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I didn't see a thread about international finance so I hope this is ok. I've been living in the US for 3 years at this point - I have an L1 visa. I have a bit over 30k in a savings account with chase, which has been entirely earned and saved while living in the US. I just got back from a meeting with chase where I was trying to open up a mutual fund/investment account and the application was blocked. My advisor just spent an hour trying to figure out why and eventually got word back from their new york office that as a non-US citizen i'm not allowed to do that. It's apparently only recent and any existing non-us citizens with investment accounts still have them, but there are no new ones allowed. This was the first he'd heard of it and had no idea why, couldn't answer a single one of my questions. Does anyone know why, how come it's a recent thing, and what am I supposed to do with my money now? Am I just not allowed to invest it at all here? It's kind of put a massive spanner into my plans.
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Sep 15, 2014 17:06
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I just found this - http://online.wsj.com/articles/fidelity-bans-overseas-investors-from-buying-mutual-funds-1404246385 But I don't live abroad, and all my money has been earned in the US.
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Sep 15, 2014 17:12
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Well that article is for expats, but Chase did you a huge favor by not opening the account because Chase is terrible bank. As far as investment brokers with local offices I would probably try Charles Schwab.
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Sep 15, 2014 20:23
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There is no law against non-citizens investing on an individual level (quite the contrary, in fact.) That's a bank policy.
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Sep 15, 2014 21:58
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The way it was worded from chase bothered me a little, I didn't realize it was a bank policy. How come chase is a terrible bank (outside of this example)? I just did some searching and I think i'm now leaning towards transferring $30k to etrade to split between 3 funds, exactly 10k a piece, is there anything I should know before I do this? hidden fees etc? It seems like I pay $10 per transfer (e: $20 for mutual funds)- so this would cost me $30(60)? and another $30(60) every time I add to them? I'm saving 2.5k every couple of months at the moment and wanted to keep topping these up so i'd probably do another transfer every quarter. Elephanthead - What benefits would charles schwab give me over this, bearing in mind I will never go to their office and don't plan to talk to anyone on the phone? They appear to charge $75 to buy into a mutual fund rather than etrades $20 e: my friend who works in finance in the uk is telling me that I should find a broker which waives the initial investment charge - which chase were telling me was 5% for my particular funds and that's just what you pay to get in there. Is it possible to not do that in the US? I cant see any brokers claiming to waive that or not and i'd imagine it would be a big selling point. He also said to watch out for an annual management charge which could be up to 1.5% of my total, which I also don't see any mention of on etrades. e: for all the information, funds I was looking at were FKINX, FISEX for the safe choices and FBDIX for some potential high growth/risk. cubicle gangster fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Sep 15, 2014 |
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Sep 15, 2014 22:09
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Slow down and do some more research before you jump in. Etrade is relatively expensive. The three funds you mentioned have large front loads and none are "safe". How did you decide your portfolio allocation and why do those match it? Schwab has much better fund options than the Franklin ones, and where are you getting that $75 number from?
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Sep 15, 2014 22:52
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For 10k each you could just open an account with Vanguard and get 3 different funds with Admiral class shares. No trading fees, no front load, lower expense ratios. Those funds you mentioned look absolutely awful. edit: actually never mind, you're not a permanent resident. But you could still open an account with Schwab and trade Vanguard ETFs. Cicero fucked around with this message at 23:04 on Sep 15, 2014 |
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Sep 15, 2014 23:00
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slap me silly posted:Slow down and do some more research before you jump in. Etrade is relatively expensive. The three funds you mentioned have large front loads and none are "safe". How did you decide your portfolio allocation and why do those match it? Schwab has much better fund options than the Franklin ones, and where are you getting that $75 number from? This is my research, i've not started yet. I have now realized that those funds are total poo poo and it's a good thing that chase wouldn't let me open this. the guy at chase dropped these recommendations and sold them to me... I was planning to run everything by a friend before actually using the account so i'd like to think i'd have caught that at least. Kind of a dick move though, he made out like 5% to buy in was just standard for mutual funds, some were lower like 4.5 but it was around there. I even asked if there were any with no fee and he was just like 'they've all got some fees, these are your best choices' The schwab website here - http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/pricing_services/fees_minimums says $75 per buy on transaction free funds, which is what I have learnt I should be looking at now. That makes me think they charge me $75 for each deposit/buy in i make, so if i've got 3 transaction fee funds i drop money into every quarter that's 225 a time. Is this not correct? So far i've done some reading up on expense ratios, charges and using the sectors to decide how to spread it. After that I spent the last hour searching and reading about funds, and are funds like LEXCX, TRBCX, TSWIX more in line? They appear to be from what i've picked up so far. cubicle gangster fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Sep 15, 2014 |
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Sep 15, 2014 23:20
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I'd never even heard of a "transaction free fund" before now. If you buy ETFs it looks like they just charge the regular $9 fee. Which makes sense, because I myself have used Schwab to buy Vanguard funds and definitely didn't get charged $75.
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Sep 15, 2014 23:26
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Is it not the same thing where it says on here 'no transaction fee fund' ? https://www.etrade.wallst.com/v1/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?symbol=lexcx&rsO=new When you browse funds it's like the first category it makes you pick between and I read I shouldn't be looking at ones with fees now.
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Sep 15, 2014 23:30
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Why wouldn't you use e.g. SWPPX, SWLBX, SWERX which have no fees and reasonable to low expense ratio? Edit: Don't use etrade  Schwab or Vanguard will surely get you what you need for cheaper.
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Sep 15, 2014 23:32
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Didn't even see those, I was searching no fee through etrade. I'm tempted to go with vanguard over schwab just because the website is so much nicer laid out and finding information is easier... I'll do a lot more research before going in, but are vanguards VEIPX, VQNPX, VEXAX reasonable?
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Sep 15, 2014 23:55
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For questions about which funds are best, you probably want to ask in the Newbie Finance or Long-Term Investing threads stickied at the top of the forum.
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Sep 16, 2014 00:01
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If you dont know what you're doing standard advice is pretty much to pick passive indexes. They are in themselves diversified. Although if you want to still diversify further maybe look at a us index and either a global or European index. Vanguard is a good pick. Management fees are killer so keep them as low as possible. Again compare whatever crap chase offered with vanguard. A few bucks per deposit (while usually avoidable) is nothing compared to percentage points on the whole balance. Standard im not an accountant disclaimer.
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Sep 21, 2014 12:42
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