[Kinsale]

Hi,

I am new to the forum, currently living in the US, dual citizenship (US, French) and looking at moving back to France to retire (within 2 years).
I've been been following the threads about the major brokerage firms cancelling accounts of US citizens residing in France (maybe also elsewhere in Europe).
My understanding is that this is due to the regulation around soliciting investments from non resident. This is why for example an iShare US index ETF in Europe is different than the same iShare ETF in the US (and the prospectus forbids US Persons from inventing in the European one).

Anyway, I'm planing the move and I'm trying to find authoritative answers, without much success. I called both Fidelity and Schwab, and they are not saying that I would have to close my accounts, but that I would be restricted in what I can invest on (basically no Passive Investments like ETF and Funds). Schwab seemed to be the most knowledgeable - and pointed me to their international division. They have an expat essential page, but peeking around I found that I could not open an account from France (will have to investigate).

Does anyone went through this adventure, and can share their experience and recommendations ?

Thanks in advance.

JC

I am a Schwab customer and they told me they didn’t care where you live as long as your legal address is in the States. I was able to open a Schwab Global account from France with no problems. Can you get a U.S. legal address?

 

[Kinsale]

Hi,

I am new to the forum, currently living in the US, dual citizenship (US, French) and looking at moving back to France to retire (within 2 years).
I've been been following the threads about the major brokerage firms cancelling accounts of US citizens residing in France (maybe also elsewhere in Europe).
My understanding is that this is due to the regulation around soliciting investments from non resident. This is why for example an iShare US index ETF in Europe is different than the same iShare ETF in the US (and the prospectus forbids US Persons from inventing in the European one).

Anyway, I'm planing the move and I'm trying to find authoritative answers, without much success. I called both Fidelity and Schwab, and they are not saying that I would have to close my accounts, but that I would be restricted in what I can invest on (basically no Passive Investments like ETF and Funds). Schwab seemed to be the most knowledgeable - and pointed me to their international division. They have an expat essential page, but peeking around I found that I could not open an account from France (will have to investigate).

Does anyone went through this adventure, and can share their experience and recommendations ?

Thanks in advance.

JC

I thought I would add here that Schwab now accepts European mobile numbers for 2-step verification purposes. That will be immensely helpful to its European expat clients.