You're listening to Radio Aysha and in this episode I will tell you all about this one time where I almost lost 400, 000. I want to talk all about my experience about claiming benefits, claiming social security and pension benefits in other countries and specifically in the US after the passing of my husband.

So, this is a story that I told for the first time on Wednesday during the live masterclass about how to navigate your expat finances without making costly mistakes and this was a special masterclass. The replay is available for a couple of days until Monday so the link to this replay is in the description below in case you're interested.

And I did this live event because I am introducing a new course called the Expat Finance Kit. So now back to the story. My husband Karl passed away in 2017. And at that time, it was a very big shock because it was a traffic accident, so it was very sudden, very unexpected, and we already had a five year old son and I was expecting the second one.

So it was this horrible story and really terrible moment in my life. It was as bad as you can imagine. And what also happened is that it turned our financial situation upside down because up until that point, money was never really question mark. I was always making good money because I always worked full time.

I had a very good job and Karl had an even better job. He was a partner in a private equity fund. So he had a very good income, especially for his age. And I also had a good income. And so this is why it was never really a concern or not even a question mark. And all of a sudden, everything changed. Yes, of course, I still had my own income, luckily.

But what happened is that all of a sudden his income was gone. And then I had to figure out, okay, so what happens now? And I never even thought that something like that could happen. So I had really no idea. What it meant financially. And so when something like that happens. The widow and the orphans, to some extent, if they meet certain criteria, are entitled to social security benefits to compensate.

Except, because we had been living the expat lives, that was not really a straightforward process, and that meant that in many cases, we received less than what we were supposed to get. Now, as you can imagine, I was in this big emotional Meltdown, I was pregnant, I had to explain what had happened to my son, we had to adapt to the new reality, so emotionally it was very difficult.

And then this whole admin burden, this bureaucratic burden of having to claim benefits and figure out what we were entitled to in many countries. And here we're talking about Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands. Austria and the US. Okay, because that's all the places where Karl had contributed to the social security and pension system.

So it was like a big mess. And then I also had to deal with all the bank accounts, things that got blocked or that were in his name. It was a big financial mess. But anyway, that's not what the story is about. What the story is about is that I checked online what were the rules for the US. And it was very clear that to qualify for anything, the person who has passed needed to have worked in the U.S. for a minimum of 10 years.

Okay, and we stayed in New York for four years. So I was like, okay, so this is clear. Let's not even bother because we don't qualify. However, my father in law, he was very diligent with all this paperwork and he really helped me a great deal while I was figuring out all of this, while I was going through this whole transition and emotional difficulties and challenges in my life.

And he was really steadfast and he helped me a lot in sorting out all these administrative issues. And he insisted that we file anyway, that we request in the U. S. Anyway, and when we did, what happened really surprised me. So what happened is that actually Switzerland and the U. S. have a bilateral treaty, which means that the years that are spent working in the U.S. and the years that are spent working in Switzerland count towards these 10 years. And if we count actually how many years, we were about like nine years. And then I was like, Oh my God, we were almost there. Okay. And turns out, no, actually the way they count is not like calendar years. It's a bit different.

All in all, we just qualified for the 10 years. And ever since I received for my two children, $1,000 per month. So $2,000 in total for the two of them per month. And that until the 18 or possibly 19, if they studied. Okay, and so I did a quick calculation and that represents about 370,000 in total of social security benefits I almost didn't claim, okay?

And that's without even adjusting for inflation because the US government adjusts these benefits every year for inflation, so it's gonna be even more than that, and so, imagine I am an investment professional, I've been dealing with tax. I've been dealing with currency, with international transfers, huge amounts. I've been talking to tax and legal experts all over the world in the context of my work, and even I almost missed. $400,000 in benefits.

Because at the time, I didn't know what I didn't even know. I didn't know that there was these bilateral benefits and what you read online is not necessarily what applies to you. And so, that's why I wanted to bring that story forward. Because even when we are well educated, and we are very successful in our job, we don't know what we don't know.

And these international rules, they impact pensions, social benefits, Taxes and they are very complex and when you don't know where to look and how to go about it, you're probably missing out and this is costing you a lot and the other way around can also happen whereas because of bilateral agreements you might get in trouble if you do or don't do something.

And so ever since that has happened. I've been very keen on helping my clients really sort out their cross border finances. And now I've decided to go a step further and that's why I've introduced this new course the Expat Finance Kit. So if you are interested in optimizing your cross border finances, everything pension, tax, bank accounts, dealing with currencies, and also dealing with family.

Finance matters, like what happens with your money and your asset when it comes to marriage, divorce, inheritance, et cetera. Then have a look at the Expat Finance Kit course. It's available for now until Monday. We're going to close it on Monday and we're going to run it live with the people who are joining us until that date.

And if you think this could be helpful to you, check the link. You will get all the details and yeah, I would love to see you in there. That's all I had for you today and stay tuned for the next episode.