xylophone

Sure there have been collapses in the past, but they would be only a handful compared to the over 1 million banks worldwide, not to mention other types of financial institutions.

how many additional "handfuls" of banks would have gone belly-up without government/taxpayer 10digit+ dollar intervention since 2008?

Portfolio allocation makes sure you don't put all your eggs in one basket - hence the topic.

Having worked that one out, don't spoil it by having all your baskets linked together by a single thread, no matter how strong you think it is.

Living in Thailand offers a great opportunity to keep some of those baskets where you come from, some offshore such as Singapore, and some of them even in Thailand.

Cheers

Fletch

Portfolio allocation makes sure you don't put all your eggs in one basket - hence the topic.

Having worked that one out, don't spoil it by having all your baskets linked together by a single thread, no matter how strong you think it is.

Living in Thailand offers a great opportunity to keep some of those baskets where you come from, some offshore such as Singapore, and some of them even in Thailand.

Cheers

Fletch

Actually it is not really an issue- if you buy all your stocks and funds through one broker ( say etrade) and the broker goes bankrupt , they don't own your stocks and funds they are still in your name and will be transferred to u. The only problem is your cash deposited which are only covered upto 250000 us $ by FDIC.

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Portfolio allocation makes sure you don't put all your eggs in one basket - hence the topic.

Actually it is not really an issue- if you buy all your stocks and funds through one broker ( say etrade) and the broker goes bankrupt , they don't own your stocks and funds they are still in your name and will be transferred to u. The only problem is your cash deposited which are only covered upto 250000 us $ by FDIC.

What if there's been fraud? Your securities just aren't there?

There are have also been numerous cases in recent years of brokers not correctly segregating client assets. Barclays Capital was recently fined £1.1m for failing in this regard.

And even if there hasn't been any wrongdoing by the broker, you still probably face a delay of many months before you can get your hands on your assets.

Always keep enough liquid cash to hand to carry you through a few months. And don't rely solely on a single broker. (Personally I use four, with the reasoning that if I lose absolutely everything with one of them I'm not going to be destitute.) Each broker is in a different country (UK, Luxembourg, Singapore, Hong Kong) for a little extra security should one country become a basket case.

ExpatJ

Except if as mentioned the broker has misappropriated your assets by say changing your money and or positions to be proprietary positions a la MF Global. Worth googling what they did and others have done in the past..

Edit:) AyG is spot on above.

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Edited February 4, 201412 yr by fletchsmile

ExpatJ

Except if as mentioned the broker has misappropriated your assets by say changing your money and or positions to be proprietary positions a la MF Global. Worth googling what they did and others have done in the past..

Edit:) AyG is spot on above.

Sent from my GT-I9152 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

good points- and the point by previous poster noting that your assets would be tied up for months or years.

In any case, i also prefer to keep my assets divided into 5-5 entities.