Isn't that what you said you did?
Some complaints I have against ADRs: price premium compared to native exchanges, additional dividend fees, 15% non-reclaimable tax, and last but not least they're probably subject to US inheritance taxes unlike original stocks if you have someone to inherit them to.
No stamp duty seems to be the main benefit (besides buying in USD), but that's relevant just for certain exchanges. Swiss stocks bought through a non-Swiss broker won't have it.
The ADR's I held had ZERO withholding tax, as they were not US Assets. These included Vodaphone, Royal Dutch Shell, China Mobile. I believe they fall outside US inheritance tax being non US assets. ADR's of UK companies avoid UK stamp Duty, so it's way better to buy as ADR's.
I only have a US account with them however they provide instructions for foreign currencies. You get a very good rate of exchange . Historically the had an account in CH for CHF, however that seems to have changed. http://international.schwab.com/publ...tructions.html
I will have a look at captrader as well.
Ideally the broker should allow in-payments in CHF and not charge absurd amounts like banks for conversion and out payments should also be flexible (even though I am not looking at cashing out in the near future)
Any idea how the debit cards work from either of the these traders. Can I withdraw anywhere in the world without any crazy charges (every time I think about charges from swiss banks I get a shock, normally baking services should be free but that is another topic)
@ fatmanfilms - do you still think fundsmith is a good option today with its current valuation and is the 1.27% fee on their euro traded fund not high?
I still have well in excess of 50% of net worth in Fundsmith, more than half in the Euro fund. I don't expect that to change very much in the next 25-35 years (I will be 90 years old by then if still alive). The lack of trading by Terry Smith & hidden costs that entails makes the fund better value than it looks. Many funds waste 1.5-3 % by overtrading, it does not form part of charges.
Differences are in trading fees (it's more expensive to buy on european exchanges), taxation, dividend withholding rates, US estate tax, and also european funds are allowed to reinvest dividends unlike US. You can get raw data to evaluate end-to-end efficiency of different funds from the swiss tax perpective on https://www.ictax.admin.ch/extern/en.html#/search
Most brokers don't offer any cards, it's not a core part of their business. Schwab does - you can get a visa debit card backed by your trading account balance, and it works like that yes, free worldwide withdrawals at intrabank rates or very close, it's pretty good. They even reimburse some ATM fees.
Schwab operates as a bank as well as a broker, which is why they have a card. Mt Schwab Checkes are still valid where TDA stopped foreign residents using then about 5 years ago.
I would like to know how if we can transfer CHF to their accounts instead of Euros to avoid the bank conversion fees? And what exchange rate do they give as they do their accounting in Euros.
@fatmanfilms : maybe you have the answer to this.
thanks!
Unfortunately you can't, I would have rather sent them USD but it was not an option, strange as over 60% of the fund is traded as USD.
With Currency fair the cost is tiny, so thats what I have done, however you will need a Euro account yourself. This is easy as Swiss banks will open Euro accounts without any issue.
They did not ask for any Euro account for the moment..I think that will only be when I would like to sell my allocation. But that could also come to the Swiss account by converting it into chf ?
Is there an online portal where I can track my portfolio?
Normally this should be provided by the fund but haven't received any response to the queries I sent them.
What is the advantage of going through all the paperwork of Fundsmith rather that using your favourite broker?
Fundsmith is fatmanfilm’s favourite broker.
Are they only for traders with deep pockets?