Many American brokerage companies have stopped servicing their clients who have foreign addresses, including those who made aliya. These firms have decided that government regulations have simply made the job of maintaining clients overseas too complex. For some people, it may seem like bad news when their broker sends them a letter saying, “We can no longer service your investment portfolio. Please transfer to another firm within 30 days.”
It’s really good news!
If you’ve gotten a letter from your investment company, or if you simply feel that they aren’t giving you the service you deserve, you’ll need to choose a new home for your assets. Take this time to improve your systems and your portfolios by working with a company that specializes in cross-border clients living in Israel.
There are investment advisory firms that are licensed both in the United States and also in Israel, so you don’t need to liquidate your American account and wire all of the money to your Israeli bank if you don’t want to.
Before you make the switch, though, think about what you really want, and ask the new company if they can provide such things as:
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- Online viewing,
- Access to stocks, bonds, ETFs, and mutual funds,
- Retirement accounts (like IRAs),
- Bank CDs with competitive interest,
- Local service and advice.
Free webinar
To answer questions that people have about how they can manage their U.S. accounts from Israel, I’m running a live webinar on October 24 at both 4pm and 8pm. Seating is limited, so click here to register.
Douglas Goldstein, CFP®, is the Director of Profile Investment Service, Ltd., which specializes in helping people who live in Israel with their US dollar assets and American investment and retirement accounts. He helps olim meet their financial goals through asset allocation, financial planning, and using money managers.
Published October 22, 2018.