Dependency Geometry

The Four Dimensions

A family's jurisdictional footprint can be mapped across four primary dimensions: nationality (where they hold citizenship), residency (where they have legal or tax residence), assets (where their wealth is held and structured), and obligations (where governments claim authority over their income, estate, or person). Each position in each dimension creates dependencies — some visible, some latent.

The Geometry

The "geometry" is the shape of these dependencies in aggregate. A family with a single citizenship, single tax residency, and assets concentrated in one jurisdiction has a point — total concentration, maximum dependency. A family with two citizenships, a tax residency in a third jurisdiction, and assets distributed across a fourth and fifth has a polygon — diversified, with no single point of failure.

The goal of sovereign planning is not maximum complexity. It is the minimum viable geometry that eliminates single points of failure while remaining operationally manageable and legally compliant across all relevant jurisdictions.

The Most Common Failure Pattern

The most frequent failure pattern is a family with U.S. citizenship as their only nationality, all assets in U.S. institutions, and a plan to "just move to Portugal" without accounting for the fact that the U.S. will continue to tax their worldwide income regardless of where they live. The geometry here is a line — two points, one dependency. Moving does not diversify; it adds a point without reducing the primary exposure.

True diversification requires changing the geometry itself: adding a nationality that is not conditioned on residence, establishing asset positions in jurisdictions not subject to the same legal system, and structuring tax residency in a way that accounts for treaty interactions across all relevant jurisdictions simultaneously.