Selling European Shares In Thailand

[elektrified]

I hold my European shares in Switzerland. Most are Swiss shares but some are U.K. shares. After 20+ years I'm no longer happy with their services and I'm considering closing my account and having the certificates issued in my name and sent to me. They will go in the safety deposit box and I will arrange to receive my dividend checks direct from the companies and deposit them into my Kasikorn Bank account if that is even possible since they will be denominated in Swiss Francs, Euros, Pounds, etc.

They are all Blue Chip (Nestle, Royal Dutch, etc.) The companies are safe and are not going anywhere. But what if there is an emergency and I need to sell some shares to raise some cash? How will I do that in Thailand? Someone suggested a company or organization called TSD http://www.tsd.co.th/en/index.html I've perused the website but am not clear what they do!

Anyone know how to sell in case I needed to? Any taxes to take into consideration???

Thanks in advance.

[elektrified]

Anybody???

I just need, in the event of an emergency, to be able to walk into an stock broker's office either in Chiang Mai or in BKK with the certificate and execute a sale if need be. No putting the certificates in the post, having to open an account, etc. Just sell and pay the commission and collect my money in local currency or have the proceeds transferred to my Kasikorn account.

Would anything be withheld that may be seen as "tax"? I don't see how but...?

[Darrel]

I think you are creating a mountain of trouble for yourself.

All my shares are de-materialised and held by the Crest nominee service of my UK broker.

This costs me nothing and means that I will never lose a certificate (and these can cost a small fortune to replace) or a dividend payment, as the latter go directly into my UK bank account (from where, of course, I could order a transfer to here online if I wanted to). I dont get any posted paperwork from them, which suits me fine.

It also means that I can trade online very easily and at extremely low cost. The proceeds/cost is applied automatically to my bank account by direct debit.

Moving your paper certificates here will increase your dealing costs hugely, will increase the cost for cashing dividends, and will prevent you from trading easily/cheaply. And if you lose a certificate then you will get a big bill from the registrar to replace it. So I really cant see the point.

[Naam]

and I'm considering closing my account and having the certificates issued in my name and sent to me...

an electrifying idea

[elektrified]

I think you are creating a mountain of trouble for yourself.

All my shares are de-materialised and held by the Crest nominee service of my UK broker.

This costs me nothing and means that I will never lose a certificate (and these can cost a small fortune to replace) or a dividend payment, as the latter go directly into my UK bank account (from where, of course, I could order a transfer to here online if I wanted to). I dont get any posted paperwork from them, which suits me fine.

It also means that I can trade online very easily and at extremely low cost. The proceeds/cost is applied automatically to my bank account by direct debit.

Moving your paper certificates here will increase your dealing costs hugely, will increase the cost for cashing dividends, and will prevent you from trading easily/cheaply. And if you lose a certificate then you will get a big bill from the registrar to replace it. So I really cant see the point.

The problem is that I am being charged a lot of money in fees. Swiss Banks are notorious for charging high fees. They don't do anything for me but hold my shares and collect my dividends. They offer no advice whatsoever. They send me a mountain of worthless paperwork at a cost of CHF 30 per month. When I tried to cancel the paperwork I was charged CHF 387 to "hold" my correspondence for 5 months. Now there is a new charge of CHF 40 per month for being domiciled outside of Switzerland or Lichtenstein. Then CHF 700 in accounting fees each year, CHF 40 for my Maestro Card, and the list goes on and on.

Another problem is that I have a child now. I can not include this asset in a Thai Will as I understand it. If I die I don't know how my son will have access to my account.

[Darrel]

I cant comment on Swiss banks or Thai wills, but you did mention UK shares and it should not be too hard for you to move these to some online UK dealer with a nominee service.

I suspect that some of the UK online dealers will handle Swiss shares also, though I dont know what procedures, if any, they have for nominee services for them. I imagine that one of the European online dealers would have some suitable solution.

I did have some US shares held online with my dealer (basically Dr Pepper and Kraft ADRs, following the Cadbury split and takeover), and I never paid a penny in charges for them. Indeed I've never paid a penny to my dealer for anything, apart from the GBP15 I pay for each trade.