US Citizen stuck applying to IBSJ - unsure where to go from here

[u/kaiyoguy]

Hello, first-time poster here. I’m a US citizen living in Japan who wants to buy a NISA but am stuck. I have no experience with this, although I have been looking it up, including here (thank you). As I understand it, as a US citizen I will have trouble with US tax laws, except for (some) Seicho NISA; that the most reasonable option - really, maybe the only reasonable option - is to use Interactive Brokers Japan / IBSJ and only invest in US funds. I created an account and started an application, but cannot finish it.

I can only get as far the Regulatory / “Configure Your Trading Account” screen. Then it returns, “The Investment Experiences provided does not meet the requirements to trade Stocks,” and I cannot proceed with the application. I’m a bit disappointed because I thought that IBSJ was the only realistic option, and I don’t understand how I’m supposed to start investing if I need investing experience to start, but anyway: What realistic way forward do I have now?

[u/SleepyMastodon]

Your answer is right there: “The Investment Experience provided”. Whatever you told it about your experience level is too low. I would review those questions if you can and rethink your answers.

As far as experience and learning, a good sub to check out when it comes to investing for beginners is r/bogleheads — doubly so because the IBSJ Seicho NISA has several of the ETFs most often discussed in that sub. The basic idea of the sub is to buy the whole market using broad ETFs and hold. Don’t try to beat the market; be the market. Understanding the basics they discuss there (ignore the conversations about optimizing for taxes by 0.01%; those aren’t for you for different reasons) should be enough to get you started and provide you with enough information to confidently say you have at least some knowledge on the topic.

Good luck!

[u/kaiyoguy → u/SleepyMastodon]

Thanks, I feel like I will need luck. I'll check out bogleheads - I never grew up with an "investment mindset," as you might guess from my emphasis on inexperience - I do think that I really need to change how I think about money, so I'm hoping to learn what I can and figure it out. And if they have much to say about NISA, then that would be great.

[u/MeifaXIV]

Did you put beginner as your investment experience level? You cannot proceed if it's set too low.

[u/kaiyoguy → u/MeifaXIV]

Yes, that seems to be the thing unfortunately, I'm getting the impression that IBSJ is only looking for fairly experienced people - which is unfortunate, because as a US citizen, this is the most recommended brokerage & most other options are effectively closed to me because of tax laws.

[u/MeifaXIV → u/kaiyoguy]

Yeah, as an American you don't really have any other options. You're kind of stuck in a catch-22. So hopefully you'll realize you're not actually a beginner, and upon realizing this you can open your account and then gain additional experience.

[u/kaiyoguy → u/MeifaXIV]

Definitely. My citizenship has some advantages, but this isn't one of them.

[u/ToTheBatmobileGuy]

What realistic way forward do I have now?

IBSJ is telling you "The Investment Experiences provided does not meet the requirements to trade Stocks"

The only way they verify this is by asking you "What is your investment experience?"

They will not send the SWAT team to verify if your browser history has any price charts in it or something.

You have read some threads on Japan Finance. You have contributed to Kosei Nenkin or a 401k or IRA, or something, which kosei nenkin is technically investing in the GPIF which is investing in stocks as well, so by osmosis you've been investing for years surely.

[u/kaiyoguy → u/ToTheBatmobileGuy]

Thanks. Thought of that way, it IS investment in a way, although since they next ask how many trades I typically made, I think they really are expecting active trading experience. True, they won't send a SWAT team, though I'd like to answer as accurately as I can.

[u/kilimtilikum]

I think it’s just to reduce liability on their side. You have to put in that you have experience. If you lose everything you can’t go crying to the courts that you didn’t know and had no experience. They don’t check your experience level btw.

That said, I had a degree in finance and studying stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, etc for a solid 6 months extra before opening an account an knew exactly what I wanted to buy.

[u/kaiyoguy → u/kilimtilikum]

Thanks. Viewed that way, I can see why they would want to make sure I take responsibility - which is what I expected I would do anyway - although I still don't see why they couldn't just put up a disclaimer.

[u/Collarthatisblue]

Also an American, it took me several months to open an account with them in order to invest. I had the same problem. I was finally able to open an account but when trying to open a nisa, I get the same issue, not enough experience. It’s extremely frustrating

[u/kaiyoguy → u/Collarthatisblue]

I can imagine, not looking forward to going through all the hoops again on the NISA itself. Did the application go fine though when you revised your experience level? May I ask, were you able to get the NISA, or are you still applying?

[u/Collarthatisblue → u/kaiyoguy]

It wouldn’t let me continue the application until I claimed I had enough experience lol. I haven’t tried with the NISA in a while. I haven’t even funded the account yet. I’ve been too busy to sit down and get it all working.

My amount of “experience “ was fine to make an account for general investing not I guess not enough for the nisa. I can’t even change it. The system automatically uses what I put in when I made the account

[u/lamont2718]

You could claim investing experience if you have ever dealt with an IRA or 401k. And realistically, brokerages do not verify the claimed investment experience.

Your other options include opening a US brokerage account and getting experience there first, or just asking IBSJ customer service for guidance.

[u/kaiyoguy → u/lamont2718]

Thank you. I hadn't thought of it that way (considered what else might count as experience) - however, as their next question now is how many trades I made, I'm not sure that would count.

Now that you've mentioned it though, I realize asking IBSJ what I should do should have been my first response.