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I would be very interested to know which online brokerages cater to US expats — @patio11 seems to have experience with this. In general, any advice and pointer

by jwr 7y ago

I would be very interested to know which online brokerages cater to US expats — @patio11 seems to have experience with this. In general, any advice and pointers about brokerages/banks/insurance for US expats from an actual expat would be immensely valuable. The googlable stuff is mostly fluff and SEO crap.

cascom 7y ago
Not exactly what you are looking for - but a pretty good organization/advocacy group if you live abroad https://www.americansabroad.org/ https://www.americansabroad.org/
davidw 7y ago
Depends what your needs are, I guess? I always kept my foreign stuff pretty separate from my US stuff. By keeping an address in the US (relatives) I mostly just used US services as anyone else would.
- jwr 7y ago
  Many expats do not have a US address and can't reasonably pretend that they "reside" in the US. (the whole concept of "residence" is from the stone ages, but I digress)
rb808 7y ago
Schwab definitely has branches in a few countries and caters to expats. https://international.schwab.com/public/international/us_investing/us_expat_essentials https://international.schwab.com/public/international/us_inv... interactivebrokers is set up globally as well.
- MandieD 7y ago
  IB was willing to take me, a US citizen residing in Germany, but the account was opened with their UK branch and falls under EU rules (no non-EU ETFs, for example). As a US citizen, you do not want any non-US-domiciled ETFs; PFIC is a nightmare. Schwab, on the other hand, opened a US-based account for me even though I was quite open about my German address and tax residency, and I can buy regular US-domiciled, low-cost index-tracking ETFs, which frankly is the only thing a non-enthusiast like me should be touching with their retirement money.
  - jwr 7y ago
    Interesting! It's these little tidbits of information that are so valuable. ETFs are the only thing I was interested in. And I didn't know that PFICs were a problem at all. I also wasn't aware of the restrictions that International Brokers place on some accounts. This sort of information is really difficult to get.
    - MandieD 7y ago
      I strongly considered DIY indexing - with IB's low US market transaction costs, even 10k EUR gets an ok sampling of the top S&P 500 issues; get up to 40k and you’re surprisingly close. It would be a long while before this method had you buy even one share of AMZN or GOOG due to their enormous share prices, but eventually you would. However, I’m much happier picking a few funds off Schwab's list and not trying to keep up with exactly which stocks to buy some small number of share of next month.

by jwr 7y ago

cascom 7y ago

Not exactly what you are looking for - but a pretty good organization/advocacy group if you live abroad https://www.americansabroad.org/ https://www.americansabroad.org/

davidw 7y ago

Depends what your needs are, I guess? I always kept my foreign stuff pretty separate from my US stuff. By keeping an address in the US (relatives) I mostly just used US services as anyone else would.

jwr 7y ago
Many expats do not have a US address and can't reasonably pretend that they "reside" in the US. (the whole concept of "residence" is from the stone ages, but I digress)

rb808 7y ago

Schwab definitely has branches in a few countries and caters to expats. https://international.schwab.com/public/international/us_investing/us_expat_essentials https://international.schwab.com/public/international/us_inv... interactivebrokers is set up globally as well.

MandieD 7y ago
IB was willing to take me, a US citizen residing in Germany, but the account was opened with their UK branch and falls under EU rules (no non-EU ETFs, for example). As a US citizen, you do not want any non-US-domiciled ETFs; PFIC is a nightmare. Schwab, on the other hand, opened a US-based account for me even though I was quite open about my German address and tax residency, and I can buy regular US-domiciled, low-cost index-tracking ETFs, which frankly is the only thing a non-enthusiast like me should be touching with their retirement money.
- jwr 7y ago
  Interesting! It's these little tidbits of information that are so valuable. ETFs are the only thing I was interested in. And I didn't know that PFICs were a problem at all. I also wasn't aware of the restrictions that International Brokers place on some accounts. This sort of information is really difficult to get.
  - MandieD 7y ago
    I strongly considered DIY indexing - with IB's low US market transaction costs, even 10k EUR gets an ok sampling of the top S&P 500 issues; get up to 40k and you’re surprisingly close. It would be a long while before this method had you buy even one share of AMZN or GOOG due to their enormous share prices, but eventually you would. However, I’m much happier picking a few funds off Schwab's list and not trying to keep up with exactly which stocks to buy some small number of share of next month.