so many issues for US expats ... would forming an investing LLC in the US help?

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aj76er
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Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2015 10:34 pm
Location: Austin, TX

Re: so many issues for US expats ... would forming an investing LLC in the US help?

Post by aj76er »

typical.investor wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:42 am
aj76er wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 10:01 am For 2FA, I believe using an app like Symantec VIP would solve any GPS concerns. This is just a unique random number generator (that runs on both phone and brokerage servers). That coupled with a US-based VPN should be good enough, right?
Maybe, but where does your mail go?

Even though I had electronic only set up at Vanguard, they still sent out various stuff that I didn't want going to my brother's house. I think a PMB (permanent mail box) might work as a mailing address if you keep the real street address. Many places wouldn't accept a PMB as an address, but I wonder if they would accept it as a mailing address.

I mean, for instance, I got notification by mail from Vanguard that my annuity had been transferred to another company. That was the only notification I received and they wouldn't talk about it over the phone and said to look at my mail. When most of what comes is junk mail, if you are using a relatives address, they might miss it. Mine did anyway (luckily by the time the annuity letter came I had switched to an address where I could safely and reliably get mail).

And if they did challenge you on your permanent address, I think I would just buy cable service for whoever's address I was using, submit that, and then cancel.
Last time I tried this was at Fidelity and it worked fine. I had a mailing address as a PMB (through UPS) which was different than the physical address at which I was residing. Both addresses were registered to my account at Fidelity: the PMB was registered as my mailing address and my apartment address was registered as my residence. Both showed up under my account profile at Fidelity. At the time, I was renting a room in a house and I didn’t want any financial mail going to the shared mailbox. If I remember correctly UPS even scanned the mail for me so I could preview it.
"Buy-and-hold, long-term, all-market-index strategies, implemented at rock-bottom cost, are the surest of all routes to the accumulation of wealth" - John C. Bogle
cbeck
Posts: 640
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 1:28 am

Re: so many issues for US expats ... would forming an investing LLC in the US help?

Post by cbeck »

Marseille07 wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 10:40 pm
typical.investor wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:22 pm
Marseille07 wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 7:58 pm
typical.investor wrote: Fri Jun 18, 2021 7:51 pm Ting looks like a good option but, of course, that means turning on international data roaming which could be expensive so try to minimize it's usage. Their international help page is here https://help.ting.com/hc/en-us/articles ... h-ting-0-0

For SMS some banks will do 2FA verification via a phone call (Wells Fargo does) so you could use a cheap ip phone service and some brokerages offer 2FA via app (Schwab and Interactive Brokers).
Thank you. Yeah Ting talked about international roaming and I think I'm just about getting that enabled if not already.
2FA is a wildcard. I have IB, I *think* it'll work abroad but I haven't tested it. For other accounts, I've enabled security questions & passcode via email.
IBKR Mobile has 2FA built in.

https://ibkr.info/article/2879
Yes, this is what I use today when logging onto IBKR.

As far as GV, the issue appears that I had played around with it when I was still on AT&T; ported the number to Ting, now GV appears to be rejecting registration using the same number but from a different carrier (Ting), due to their anti-fraud measure or whatever.

I wasn't aware of this and it appears I'm SOL unless I change my number. Oh well.
You don't have a friend who would let you use his US landline number once during setup?
Marseille07
Posts: 16054
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2020 12:41 pm

Re: so many issues for US expats ... would forming an investing LLC in the US help?

Post by Marseille07 »

cbeck wrote: Sat Jun 19, 2021 6:34 pm You don't have a friend who would let you use his US landline number once during setup?
I recently moved, and I don't know of anyone still having a landline. If I really need GV, I will get a prepaid plan and do the initial set up. My understanding is that Ting would likely work, though I'll be sure to test this next time I go travel abroad.
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