Thai Brokerage Account

[Yellowtail]

I want to open a brokerage account in Thailand for my son. I do not mind going in to open the account in person, but I would like him to be able to manage the account online.

 

He is a Thai/US citizen 

 

Any recommendations?

[tonray]

Any of the major banks can accomodate an online access...but...how old is he ? If he is a minor than there may be considerations on who owns and controls the account. My GF has a brokerage account with Kasikorn to facillitate complany stock plan....she never uses it but it does have online access.

[marc26]

My wife opened an account at Bangkok Bank this year to participate in the PTT OR IPO, she said they were great to deal with.

[Yellowtail]

13 hours ago, tonray said:

Any of the major banks can accomodate an online access...but...how old is he ? If he is a minor than there may be considerations on who owns and controls the account. My GF has a brokerage account with Kasikorn to facillitate complany stock plan....she never uses it but it does have online access.

 

Thanks, he'll be 18 in a few weeks.

 

I was thinking something like TISCO, but their site seems to be only in Thai so I'm sure if it's what I'm looking for.

[Yellowtail]

9 hours ago, marc26 said:

My wife opened an account at Bangkok Bank this year to participate in the PTT OR IPO, she said they were great to deal with.

 

I'll look into the BKK Bank offerings. 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

Since your son is a US citizen, you might wish familiarize him with how the IRS treats certain non-US investments, especially mutual funds and whole life insurance policies, so that you don't set him up for a nasty tax surprise later on. These investment vehicles are really not a good idea for US citizens or green card holders due to these tax issues. Local banks, however, are keen to sell them, although they may possibly refuse to do so if they know that the accountholder is American, as some local mutual funds will not accept Americans as shareholders due to onerous reporting requirement imposed by the US if they were to do so. My apologies if you were already aware of this.

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, Etaoin Shrdlu said:

Since your son is a US citizen, you might wish familiarize him with how the IRS treats certain non-US investments, especially mutual funds and whole life insurance policies, so that you don't set him up for a nasty tax surprise later on. These investment vehicles are really not a good idea for US citizens or green card holders due to these tax issues. Local banks, however, are keen to sell them, although they may possibly refuse to do so if they know that the accountholder is American, as some local mutual funds will not accept Americans as shareholders due to onerous reporting requirement imposed by the US if they were to do so. My apologies if you were already aware of this.

 

Thanks, one reason I want to get him set up with a Thai brokerage account is so that he learns to invest on his own rather than rely on the investment vehicles the banks are selling. 

 

He'll open his Thai account using his Thai ID, but he does have to file in the US so the sooner he can learn about it, the better. 

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, andy said:

As the above post says, this is a potentially massive tax headache for him as a US citizen.  A better idea would be to try to open an account with a US brokerage like Vanguard or Schwab - if you have a US address and phone number that can be used.

 

He has a UTMA with Fidelity that we're moving into a brokerage for him when he's 18. 

 

Paying taxes is part of making money...

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

1 hour ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Thanks, one reason I want to get him set up with a Thai brokerage account is so that he learns to invest on his own rather than rely on the investment vehicles the banks are selling. 

 

He'll open his Thai account using his Thai ID, but he does have to file in the US so the sooner he can learn about it, the better. 

It is very good that you are teaching him about saving and investing for his future. But the US tax treatment of non-US mutual funds is absolutely diabolical. Same for whole life insurance policies that serve as wrappers for investments. In either case, even if he wanted to comply with US tax reporting requirements, he would find that the financial information provided by these types of investments makes it impossible to be fully compliant. Staying tax-compliant even if investing solely in individual company shares is difficult due to the record-keeping needed to capture all income and record capital gains and losses properly along with corresponding exchange rates when taxable events occur. In my opinion, he would be much better served by staying with US-based investments only. Much less of a chance of getting into a very serious tax problem.

[Oxx]

"I want to open a brokerage account in Thailand for my son"

 

That's a bit ill-defined.  Is the account for Thai mutual funds? Thai equities/ETFs? Foreign equities/ETFs?

 

All the previous answers referring to opening an account via a bank are AFAIK only valid for Thai mutual funds.  It's not, in my experience, possible to open a securities trading account at a bank.

 

Thai mutual funds are horrible with high annual management charges, and often additional charges on purchase and/or sale.  The standard of active fund management is generally pretty poor, too.

[Yellowtail]

1 hour ago, Oxx said:

"I want to open a brokerage account in Thailand for my son"

 

That's a bit ill-defined.  Is the account for Thai mutual funds? Thai equities/ETFs? Foreign equities/ETFs?

 

All the previous answers referring to opening an account via a bank are AFAIK only valid for Thai mutual funds.  It's not, in my experience, possible to open a securities trading account at a bank.

 

Thai mutual funds are horrible with high annual management charges, and often additional charges on purchase and/or sale.  The standard of active fund management is generally pretty poor, too.

 

I understand a brokerage account to be an account that would facilitate Thai equities, mutual funds, ETFs and most any other typical investment vehicles. Similar to a brokerage account in the US. 

 

I like banks for borrowing money, storing cash and for safe-deposit boxes, but I do not have any interest in the other products they are selling. 

[Oxx]

18 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I understand a brokerage account to be an account that would facilitate Thai equities, mutual funds, ETFs and most any other typical investment vehicles. Similar to a brokerage account in the US. 

 

Then you're not going to be able to open that at a bank.  Your best bet would be to try to open an account with the brokerage arm of your bank.  For Krung Sri that's https://www.krungsrisecurities.com/ and for Bangkok Bank, https://www.bualuang.co.th/?lg=en .  Other banks have similar securities arms.

 

You could also try the independents such as https://www.poems.in.th/index.aspx?lang=en , https://www.kgieworld.co.th/ and https://www.maybank-ke.co.th/en/

 

You can usually do most of the account opening online, and then post some documents.

 

I'm not sure how much of a hurdle your son's having American citizenship might be.