_00: So we're seeing it from both sides in reality.
- 1:46SPEAKER_00: Things are getting worse back home, and things are getting better in places like Latin America and the Caribbean.
- 1:51SPEAKER_00: So the interesting thing is that we're actually seeing a huge number of people who are moving to Central America.
- 1:56SPEAKER_00: So the majority of the Central American countries actually follow what's called a territorial tax country system.
- 2:02SPEAKER_00: So there's no tax on foreign sourced income.
- 2:04SPEAKER_00: So we're seeing a lot of people move to Costa Rica or Panama or places like this.
- 2:08SPEAKER_00: I live in Panama full-time, I've been here for almost seven years, and it's a beautiful country with one of the best immigration programs in the world.
- 2:14SPEAKER_00: So I see a lot of people moving to countries like this.
- 2:17SPEAKER_00: Other popular places are places like Mexico.
- 2:20SPEAKER_00: Mexico is very, very popular for Americans and Canadians, even though they don't have a good tax system there, and even though there are legit safety concerns that you need to be aware of in the country, it is very familiar for a lot of Americans to cross the border and move there.
- 2:33SPEAKER_00: Now, as I said, my home is here in Panama.
- 2:35SPEAKER_00: I would make an argument that Panama is the best country if you're thinking about Latin America.
- 2:40SPEAKER_00: They have a history of respecting freedom, especially someone like me who travels internationally literally every two weeks, every three weeks.
- 2:47SPEAKER_00: I'm in and out of the country constantly.
- 2:48SPEAKER_00: So having an international airport 16 minutes away is such a benefit.
- 2:52SPEAKER_00: Now, after doing this for many years, I've seen a lot of different mistakes that expats make.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest ones is thinking that you can just buy investments or real estate or have bank accounts overseas and that you don't have a filing requirements back to your home country.
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: This is not the case whatsoever.
- 3:09SPEAKER_00: There is privacy from individuals, there is privacy from corporations and big tech and things like that.
- 3:14SPEAKER_00: And then there's privacy from your home government.
- 3:16SPEAKER_00: I always recommend people to be very transparent with their home government, specifically their tax department or FinCEN or anything like that.
- 3:23SPEAKER_00: There are legal requirements that you need to follow.
- 3:26SPEAKER_00: And just because you move something offshore doesn't mean that you don't have a reporting requirement.
- 3:31SPEAKER_00: So we're very careful about a lot of these things, and we really make sure that we're following all of the laws of your home country.
- 3:36SPEAKER_00: So let's try to make sure that we do it correctly.
- 3:38SPEAKER_00: This is about more freedom in your life, not less freedom.
- 3:41SPEAKER_00: And I don't want any of my clients to end up in an orange jumpsuit or anything like that.
- 3:44SPEAKER_00: I've definitely noticed a huge trend shift over the last decade, let's say.
- 3:49SPEAKER_00: What was very popular jurisdictions of places to go to and places that people were coming from to move overseas.
- 3:55SPEAKER_00: We're really seeing a lot of the freedom is being found here in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: And as long as Latin America and the Caribbean respect freedom, I will continue to move people here.
- 4:05SPEAKER_00: I'm not finding the freedom in Europe, I'm not finding it in other places in the world, but definitely here in Latin America, it's a viable option for good, honest ethical families.