Executives Unprepared for U.S.

An estimated 50% of the 100,000 annual foreign-executive moves to the United States fail within three years, figures Prudential Relocation, a Valhalla, N.Y.-based business-consulting firm. That can be expensive for their employers, which may have invested as much as $1 million in each move. Language barriers, high insurance costs, and crime are among the cited challenges of moving to the U.S. But family-adjustment problems are the biggest single factor in failure.