Hi all.
The background:
I Europeans and recently moved to the US. When updating addresses with my bank in Europe, I received notifications that because I was now US tax residents, my brokerage accounts could not be maintained - the paperwork is too complicated they said. The bank is offering to transfer the portfolio free of charge, but I have looked at a few banks in Europe (I prefer to retain the positions in euros since we plan to go back at some point) and none of them would agree to take investments - brokerage accounts or life insurance. It seems my only option is to transfer the portfolio to a US bank.
The questions:
1/ Has anyone been through this and can recommend a Euro based bank who would take such investments.
2/ Alternatively, has anyone been through the process of transferring the portfolio directly to the US, without having to sell/buy, and thus not having to deal with exchange rates fees etc.
3/ If yes to the above, has anyone found a bank that would easily and at minimum fee be set up to retransfer the portfolio back to Europe in a few years when returning home? I thought Citi would be good for ex. but it turns out they only have business banking in our home countries. I’m waiting to hear back from HSBC at the moment.
The advice:
Having just been through the move recently, I decided to sell my entire portfolio and rebuy it prior to arriving. This should be considered especially if you come from a tax advantageous country. Selling the stocks was the best decision I made because first it allowed to realise the profits without US tax implications, but also because now I have more flexibility in moving our funds should I need to. Worst case I can just decide to sell what I have without worrying about the tax consequences. This of course applies only to people moving from tax advantageous countries, but is worth a serious consideration considering how restrictive the US tax system seems to be. All in all, I’m learning that moving to the US is a real issue for investors. Do not take this lightly if this is part of your plan - a friend who is a very serious and diversified investor decided to give up on coming here because it was just too complicated to hold his positions.
Submitted July 14, 2018 at 08:49AM by shannister https://ift.tt/2mfw8kJ
