The Most Valuable Asset You Probably Don’t Own

It has nothing to do with stocks—and everything to do with freedom.

There’s a predictable scene in every spy movie… One that you could soon be reenacting yourself.

James Bond (or, Jason Bourne, or Ethan Hunt) is on the move. He goes to his secret hideout and opens a briefcase. In it are an assortment of passports, driver’s licenses, and other official documents. He grabs what he needs, and next thing you know, he’s in some exotic foreign locale.

Now, I’m not suggesting you join the CIA or some super-secret government agency. Instead, I’m highlighting an increasingly important aspect of global diversification… “sovereign portfolios.”

These are collections of “residency rights, citizenships, investments, and business interests across multiple nations” that provide options. Even if you rarely use them, these options are a form of wealth. They’re there for you when you need them, and they provide increasingly tangible benefits.

A recent article in Condé Nast Traveler notes that the number of applications for foreign residency and citizenship by US nationals doubled between 2024 and 2025. Most of these people live in the United States and have no immediate plans to leave.

So why bother, if you’re not going to leave? According to the head of private clients for the Americas at Henley and Partners, a global migration agency, “the objective is to ensure that no single government holds the whole of a family’s life and capital… in a world that has grown harder to predict.”

That’s an excellent way to put it. It’s becoming increasingly clear to us at International Living that we’re amidst a monumental shift in the way people understand their position in the world. The certainties we enjoyed from World War II until recently are evaporating. That calls for new strategies.

The United States is no longer the undisputed leader of the free world. It’s no longer prudent to keep all of one’s wealth inside the US economy or the dollar, both of which are living on fumes. In Europe, the rise of populist nationalism is making casual immigration harder. On the other hand, new opportunities are arising, particularly as middle-tier countries realize the importance of attracting money and talent from abroad.

For most of our lives, we could pursue a “strategy”—largely unconscious—of focusing everything inside our country. Everything we needed was in the US: opportunity, stability, and above all, predictability. That allowed us to make long term plans and pass the fruits of our efforts on to future generations. Our careers, investments, living arrangements—all the choices we made—were “tactics” to achieve this bigger strategy.

But strategies are starting to change, and so are tactics. The geographically diversified sovereign portfolio is the new strategy. Each individual foreign residency, second citizenship, or investment is a tactic in support of this strategy.

For example, I’ve met dozens of people who have residency rights in Panama. They’re extremely easy to get, and they don’t require that you spend significant time in the country. You can keep Panamanian residency in your back pocket, ready to activate whenever things get too hot, and you need to open your secret lair and hightail it.

In the last year or so, I’ve noted that people are starting to think in terms of sovereign portfolios. Instead of stopping at Panamanian residency, they’re pursuing other residencies as well. Some are starting to eye rapid second citizenships, like Uruguay, and the upcoming Argentine citizenship by investment program. Others are starting to ask questions about places that are out of the way in case there’s a global conflict: Mauritius, Paraguay, New Zealand.

In January this year, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a landmark speech to the World Economic Forum. He said that the international order has fundamentally changed. Instead of assuming that the United States will continue to provide the public goods and security on which countries rely, middle powers like Canada should strengthen their own global options, securing their own sovereignty.

His punchline applies equally powerfully to those of us focusing on global diversification: “The powerful have their power. But we have something too—the capacity to stop pretending, to name reality, to build our strength.” He called for middle powers to seek greater strategic autonomy, reducing excessive dependence on any single country.

Strength through globalized diversity… I couldn’t have said it better myself.