Jim has laid this out far more eloquently than I could have. I have been working with the assumptions he laid out all of my adult life.

My being a US citizen (domiciled in the US) presents some unique limitations. While I currently hold bank accounts in thee other countries (essentially zero-balance to minimize paperwork) holding significant balances (let alone foreign brokerage accounts) became a Quiotian task. I was cast from Switzerland by two different banks, despite my providing them with proof that I had reported both the accounts and paid income tax on the interest. So, I then moved my Swiss francs to a bank in New Zealand which announced they would start charging rent. The CHF then migrated to a US broker and were used to purchase stock on the Zurich exchange.

I currently use three US brokers - one for US-listed equities, a second one is generally where I buy individual bonds and acts as my "bank" (I have a local bank with minimal balance to act as a "gateway" to deposit cash and use the broker's ATM/debit card to get cash world-wide as they convert at the bank rate and credit back any local ATM charges) and the third is used for my foreign stock trading as Forex is integrated into the trade. While the third broker also has separate offices in a number of countries, if the fit hits the Shan (thank you Roger Zelazny), I'm betting it would be difficult to move between jurisdictions if the US government suddenly turned nasty

I have resigned myself to the jurisdictional risk which Jim outlined by the half-assed rational that, in a pinch, I can transfer funds (and hopefully securities) to one or more of my foreign accounts. It's kinda kluged, but unless I want to spend a significant amount of time and effort supporting a more elaborate solution, it's the best I could come up with.

In the meantime, the majority of my equity holdings (some as ADR's, but much in native currencies) is of non-US companies and the majority of my US bond holdings are "inflation protected".

Jeff