How Advice Firms Review Held-Away Accounts: A Free Template

A held-away account is any financial account a client owns outside your firm's management. It could be a bank account overseas, a pension from a previous employer, or an investment account they kept after moving abroad.

For expat clients, these accounts can make up a significant part of their wealth. They also affect the advice you give, from investment decisions to tax planning and reporting.

So how do you keep track of them, document your advice, and get a complete picture of your client's finances?

Here's a practical approach, including a free template you can use with your clients.

Simply put, it's any account or asset your firm doesn't manage or hold.

For clients with international finances, this often includes:

• Bank and savings accounts: Accounts held in countries where the client currently lives or has worked.
• Investment accounts: Brokerage and investment platforms with other providers, including US accounts retained after moving abroad.
• Pensions: Workplace and personal pensions, such as a UK SIPP or US 401(k).
• Other assets: Insurance policies, annuities and property.

These assets matter because they can affect a client's overall financial position, tax exposure and long-term plans.

For a deeper look, read our guide to held-away assets abroad.

Your firm's policies and regulatory requirements will determine how you supervise advice involving held-away assets.

A simple, consistent review process can help you keep the information organised:

1. Create a household inventory. Record each account's provider, country, account type, currency and ownership.
2. Track when information was last verified. Record the date of the latest statement or balance so you can quickly spot outdated figures.
3. Document the next step. Should the client keep, consolidate or review the account? Record who is responsible and when it needs to happen.
4. Revisit everything at client meetings. Check for changes, potential risks and any information the client's accountant may need.

The goal is simple: know what your client owns, how current the information is, and what needs attention.

To make this easier, we've put together an editable spreadsheet you can copy for each client household.

It includes fields for:

• Client household
• Financial institution and country
• Account type and ownership
• Approximate value and currency
• Date last reviewed
• Recommended next action and responsible person

Example:

Bennett household | Example Bank, Spain | Current account | Joint | Approx. €38,000 | Last reviewed: 15 Oct 2026 | Confirm year-end balance with accountant | Adviser: J. Ortiz

Get the free editable template

The spreadsheet is ready to copy and use with your own clients.

A spreadsheet is a good starting point, but keeping it up to date is often the hard part.

Clients may forget about old accounts, hold assets across several countries, or send statements at different times of the year. And no single data feed covers every bank, pension provider and investment platform.

A practical approach is to:

• Ask clients to disclose all accounts during onboarding.
• Connect accounts where supported.
• Use statements or manual entries for accounts that can't be connected.
• Set a regular review schedule to catch changes and missing information.

This gives you a more reliable view of the household's finances without relying entirely on clients remembering to send updates.

Aequify brings a client's financial accounts across multiple countries into one place, including assets held outside your firm's management.

Your firm can:

• See the bigger picture: View connected accounts and manually added assets alongside the rest of the client's finances.
• Prepare for tax season: Turn financial information into tax-ready data packs for the client's accountant.
• Have more informed conversations: Use tax outlooks and scenario planning to understand how held-away assets affect a client's financial decisions.

Instead of piecing together information from spreadsheets, statements and emails, you have a clearer picture of the client's global finances.

See how Aequify works for financial advice firms.

This article provides general information for financial advisers and is not compliance, tax, legal or investment advice. Firms should follow their own policies and applicable regulatory requirements when supervising advice involving held-away accounts.