Drawing from the talent management and global mobility literatures, there is simultaneous pressure to address both organizational goals to place talent internationally, and individual goals of self-initiated expatriation. This raises important questions for the future of global talent management (GTM): how might individual and organizational goals be balanced to the mutual benefit of both parties? Qualitative data from pilot studies in multinational corporations demonstrate a largely financially-driven balancing act between self-initiated and organization-assigned expatriate assignments. Building primarily from psychological contract theory, this study builds propositions for future research, and explores the implications for global talent management practice.