Cross-border ownership tends to be analyzed jurisdiction by jurisdiction. The risks that prove most disruptive in practice are the ones that appear only when those analyses are placed next to one another.
Recognition is not a given
A structure or document valid in one country is not automatically recognized in another. Trusts, foundations, marital property regimes, and powers of attorney are treated very differently across systems, and recognition gaps usually surface at the point of transition rather than the point of formation.
Residency follows people, not paperwork
Where successors and key decision-makers actually live, work, and spend time has consequences that no single document can override. Residency rules of one country can re-characterise structures formed under another, sometimes years after the fact.
Reporting and information regimes
Information-exchange and beneficial ownership regimes have expanded considerably over the past decade. Structures designed before these regimes existed may be entirely lawful and still require reconsideration to remain practically workable.