They have a good mobile phone app for investing and tracking your portfolio. Individual |Professional. Mail: [email protected], Contact type*: Looking forward to the guide. Welcome to the new interconnected global economy! Thanks for all your help, much appreciated by myself and plenty of others. I’m looking for some details in using UAE Exchange for transferring funds from the UAE to my IBKR account. Still positive but not as much as I’d initially thought when first reading this post. My IBKR account is ready to receive funds (as their friendly emails keep reminding me). These days there is no minimum for IB, but if you have less than $2k you might pay a higher platform fee. This is how to invest in stocks and bonds as an expat, exactly how I do it myself.
I am an expat in Bahrain, Middle East, originally from South Africa. Steve.
I also dislike the $10.00 charge for withdrawing. In IB Account Management, select Wire Transfer and enter your bank details (not UAE Exchange).
Hi JArenas, this is theoretically true, but there is really only a handful of countries which have signed the Estate tax treaty with the US. Was trying to get to the bottom of that? You can use your bank to convert the money into the right currency and send it to the broker, but often their fees are high and exchange rates not very favourable. Hi Nicholas, you can fund your account in GBP and buy funds denominated in GBP. Hi, we would always say that instead of investing in few individual stocks just buy the whole world! I am in the process of opening my IB account. So it can over-estimate the cost sometimes. Best advice to avoid international tax laws and get set up for a simple investment plan?
I’ve looked into IB , Saxo, Internaxx etc, My main concern is security of title of my share portfolio. Hi ! 2.
Investing as an expat is mysterious. This assuming I went dividend reinvested funds.
You won’t be liable for US estate tax as long as you don’t invest in US-domiciled ETFs and don’t have more than $60,000 sitting uninvested in your IB account.
Thank you so much for this gold mine of information. Within a few clicks you get all necessary information and are ready to buy or sell instantly. They are similar to mutual funds, but are traded more like an individual stock. I am looking to start with IB and I’ve selected some funds to invest with like; This concurs with what I’ve been reading about estate taxes in the US, though I do get conflicting stories if you use a US broker even though the ETFs are Irish domiciled. If you invest in a distributing ETF the dividends paid to you will be arriving to your account already reduced by this tax.
Hello, Is the tax applicable for Indian passport holders residing in UAE and investing in such ETFs? Hi Shay, yes you can but I wouldn’t make them a large part of your portfolio. I would be grateful if you could help me advise with the following.
But, living in Dubai, nobody could tell me how to invest with Vanguard as an expat. You can message me for his details. Hello, great information on this blog! Learn how your comment data is processed. those based in the US. Thank you so much for this blog. Contact with the support. Is this something to consider, i.e.
Hi Steve, really appreciate all the advise on here and very interested in joining the workshop. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/the-big-shorts-michael-burry-says-he-has-found-the-next-market-bubble.html, This is what I say! clients of US brokers are covered by the SIPC for up to $500,000 of stocks and bonds, and $250,000 of cash).
They do not accept AED though. I’m also closing one of my term insurance policies and taking a 50% hit and transfering the money to Sarwa/IB; lets see how it goes.
https://www.business24-7.ae/interactive-brokers-uae/ I’m starting in the new aventure of the investment ,and I got some questions. Newsroom; Support This process may sound complicated but, once you have the accounts set up and have transferred money a couple of times, it becomes fairly straightforward. Swissquote MEA Ltd. holds a Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) Category 3 license. But, I guess I’ll complete it if the alternative is to lose access to preferential withholding tax rates across my entire account. I’m learning so much.
An international ex-US index (like FTSE All-World ex-UD Index ETF) Couple of questions.
As per the funds fact sheets they seem to be well diversified (equity/bonds/REITs, large/small cap,…) Now…which ETFs to buy?
Founders Marc Bürki and Paolo Buzzi are still involved in Swissquote. Very hard to find this information in a clear format anywhere. Keep it simple, silly is not lost on me. 2. Paolo is the CTO of Swissquote, before which he was working as a software specialist and integration technical engineer at Rolm Systems in Santa Clara, USA. I am getting my head around it all. Hi Karan, it depends where you are resident.
Do you know if that presents any additional estate tax risks compared to if I had the option to open an account with one of IKBR’s other subsidiaries? -I’m spanish national but UAE resident, are you recommending to sell ours EFT to all the expat before go back home or only to the British? Avoid unnecessary currency conversion fees. I also think though it’s pretty easy to learn how to DIY and it will save you money over the long term as your portofolio grows. Stick to ETFs domiciled in Europe (with ‘UCITS’ in their name) and you will be ok. JustETF.com and Morningstar.com are great places to learn more about all the different ETFs out there, including where they are domiciled, fees and what they invest in. Is it true or not? We won’t share your email with third parties and will never spam you. Thank you so much for getting back to me and I really appreciate the advice which I will heed.
Hi Gaz, do you want to invest in USD denominated ETFs? Hard to beat IB on price really, especially when your portfolio gets above $100k. The domicile of the ETF is everything, doesn’t matter where the stocks within the ETF are listed.
Hi, Also, with the brexit issue going on, is it safe to invest in ETF traded on the UK stock market (as returns would be impacted by gbp to usd ratio). Can you please give some feedback on IB versus TD Direct International as the brokerage houses? What do you say to Michael Burry’s latest analysis on passive funds? Thanks for the feedback. Sending money to your broker is usually much cheaper via an intermediary (such as an exchange house or online transfer company) than direct from your bank, especially if a change of currency is involved. Ravi. You mentioned that the ETF should have UCITS in the name to avoid tax in the US. So no stamp duty on VWRD etc. Hi James, yes LSE as you are buying in USD (or GBP). I do not need all of this information for free so simply drop me an email about private coaching if you want to.
You send the broker money (more on that in a bit) and tell them which ETFs you want to invest in. Third-party charges are deducted from the transfer amount. Does it make sense to have a USD offshore account linked to IB for buying and selling and only use UAE Exchange to convert my Dirhams into USD from my local bank account to my offshore account? A little bit of learning and setting up and you can save yourself some extra pension money by not paying the fees. THB is not accepted by IB, so you would need to convert beforehand. I have approx £100k in a SIPP. Let’s say you invest $1,000 monthly for 30 years.
Hi Steve, But I am not sure if this make sense from a Tax, Fx and Fee perspective. Contact me if you need more help. This seems helpful: https://cleartax.in/s/capital-gains-income.
Now I can forget about it for a while! Do I need to register at the sec? Thanks again. I am assuming the term commissions means each individual trade? It will take a while for $200k to become $500k, by which time consumer protection rules and amounts may have changed. It gets converted to dollars when I buy ETF in USD. You can practice with small amounts (e.g. Edit: I am not using UAE Exchange anymore. This means better access to liquidity during market crashes (as I’ll show later in this Swissquote review), and that financial standing is publicly available. Thanks for your help. Hi Aurora, in your shoes we would start investing as soon as it is possible. Assets held by global custodians and cash protected up to EUR 100'000. Irish) ETFs only with a 15% withholding tax on dividends.
My account is USD, so does that mean I am better off buying the option where I pay with USD? No suspicious practices. Figuring out expat self-investing is absolutely worth it though. Please let me know what you think, really appreciate your advice. Your account can hold cash in several currencies. Without them, you’d have to buy all the shares in an index individually and you probably wouldn’t bother. That sounds like a good solution, having the sub account in USD. The estate tax is applied to the part of the portfolio that is domiciled in the US. And what are your thoughts on using http://www.ig.com as an interactive broker? I’d love to help more people in Qatar! There are different versions of those ETFs which are GBP denominated and distribute dividends: VWRL and IWDG – look these up. I am looking into long term investments. I have two questions I would appreciate your insight and advice on. What is the cut off point for short term vs long term gain? Even when you hear about low-cost options like Vanguard or learn what an ETF is (see below), you can still hit a brick wall.
I am an expat in Bahrain, Middle East, originally from South Africa. Steve.
I also dislike the $10.00 charge for withdrawing. In IB Account Management, select Wire Transfer and enter your bank details (not UAE Exchange).
Hi JArenas, this is theoretically true, but there is really only a handful of countries which have signed the Estate tax treaty with the US. Was trying to get to the bottom of that? You can use your bank to convert the money into the right currency and send it to the broker, but often their fees are high and exchange rates not very favourable. Hi Nicholas, you can fund your account in GBP and buy funds denominated in GBP. Hi, we would always say that instead of investing in few individual stocks just buy the whole world! I am in the process of opening my IB account. So it can over-estimate the cost sometimes. Best advice to avoid international tax laws and get set up for a simple investment plan?
I’ve looked into IB , Saxo, Internaxx etc, My main concern is security of title of my share portfolio. Hi ! 2.
Investing as an expat is mysterious. This assuming I went dividend reinvested funds.
You won’t be liable for US estate tax as long as you don’t invest in US-domiciled ETFs and don’t have more than $60,000 sitting uninvested in your IB account.
Thank you so much for this gold mine of information. Within a few clicks you get all necessary information and are ready to buy or sell instantly. They are similar to mutual funds, but are traded more like an individual stock. I am looking to start with IB and I’ve selected some funds to invest with like; This concurs with what I’ve been reading about estate taxes in the US, though I do get conflicting stories if you use a US broker even though the ETFs are Irish domiciled. If you invest in a distributing ETF the dividends paid to you will be arriving to your account already reduced by this tax.
Hello, Is the tax applicable for Indian passport holders residing in UAE and investing in such ETFs? Hi Shay, yes you can but I wouldn’t make them a large part of your portfolio. I would be grateful if you could help me advise with the following.
But, living in Dubai, nobody could tell me how to invest with Vanguard as an expat. You can message me for his details. Hello, great information on this blog! Learn how your comment data is processed. those based in the US. Thank you so much for this blog. Contact with the support. Is this something to consider, i.e.
Hi Steve, really appreciate all the advise on here and very interested in joining the workshop. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/the-big-shorts-michael-burry-says-he-has-found-the-next-market-bubble.html, This is what I say! clients of US brokers are covered by the SIPC for up to $500,000 of stocks and bonds, and $250,000 of cash).
They do not accept AED though. I’m also closing one of my term insurance policies and taking a 50% hit and transfering the money to Sarwa/IB; lets see how it goes.
https://www.business24-7.ae/interactive-brokers-uae/ I’m starting in the new aventure of the investment ,and I got some questions. Newsroom; Support This process may sound complicated but, once you have the accounts set up and have transferred money a couple of times, it becomes fairly straightforward. Swissquote MEA Ltd. holds a Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) Category 3 license. But, I guess I’ll complete it if the alternative is to lose access to preferential withholding tax rates across my entire account. I’m learning so much.
An international ex-US index (like FTSE All-World ex-UD Index ETF) Couple of questions.
As per the funds fact sheets they seem to be well diversified (equity/bonds/REITs, large/small cap,…) Now…which ETFs to buy?
Founders Marc Bürki and Paolo Buzzi are still involved in Swissquote. Very hard to find this information in a clear format anywhere. Keep it simple, silly is not lost on me. 2. Paolo is the CTO of Swissquote, before which he was working as a software specialist and integration technical engineer at Rolm Systems in Santa Clara, USA. I am getting my head around it all. Hi Karan, it depends where you are resident.
Do you know if that presents any additional estate tax risks compared to if I had the option to open an account with one of IKBR’s other subsidiaries? -I’m spanish national but UAE resident, are you recommending to sell ours EFT to all the expat before go back home or only to the British? Avoid unnecessary currency conversion fees. I also think though it’s pretty easy to learn how to DIY and it will save you money over the long term as your portofolio grows. Stick to ETFs domiciled in Europe (with ‘UCITS’ in their name) and you will be ok. JustETF.com and Morningstar.com are great places to learn more about all the different ETFs out there, including where they are domiciled, fees and what they invest in. Is it true or not? We won’t share your email with third parties and will never spam you. Thank you so much for getting back to me and I really appreciate the advice which I will heed.
Hi Gaz, do you want to invest in USD denominated ETFs? Hard to beat IB on price really, especially when your portfolio gets above $100k. The domicile of the ETF is everything, doesn’t matter where the stocks within the ETF are listed.
Hi, Also, with the brexit issue going on, is it safe to invest in ETF traded on the UK stock market (as returns would be impacted by gbp to usd ratio). Can you please give some feedback on IB versus TD Direct International as the brokerage houses? What do you say to Michael Burry’s latest analysis on passive funds? Thanks for the feedback. Sending money to your broker is usually much cheaper via an intermediary (such as an exchange house or online transfer company) than direct from your bank, especially if a change of currency is involved. Ravi. You mentioned that the ETF should have UCITS in the name to avoid tax in the US. So no stamp duty on VWRD etc. Hi James, yes LSE as you are buying in USD (or GBP). I do not need all of this information for free so simply drop me an email about private coaching if you want to.
You send the broker money (more on that in a bit) and tell them which ETFs you want to invest in. Third-party charges are deducted from the transfer amount. Does it make sense to have a USD offshore account linked to IB for buying and selling and only use UAE Exchange to convert my Dirhams into USD from my local bank account to my offshore account? A little bit of learning and setting up and you can save yourself some extra pension money by not paying the fees. THB is not accepted by IB, so you would need to convert beforehand. I have approx £100k in a SIPP. Let’s say you invest $1,000 monthly for 30 years.
Hi Steve, But I am not sure if this make sense from a Tax, Fx and Fee perspective. Contact me if you need more help. This seems helpful: https://cleartax.in/s/capital-gains-income.
Now I can forget about it for a while! Do I need to register at the sec? Thanks again. I am assuming the term commissions means each individual trade? It will take a while for $200k to become $500k, by which time consumer protection rules and amounts may have changed. It gets converted to dollars when I buy ETF in USD. You can practice with small amounts (e.g. Edit: I am not using UAE Exchange anymore. This means better access to liquidity during market crashes (as I’ll show later in this Swissquote review), and that financial standing is publicly available. Thanks for your help. Hi Aurora, in your shoes we would start investing as soon as it is possible. Assets held by global custodians and cash protected up to EUR 100'000. Irish) ETFs only with a 15% withholding tax on dividends.
My account is USD, so does that mean I am better off buying the option where I pay with USD? No suspicious practices. Figuring out expat self-investing is absolutely worth it though. Please let me know what you think, really appreciate your advice. Your account can hold cash in several currencies. Without them, you’d have to buy all the shares in an index individually and you probably wouldn’t bother. That sounds like a good solution, having the sub account in USD. The estate tax is applied to the part of the portfolio that is domiciled in the US. And what are your thoughts on using http://www.ig.com as an interactive broker? I’d love to help more people in Qatar! There are different versions of those ETFs which are GBP denominated and distribute dividends: VWRL and IWDG – look these up. I am looking into long term investments. I have two questions I would appreciate your insight and advice on. What is the cut off point for short term vs long term gain? Even when you hear about low-cost options like Vanguard or learn what an ETF is (see below), you can still hit a brick wall.