It was 5:30 in the morning in Greece when Wendy joined our call.
She gets up at that hour every day to meditate, then usually goes back to sleep.
That morning she stayed up for a call about her money.
Wendy is American, retired, and married to a European. She has lived in Europe for years, and her savings were still sitting in the US.
She had tried to move them before, but:
One bank turned her down with no explanation
The Swiss banks she contacted wouldn’t talk to her
The advisors who work with expats wanted a minimum she didn’t have
The situation was frustrating, and she wanted to move money out of her US accounts as soon as possible.
So we had a chat.
And looked at banks that made sense for her situation.
After two months, her account was opened.
Her money is now finally out of the US.
She also has a private banking contact she can talk to directly.
Today, I’m telling Wendy’s story (and give some insights that will help with your own account opening).
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Why every bank said no to someone with clean money
How we built a file so the bank accepted her as a private banking client
What Wendy did before wiring a dollar, and what changed once the account was open
First, what happened before she met me.
Why every bank said no
Wendy had several US accounts and one local spending account in Greece.
The Greek one took weeks to open.
Several visits, many hours, a stack of documents.
Once the account was open, a new problem started.
Every time she moved money into it, the bank wanted to know exactly where that money had been earned.
So she looked for a bank outside Greece to park her savings.
(Which is a good idea in itself considering Greece’s banking history.)
What did Wendy do?
She applied for an expat account at a large international bank.
Denied, with no explanation.
She asked about Switzerland.
Nobody there would talk to her.
She contacted advisors who say they work with expats.
They said she doesn’t meet the capital requirements.
None of those paths worked.
Wendy hasn’t drawn a salary in almost 20 years. Her savings come from work she did long ago and from a few properties she sold over the past ten years. The money has moved between accounts many times since.
Here is how she put it on our call:
“This is my life savings. I haven’t worked for almost 20 years, and this money has moved around to different accounts, so it’s going to be really difficult to prove where it came from.”
A bank doesn’t only ask how much you have.
It asks where it came from.
And it usually asks for things like:
Pay slips
A sale deed
An employment contract
I explained why banks ask in this article.
Wendy had no pay slips.
Her old employment contracts were 20 years old and not easy to find. The property sales were on record, but under her company’s name, not her own.
To the person at the bank checking her file, that looks like holes. To Wendy, it was just her life.
Takeaway: A bank says no when it can’t see the story of your money, even when the money is clean.
How we built the file
Before Wendy collected a single document, I did one thing.
I put her case to my contact at the bank.
I told them what you read above: no pay slips, savings from work done 20 years ago, property sales booked under her company.
Then I asked: will you look at this file?
If the answer had been no, Wendy would have saved weeks of scanning documents for nothing.
But the answer was yes.
Her paperwork was an obstacle, and obstacles get sorted out.
Here is what went into the file:
Her CV. The bank wants to see your working life, because your working life explains your money situation. Wendy’s showed the jobs she held before she stopped working.
An old employment contract. She wasn’t sure she would find one. She did, and it backed up what the CV said.
The property sales. Wendy had sold a few properties over ten years. The sale records were in her company’s name, so she had to show that she owns the company.
Her US tax returns. The latest one showed one of those sales as income, which connected the property papers to her own name.
A marriage certificate. The electricity bill for her home was in her husband’s name. The certificate connected her to the address.
Plus the usual: passport, Greek residency ID, tax numbers, phone and email.
No single document proved where her money came from.
Together, they told the story:
She worked, she saved, she put the savings into property, she sold, and here is where the money sits today.
And after two months of back and forth, the account was open.
Takeaway: Ask the bank whether it will look at your case before you spend weeks collecting documents for it.
What Wendy did before wiring a dollar
Wendy is careful with her money.
In June, before anything was signed, friends warned her the whole thing could be a scam.
So she wrote to me:
An account number in an email doesn’t prove the money lands at a real bank. How do we handle that?
My answer:
Once the account is open, we go through the wiring instructions together.
In July, the account contract arrived.
She read all of it and came back with questions.
We went through them together.
She signed the contract, and the account was opened.
Instead of wiring her money all at once, she did a “test transfer” with a small amount.
She emailed her banker that a test transfer was coming, sent it, and waited until he confirmed it had arrived.
Then the rest followed.
Two weeks later she had her online access and wrote:
“Everything is good now.”
She doesn’t like being on camera, but she recorded a video anyway.
“It’s the least I could do after all your help. It’s good to do things outside our comfort zone. I have recommended you to friends and family who talk about leaving the US.”
So here is where Wendy is now:
Her life savings are out of the US
Her money earning real interest
Accessible with her own debit card
With a private banker with a name and phone number, if she has any questions
In her words:
"I hope telling my story will help people who are confused and frustrated as I was. The process was a bit scary with a lot of unknowns, and I am grateful that I had Ben's help and guidance. I love that I now have a private banker I can contact, my money is safe, it earns good interest, and I can hold it in different currencies. I have possibilities now, whereas I felt stuck before. I feel more secure."
Takeaway: Read the contract, ask about every clause you don’t understand, and send a test transfer before the real one.
If you want an account like Wendy’s
Wendy’s account is one of three I open for clients.
Which one fits depends on what the money is for.
For spending
An everyday account outside the US banking system, opened remotely at a large, publicly traded bank. Multi-currency balances, cards couriered to you wherever you live, no ATM fees worldwide, and airport lounge access. You can start it with $1,000, and most clients have a working account within three weeks. This is the account you pay for your life abroad from. It pays less interest than a parking account, but it costs less to send money in and out.
For parking savings
This is Wendy’s account. A private account at a regulated bank opened through the family office I work with. It can be opened in several currencies, with debit and credit cards, interest on the balance, and a banker you can email. It fits savings that are too small for a wealth manager and too big to leave earning nothing. Opening takes four to six weeks, longer if your file needs a second round (like Wendy’s did).
For $1 million and more
If your movable assets are above $1 million, the place for them is Switzerland. Through the same family office, your assets are held at a Swiss private bank, in your name, and managed there. The family office can also hold your US investments while you live outside the US, which solves the problem of US brokers who refuse clients with a foreign address. The entry is $1 million. Almost all Swiss private banks open their doors way higher than that. Those banks keep more capital in reserve than most banks do, and Switzerland is one of the safest places in the world to hold money.
All those accounts are in your name and reported to the IRS like any foreign account.
And you don’t need to travel for any of them.
I don’t take referral fees or kickbacks from any bank or partner.
You pay me, and I make sure the account opens.
If you want to know which one fits your situation, book a call and we’ll look at it together.
What comes next
That’s it.
Three takeaways:
Banks say no when they can’t see where your money came from, even when the money is clean.
A proper client file, and someone who introduces you to the bank and helps at every step, make the difference.
Being careful is important, so check who you work with, what their incentives are, and who gets paid by whom.
I hope this helps you open your own account outside the US.
And if you’d rather not do this alone, book a call, and we'll do it together.
Appreciate you being here,
— Ben