domestic relocation

A local destination services provider (DSP) conducts a pre-arrival phone consultation and provides a face-to-face review of customized area information regarding housing, cost of living, schooling, local climate, and area-specific highlights. The DSP also coordinates an accompanied familiarization tour and area overview to include areas of interest and neighborhoods, school system /options, viewings of example housing options, recreation, shopping, commuting, and transportation.

Cartus coordinates airport pickup with a limo/car driver to transport the relocating employee (and family) to temporary housing (or hotel).

This program—a cost-effective alternative to a full home buyout program—takes advantage of the relocating employee’s ability and motivation to find a buyer and provides our clients with additional tax protection.

To help your organization and your candidates make an informed decision about the impact of relocation before an offer of employment, our Web management tool is customized to your policy benefits. The tool allows for the calculation of financial considerations, streamlines the process to convert candidates to employees, generates a candidate-specific benefits summary to accompany offer letters, and allows for customized third-party recruiter access to authorize candidate files.

A full-service, low-cost car rental program through ReadyDrive helps relocating employees acquire vehicles for 30 days or more in the United States or Canada.

Cartus oversees the home closing, reimburses your employee for all allowable expenses, and invoices the client.

This customized self-service tool reports on actual cost data per move versus the estimate. You can create a budget on a move to track the budget vs. actual costs. Estimates are prepared based on historical expenses for policy or move type.

The Cartus Executive Advantage offering is a fully customizable program for your VIPs supported by a dedicated team available 24/7. Cartus’ Premier Executive team is comprised of our most tenured and accomplished consultants. With an average of 20 years of relocation experience and focus on executive moves, this elite team manages every relocation consideration for your VIP while meticulously considering your culture and the executive’s one-of-a-kind needs and family situation. Because of their extensive experience solving complex relocation challenges, your executive’s consultant anticipates needs, proactively manages expectations, and has the autonomy to move things forward to keep your executive fully productive in their new role. This allows the consultant to review and determine the best course of action to ensure a smooth transition and the elimination of roadblocks.

Understanding the demands and busy schedule of your executive, the consultant works to alleviate administrative burdens by assisting with the completion of required documents and expense reports, working with the executive’s administrative assistant, as well as their spouse/partner, to manage critical elements of the move.

Behind the scenes, the executive consultant manages every level of detail and constantly communicates with internal teams and our supplier partners. They manage the flow of information through Cartus and significantly reduce multiple touchpoints for the executive.

The consultant is available 24/7/365 and, most importantly, at the convenience of your executive. This access is not limited to the consultant. Our internal support teams and supplier partners are also accessible 24/7/365, as everyone understands the urgency needed to support this level of move and the criticality of getting things done when the executive needs them completed.

Cartus’ Expense Management services reduce client administrative burdens without reducing client financial or operational control. Cartus provides comprehensive expense administration, including compliance audits, tax reporting, and management reporting. Multiple oversight checkpoints within Cartus’ expense management and reporting system provide accurate and clean data.

Providing timely and efficient expense management services is a significant differentiator for Cartus. We ensure that your employees are paid quickly and correctly in accordance with your program’s guidelines.

Cartus has developed a fully integrated global relocation accounting system to serve hundreds of clients, processing between $2-4 billion in annual disbursements. Our staff can audit receipts in many languages and currencies and support your specific policies and exception management procedures.

Not only do we provide timely, accurate service, but we also work to make the process easy for your transferring employees. Your employees can submit expense reports in hard copy or via their device of choice for speedy payment within two business days.

Cartus has decades of experience supporting the unique compliance considerations for government agencies and contractors, including a thorough understanding of the requirements involved in identifying, segregating, and reporting unallowable relocation costs. Cartus will ensure the correct application of the FAR Part 31 Cost Principles on relocation expenses (FAR 31.205-35) and travel expenses (FAR 31.205-46)

Our Government Contract Cost Accounting Compliance Program includes:

• Independent audits by an outside audit firm to ensure our staff is applying proper coding to allowable expenses

• Clarification and interpretation of FAR

• Comprehensive employee training program for relocation accounting analysts

• Real-time support through the issuance of regulatory updates and allowability position papers

As a government contractor, Cartus understands the challenges of contract compliance and the importance of administering all programs according to the statement of work within the awarded contract. To manage adherence to compliance guidelines, the implementation contains a customized format that includes a thorough review for confirmation of processes, resources, policy interpretation, and required reporting parameters. Automated milestones, checkpoints, and transparent reporting are established to ensure procedures are adhered to and cross-referenced with current regulations. This is a standardized part of Cartus’ implementation and is customized specifically to the government-contracting needs of each client.

Relocating employees receive professional counseling and management from their personal Cartus consultant and broker network agent to assist in the overall home-finding and settling-in process.

Cartus offers a variety of approaches to help your assignees successfully market and sell their departure properties. Available programs vary by country and local regulations but may include marketing assistance and home buyout programs.

For eligible employees, we are excited to introduce Cartus Connect—powered by MoveEasy. Cartus Connect is a full-service, turnkey solution that combines a comprehensive move and home management service with Cartus in-house services and partners to create a high-end experience for U.S. domestic transferees and international transferees relocating to the U.S. For life. Learn more at Cartus Connect

For other employees, Cartus integrates your lump sum benefits directly into our system, configuring each policy and program type to permit accurate calculation of each allowance. Cartus monitors and authorizes the lump sums as employees become eligible for these benefits. We can either disburse the funds on behalf of the company, or the information can be sent to your payroll department via electronic interface for payment to your employee. We retain all data for reporting purposes.

By making the disbursement, Cartus ensures the availability of funds to your employees when cash flow becomes a challenge during the relocation process. Lump sum payments can be issued within 24 hours of eligibility. If the allowance is not eligible for gross-up, Cartus withholds estimated taxes for the disbursement to eliminate any negative impact on your employee’s paycheck when the wages are reported to payroll.

Cartus offers a 90-day Marketing Assistance and Closing Services program that gives assignees a marketing strategy and provides personal assistance in listing and selling the departure home.

Fast, simple, cost-effective mortgage assistance is available from Guaranteed Rate Affinity, which provides individualized support for all aspects of your relocating employee’s home financing needs.

A Cartus consultant acts as the single point of coordination to provide an ongoing, comprehensive explanation and interpretation of the benefits offered to your employees defined by your policy. In addition, the consultant provides proactive guidance in coordinating all available provisions. We offer six months of telephone support through our local destination services providers (DSPs) to assist during settling-in—e.g., explaining bills, providing information on contractors, following up on move-in needs, etc.

As part of pre-decision counseling, Cartus consultants explain how the relocation process would work and assist with agent selection Throughout the entire process, the consultant helps with home marketing to strategize on home price and creative ideas to market the property and maximize the potential equity in your home.

Pre-decision services also include:

• Area Orientation Tour to familiarize you with your new community

• Cost of Living Analysis to ensure that cost comparisons are appropriate for the job and housing type

• Cost of Move Estimate based on employer-specific data for policy and move types

• Counseling (Pre-transfer) to give your transferee all the relevant policy information and guidance they need

• Destination Information on communities, schools, area amenities, and recent home sales through our transferee portal

• Expense Management tracking and management reporting capabilities to accommodate electronic interfaces with your accounting and accounts payable systems

• Mortgage Pre-qualification to offer access to fast, simple, high-quality, individualized mortgage assistance

• Spouse/Partner Assistance for complete career counseling and labor market research for the relocating spouse, partner, or family

• Pre-decision Appraisal/Broker’s Market Analysis to enable informed decisions about the proposed relocation

Occupied and Vacant Home programs are expertly designed to provide your relocating employees with the peace of mind that their homes are properly maintained while on international assignment.

Our nationwide rental assistance program helps find the best rental quickly, allows for varying levels of services and fees and minimizes interim living expenses. A rental provider assists in identifying a rental property and provides information on local lease customs for the area. We offer full-day, half-day, and candidate tour options and customized group move programs.

A local DSP provides accompanied assistance with customized settling-in tasks such as public transportation orientation, adult education, furniture lease/purchase, utility connection, and healthcare facilities.

With this service, employees can negotiate a sale with the best chance of gaining lender approval to forgive a portion of the loan.

We work with the leading global career management services providers to provide complete career counseling and labor market research for the relocating spouse, partner, or family.

Cartus offers various tax services, including access to annual tax books, pre-move tax consulting, group move employee tax meetings, and tax return preparation are offered through our partnership with Ineo, LLC.