US Brokerages That Accept Expats (and What to Do If Yours Doesn’t)

The email arrives politely enough: “We’ve noticed your address has changed. Please be advised of the following restrictions on your account…” Depending on the brokerage, what follows ranges from a mild inconvenience to a full eviction.

The spectrum of brokerage reactions

When a US brokerage learns you live abroad, it lands somewhere on this spectrum:

• Full service: a small group of institutions maintain genuine international programs and keep serving you normally — sometimes through a dedicated international arm.
• Hold-and-sell: the most common middle ground — you keep the account, can sell and often buy stocks/ETFs, but lose access to mutual fund purchases and some features.
• Restricted: no new purchases at all; the account becomes a slowly melting museum of your old decisions.
• Exit: a deadline to transfer out. Rare from the biggest names, but it happens, especially from smaller firms and robo-advisors.

Which brokerages sit where changes over time and can even vary by destination country — some firms treat an address in one country differently from another. That’s why the golden rule is: get your brokerage’s expat policy in writing before you update your address — ideally before you move at all.

Choosing an expat-friendly brokerage

Historically, the names that come up constantly in expat communities include the major full-service brokerages with international divisions (Schwab and Interactive Brokers being the perennial examples — the latter operating in many countries directly). Verify current policy yourself; what matters is the checklist:

• Accepts your specific destination country (policies are country-by-country).
• Allows purchases, not just holding — ideally including ETFs.
• Supports non-US phone numbers or app-based two-factor authentication.
• Handles W-9/W-8 and tax documents cleanly for expats.
• Reasonable wire/transfer costs for funding from abroad.

If your brokerage restricts or evicts you

• Don’t sell in a panic. A transfer “in kind” (ACATS) moves your holdings to a new brokerage without selling — no taxable event, no time out of the market.
• Open the new account first, confirm it accepts your country, then initiate the transfer from the receiving side.
• Watch the mutual funds: some can’t transfer in kind and may need converting to ETFs or selling — sequence this with tax in mind.
• Retirement accounts move too: IRAs transfer between custodians without tax consequences when done properly (more here).

A word on European platforms

Tempting as a local investing app may be, most European platforms either refuse US persons (FATCA) or offer exactly the funds you must avoid (PFICs). For most Americans abroad, the US brokerage remains the engine room — the European side is for banking, not investing.

Which institutions fit your country, assets and timeline — and in what order to make the moves — is exactly what the Expat Money Assessment and Financial Relocation Roadmap map out.

This article is general information, not investment advice or a recommendation of any institution. Policies change frequently — verify directly before acting.