I am American and live in Europe and inherited stocks and bonds

February 21, 2023 11:11 PM

I understand owning stocks and bonds at this place while living abroad is frowned upon and unless I plan to go back SOON (maybe this is not a bad idea!? Buuuuut I can’t just do that) I need to liquidate the account. They indicated that if my stay overseas was temporary that there was some flexibility…I would like to not deal with this right now actually (in the sense of transferring everything over to Europe) and my life is kind of a gigantic huge mess.

If I transfer it over here I’ll be pressured to spend it probably not in a way that I necessarily want… towards land or property that is meaningless to me personally and would destroy this one chance to be free at some point… so it’s important to me I keep this separate for now. Is it possible for me to put this into a trust and just leave it how it is? Can I go over in the summer to show my face and change my address even though I’m not there full time. I don’t even have a bank account in the states anymore but I think I could make that happen. Can I keep my money invested if I move it into a trust? I couldn’t get an appointment with the estate lawyer I’ve been personally recommended until mid March and it’s all playing on my mind.

My email is [e-mail]

TLDR: can you keep your money invested while overseas if it’s in a trust. Yes I have an appointment with a lawyer.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (7 answers total)

Talk to your lawyer as my understanding is the rules are very specific to mutual funds, i.e. if you are a US citizen then keep your investment accounts in the USA, wherever you may happen to live, or there will be tax and reporting headaches. Some of the larger sleazier international banks (HSBC cough) will let you set up linked bank accounts in multiple countries without having to actually go to those countries, so you can probably get a USA bank account without having to make a trip back to the USA. With that you should be able to get a USA Vanguard account or other brokerage account of your choice. US citizen living abroad with stocks and bonds in the USA is totally fine.
posted by Rhedyn at 12:45 AM on February 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Of course you can. You can just leave it where it is and deal with it later.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:50 AM on February 22, 2023 [4 favorites]

It's also contingent on where in Europe you live: in any case, get professional assistance in sorting this out - unless you're already in that field it gets so byzantine so fast that it's not worth, really, thinking twice about. In Germany, a mutual fund isn't recognized and you'll need to declare each stock individually. Or, you keep it tied to your US bank and it becomes just "income" - unless it doesn't and what the magic incantation is that transforms your mutual fund into this or that, only a tax professional can tell you.

Put it all on ice for as long as you can (a year should be doable), get an extension basically, and then set up a plan with a pro.

tl:dr - interview a few different professionals, hire the one you see eye to eye with. Let them sort it out.

Best of luck!
posted by From Bklyn at 4:51 AM on February 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Of course you can. You can just leave it where it is and deal with it later.

I have lived abroad for twenty years, and Vanguard tried to make a stink about my account but I ignored it and nothing untoward happened. I can't promise this will work for everyone, but it works for me.

That said, because of FATCA, some forms of investing overseas are really complicated for US citizens, so there are reasons you might want to just ignore these investments for a while.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:49 AM on February 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

I need to liquidate the account [...] If I transfer it over here I’ll be pressured to spend it probably not in a way that I necessarily want

This situation is a bit hard to parse from the question and I agree with others that you should (a) consult an expert and (b) take a deep breath, possibly in the other order -- from my read (which may be inaccurate) it sounds like you are being pressured to do things in a hurry (by whatever company holds what you inherited, by yourself possibly due to an overwhelming feeling situation, by ???) that you really shouldn't need or even want to do, at least not on any particular timeline. I don't think you should completely ignore it as there may be tax/reporting implications and you would want to know what those are. But depending on the form of the inheritance there may be massive implications to simply "liquidating" it and you need expert advice from someone who is actually on your side (e.g. because they are being paid to be). I think you should as part of consulting an expert try to figure out what pressure is about actual legal requirements, and what is about things that are more logistic (e.g. the need for a US address, the need for a US number to do 2fa). And what the legal requirements actually are; if it's that you just can't buy various kinds of funds or that the account becomes complicated for them because of overseas investing laws, then they may want you to close the account, but that's somewhat different than you being obligated to.

Also, if it's a big company (e.g. Vanguard), and you google around, you'll find lots of relevant discussion on the topic.
posted by advil at 6:07 AM on February 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

It will depend some on which country you're in - as said above- Germany doesn't permit mutual funds to be owned by non-citizens. You need tax advice from someone versed in both US and the country you're living in. I do know that Schwab will allow non-resident accounts for Americans living in the EU but some of the other banks won't. And yes, individual stocks are ok. The EU treats capital gains and inheritance differently than the US does so you really need good advice about what is workable in the country you live in.
posted by leslies at 6:23 AM on February 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Despite not knowing how much money you're talking about, my advice is to hire an investment advisor. I inherited a decent sum of money in the past year, and after interviewing several advisors, I picked one and had them help me transfer everything (including the accounts I had prior to the inheritance) to their brokerage. She calls me every month or so just to check in and make sure nothing's changed, and to recommend changes she thinks will be beneficial. It was a bit of work to get everything signed to get going, but now that it's all in place, it's easy - and would be easy to do from anywhere in the world.
posted by summerstorm at 1:57 PM on February 22, 2023