Terraforte  /  Terra Advisus
Advisus · To see clearly, to have been advised

Terra Advisus

Expat financial advisory · Tax optimization · Legal structuring · Immigration & residency · Banking access

The discipline behind the work

Two tax codes. Two banking systems. Two regulatory weathers.

Most cross-border advisors specialize in one and approximate the other. The approximations cost money — sometimes catastrophic money — at the seam where the systems disagree.

Terra Advisus is the discipline of holding both systems at once. Tax structures that survive an SAT audit and an IRS one. Banking access that does not collapse the next time U.S. Treasury reaches into a Mexican institution. Immigration and residency strategies that fit the financial structure rather than fighting it.

The role of the prophet-priest in the Maya tradition was not to predict the future. It was to read the patterns in the present that the rest of the community had stopped noticing, and to advise the community accordingly. We do that, across two regulatory systems instead of one calendar.
What Terra Advisus is

The full picture. Before the decision is made.

Every expat and foreign investor in Mexico is navigating a system they didn't grow up in. The laws are different. The tax treaties are complex. The banking relationships require introductions. Most people find this out the hard way, after a decision has already been made.

Terra Advisus is Terraforte's integrated advisory practice — the relationship that foreign nationals in Mexico need but rarely find under one roof. We coordinate financial planning, tax structuring, legal advisory, immigration strategy, and banking access as a unified service, because these disciplines don't exist in isolation from each other.

We do not sell financial products. We charge for advice and coordination — the only way to guarantee our counsel is in the client's interest, not the product's.

Services

Every advisory need. One integrated relationship.

Financial planning

Building a financial life across two countries requires a strategy designed for exactly that situation. Retirement planning, investment allocation, currency exposure, cross-border asset management — coordinated with licensed financial professionals in both Mexico and the U.S. or Canada.

Tax advisory & optimization

Mexican tax residency rules, the U.S.–Mexico Tax Treaty, RFC registration, SAT compliance, rental-income reporting, capital gains on Mexican real estate, and entity structures that optimize position without creating compliance exposure. Coordinated with licensed contador partners and expat-specialist CPAs.

Legal structuring

Property-acquisition structures, fideicomiso management, Mexican corporate entities (S.A. de C.V., S.A.S.), real-estate holding structures for short-term-rental operations, estate planning under Mexican law — and active coordination so nothing is optimized at the expense of another.

Immigration & residency

Residency category selection based on income sources, tax-residency consequences, healthcare access under IMSS or private systems, and the integration of residency status with property and business ownership. We coordinate the paperwork, manage the process, and anticipate complications before they arise.

Banking & financial access

Opening a Mexican bank account as a foreign national is more complex than it should be. We facilitate introductions to the right banking relationships, manage the documentation process, and help clients evaluate options — traditional Mexican banking, international alternatives, multi-currency accounts — based on their actual financial profile.

The full-picture discovery

Our first engagement with every new client is a structured discovery process designed to surface what they don't know they need to know. The blind spot — the question they didn't know to ask — is where the most expensive mistakes live. We find it first.

Civis · Cross-border tax membership

For Americans in Mexico. The seam product.

The United States is one of two countries on Earth that taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live. The American in Mexico isn't a Mexican tax resident with a side U.S. issue — they're a U.S. citizen with a Mexican residency overlay. Civis is the productized membership line inside Terra Advisus that holds both sides at once.

Mexican contadores won't touch FBAR / FATCA / 1040. U.S. CPAs won't touch RFC / RESICO / CFDI / SAT. Most Americans down here end up with two unintegrated providers and the recharacterization risk floating unmonitored. Civis is the integrated alternative — one engagement, one document bundle, one named advisor.

Civis Foundation
$1,200 / yr
or $129 / month
  • Annual cross-border tax position review
  • FBAR (FinCEN 114) prep & filing
  • Form 8938 (FATCA) prep & filing
  • 1040 + foreign-account schedules
  • Coordination with your Mexican contadora
  • U.S.–MX treaty positions advisory
  • Two WhatsApp questions per year

For: Americans in Mexico with simple cross-border positions — retirees, single-payer remote workers, transitions.

Civis Premium
$8,500 / yr
or $799 / month
  • Everything in Standard
  • Treaty Art. 4 tie-breaker analysis
  • Annual PE-recharacterization audit
  • U.S.–MX estate planning, dual situs
  • Streamlined Compliance backstop (Year 1)
  • Banking introductions, Intercam-cycle aware
  • Real-estate holding-structure review
  • Unlimited WhatsApp · named advisor

For: HNW Americans, cross-border families, dual-situs estates, complex transition years.

Indicative annual pricing. Final scope and price confirmed during a 30-minute onboarding call.

The blind spot problem

The most dangerous gaps are the ones you don't know about.

A buyer who focuses entirely on the property purchase while ignoring its tax implications. A retiree who establishes Mexican tax residency without understanding what that means for their Social Security income. A business owner who hires Mexican staff without understanding IMSS obligations. These are not edge cases — they are the situations we see most often.

Terra Advisus is built to prevent these situations — not to resolve them after they've already caused damage. The difference between a client who engages us at the beginning and one who engages us after a problem has occurred is measured in tens of thousands of dollars and months of regulatory exposure.
Fee structure

Fee-only. No products. No commissions.

Terra Advisus does not earn commissions on investment recommendations. We charge for advice and coordination. This is the only structure that guarantees our counsel is aligned with your interest — not with the financial product that pays the highest referral fee.

Every engagement is assigned a dedicated advisor who manages the full scope, tracks every open item, and coordinates across disciplines on the client's behalf.

The Terraforte ecosystem

Advisory touches every other service.

Terra Secura

Every real-estate transaction has tax and legal implications that need to be designed before closing, not after.

Terra Domus

Rental income structure, SAT reporting for short-term rentals, and entity optimization for property management.

Terra Vivere

Immigration and residency advisory running in parallel with relocation planning and employer compliance.

Terra Expedita

Corporate-structure selection, U.S. LLC setup, and Mexican entity formation — coordinated with tax strategy from day one.

Terra Medica

Financial planning for extended stays, insurance coordination, and health coverage structuring for medical-tourism clients.

Terra Mercatus

Cross-border deal structuring, M&A tax modeling, and post-close compliance for foreign-operator business acquisitions.

Start with the full picture.

The first conversation is a structured discovery. We find what you don't know you need to know.

Talk to Terra Advisus Enquire about Civis