4 ms·

Schwab definitely has branches in a few countries and caters to expats. https://international.schwab.com/public/international/us_investing/us_expat_essentials h

• 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.