Hi Jim,
apart from letting me know how stupid I am and what bright a contemporary you are...
....and please dont get me wrong, both can't be emphasized enough..
...whats your point?
So you don't think the Euro is in deep trouble, do you?.
Yep, the EU is huge, so what? Just because there us little precedent for something doesn't make it impossible.
It just makes people consider it to be.
I spent the last 35 years learning about German politics so I know one thing or two about what's considered to be EU's powerhouse.
In the end it turns out the relation of causes and effects still exists.
Besides that I didn't ask for a way to evade taxes etc., all I want is to minimise the effects of German/EU policy on my money.
Since you are so smart, why won't you share your ideas on that instead of publicly inflating your ego?
If you were so smart, you would realise it is almost impossible for as non dom to open accounts in Switzerland, couple dwith the fact you are US is is really a no go.
What are you bringing to the party, USD10 mio of funds that are 110% clean with total paper trail of provenance and IRS filings for last 10 years ?
Indeed, there's always the possibility of jumping from frying pan into the fire.
But, as long as it's 10-15% tops, it's a managed risk hobby. After all, the whole situation it's a 1st world problem. Keeping the mind active even if there's not real money again is a reward by itself.
yep, that's why I started the thread.
Btw money's 100% clean, I'm ok with IRS (thanks to Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedure a couple of years ago)
... if it were 10 Mio. I'd probably find a bank quite easily, even in Switzerland.
I still don't get it - why not just use a brokerage (USA based ones are best) to exchange to and store Swiss francs? Why would you need an account at a Swiss bank?
Or if very significant amount, and you worry about a particular bank/brokerage going under, buy short term Swiss government bonds?
Personally I hold cash in USD myself.
Indeed, USD doesn't have to be perfect to be an alternative, just good enough:
$10 mio is chicken feed here for the banks
It's not worth the effort to do the necessary due dfillegence and check provenance of funds under $30 mio.
The Swiss banks really do not need you
Indeed, up 17% against the euro in the last 12 months, and dollar index almost at 107! Crazy!
No, they don ́t need me.
(a few people here seem just to be writing in the forum so that they can let other people know that they ́either stupid or unwanted - that ́s really interesting and quite entertaining...however I ́d strictly recommend not too do so in real live as that way far too much information about oneself is given away (I guess that ́s refered to as "self-revelation in English" ..which might come back to bite ppl later...)
However, as of the day before yestersday HSBC Switzerland accepts non-resident US citizens as clients if they have at least CHF 5 Mio.
At least that was what the HSBC guy told me.
Don ́t get me wrong, I ́m not trying to say that you have no idea what you ́re talking about, I ́m just saying most recently somebody working for a Swiss bank told me something completely different.
FATCA makes that difficult, too.
US Expats are not accepted by most brokerage companies, as far as I know. Interactive brokers and Charles Schwab might be an exemption here, but I ́m not really sure.
Besides that trading outside US markets as a US citizen can get you in serious trouble because, depending on what you do, you might be required to report stuff in a very specific way to IRS and also pay taxes. It ́s said to take considerable expertise to figure out when those specific rules apply, so without some in depth knowledge you might end up cheating the IRS without you even knowing ...but them finding out someday.
Anyway thank you for your suggestion, I ́ll try to do a little more research on that. May be there are safe ways.
HSBC is not really a Swiss bank, they have premises here, they have a Swiss banking license, but.....
They got fined for money laundering, got exposed by whistle-blower, denounced the whistle-blower for breaking privacy laws... what else is needed to be a real Swiss bank?
What makes you believe that your bank is making a profit with you? As an American are you lots of trouble and cost for them as well... but rejecting you would not just be a reputational risk but might get them in trouble with German anti-discrimination laws as you are a resident. So they rather serve you.