US Investment accounts while overseas

[rothmanj]

Greetings All!

Question I am hoping you can point me in the right direction on.  I recently (2 weeks!) entered my FIRE stage and moved overseas. I updated my address with my bank and they informed me they couldn't administer my index funds any more if I'm overseas.  Any suggestions?

[gocurrycracker]

Presumably this is Vanguard?

For some reason they have a policy of not working with non US residents.
People avoid this by working with any other brokerage company, and/or not informing Vanguard that they are overseas.

[snowcanyon]

I thought it was a bunch of brokerages (Fidelity, Morgan Stanley and a few others). Or do they just not allow you to open accounts?

What happens with the whole mutual fund abroad issue? Sadly, I have MFs, not ETFs.


ugh...

[prognastat]

Vanguard definitely doesn't work with non US residents. Wouldn't surprise me if the others have similar policies, but since I don't have anything with them I've never checked.

A common way around it is to still have a US postal address either through friends/family who will receive and forward the mail or by paying for a service that does this.

[gocurrycracker]

I thought it was a bunch of brokerages (Fidelity, Morgan Stanley and a few others). Or do they just not allow you to open accounts?

What happens with the whole mutual fund abroad issue? Sadly, I have MFs, not ETFs.


ugh...

This is one of those urban legends that the Internet loves to spread again and again.

It's technically illegal for non-US residents to buy MFs. Which is dumb. But there is nothing illegal about owning them, so if you are accumulating while outside the US just buy ETFs. nbd.

I have accounts with Fidelity, Vanguard, JP Morgan, and Etrade. No problems.