Wissanu Rebuts Allegations of Assisting Thaksin's Hospital Stay

[CaptHaddock]

Here's the first report I have seen that brokerage firms are insisting that US expats move their retirement accounts. The list includes Vanguard, Fidelity and others, but not Schwab. If this turns out to be true it could certainly be a headache. Closing an IRA could mean taking the entire balance as a distribution and other problems.

http://www.international-adviser.com/news/tax---regulation/us-institutions-to-expats-take-your-retirement#

This problem is distinct from FATCA issues.

[SpokaneAl]

I guess if the issue is one of "know your customer" I don't understand the thought process for companies such as Vanguard to proceed in this direction. Unless a client specifically asks for advice he/she is really on his/her own in making investment decisions when dealing with Vanguard. That is a significantly different relationship than one, for instance, at Merrill Lynch where the advisor provides specific investment buy/sell advice that the client will then consider and act upon or not. I have been with Vanguard for years and years and they have always been very, very client service oriented.

I am hoping that this analysis is based on hyperbole rather than fact.

[Pib]

“The legal department of banks are looking at these rules and realizing that it is impossible to ‘know’ your client if he or she lives outside the US,”

Such a load of BS in today's world of communications...instant communications if desired. Above makes it sound like communications (i.e., mail, email, phone call, video chat, face-to-face meeting, etc) is impossible outside of the U.S. unless it's a BIG account...then the bank magically finds a way to know their client...funny how that works. Or maybe some of the banks also have been periodically having Sunday dinner at the homes of their clients but that can only be done within the U.S. Yea, such a load of crap.

But maybe the banks feel they can't really know their client unless they can also get credit/financial data from credit reporting agencies and public government data bases on a client. I can understand that to a degree, because trying to get such data from many other countries, like Thailand, would probably result in pretty much zero data.

I expect with a lot of these stories (not necessarily all) there are more details to the story that would paint the story in a different light if known.

Edited October 14, 2013 by Pib

[Pinot]

I use the US address of a relative for banking/investment purposes. That's one way around it. I don't expect an issue, but who knows? I do use my Thai address to file US taxes.