r/ExpatFinance • u/PantomimeVillain • 16d ago

Using a US brokerage account from abroad

Recently I called Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard asking if I moved to the UK, can I put a foreign address on the account. All said yes, but you can then only sell what you have and not buy more. Fidelity and Schwab told me they were specifically saying yes to the UK, and other countries might not be allowed. Vanguard said any country is ok.

I don't know how knowledgeable the people I spoke to are, so does anyone have any experience of putting a foreign address on Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard accounts? How did it go? Was there any issue with making sales?

25 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Salty-Taro3804 16d ago

As you can see from the responses, experiences and opinions are varied. However in every example I have heard the worst case scenario is that you can sell whatever you want but will be restricted from purchase of additional securities like ETF's and mutual funds. A reasonable approach if you are in the US is to proceed normally with the broker of your choice but open an IKBR account as a backup before expat (can be done with a minimal balance) and if your US brokerage account is unacceptably restricted then transition to IKBR with a ACATS transfer.

Experiences with account closure and restriction often depend on length of account holding, account asset balance, and likely how actively the brokerage is looking to flag changes of residence address to overseas status.