Culture
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2007
- Messages
- 491
This is really out in left field, but I thought I would ask to see what anyone else thinks/knows.
I have been reading Harry Brown and found his writings very interesting. I had not realized that he was possibly the first Bogglehead-esque investment adviser. About the only thing that he recommends that I do not already do is to keep a portion of my assets in an overseas investment account.
So here is my question: It is realistically possible for this type of (relatively) modest investor to open an investment account investing in Vanguard-style low cost index funds held through a Swiss (or similar) investment company? I am not looking for some type of secret, tax avoiding account. Just a normal account held openly by a legit Swiss investment firm/bank, which does not have branches in the US. I would think that if this was possible one might want to put 25-33% of assets overseas, say $500-750K.
Ordinarily Google is your friend, but there are way too many pages of Swiss banking scams to get this easily answered. Has anyone looked seriously into this? What do you think? Is this a stupid idea? Would Swiss taxes kill it? Should it even be considered?
I have been reading Harry Brown and found his writings very interesting. I had not realized that he was possibly the first Bogglehead-esque investment adviser. About the only thing that he recommends that I do not already do is to keep a portion of my assets in an overseas investment account.
"Don't allow everything you own to be where your government can touch it. By having something outside the reach of your government, you'll be less vulnerable — and you'll feel less vulnerable. You'll no longer have to worry so much about what the government will do next."
While I certainly have no belief that the US government is going to seize all my assets tomorrow, I was wondering if this is even a reasonable option to implement for the typical FIRE investor (say $1.5-3M portfolio). If I was going to do this, I think I would have to be through a Swiss company. This is the only country that has a long-term history of legal, political and financial stability toward overseas investors.
So here is my question: It is realistically possible for this type of (relatively) modest investor to open an investment account investing in Vanguard-style low cost index funds held through a Swiss (or similar) investment company? I am not looking for some type of secret, tax avoiding account. Just a normal account held openly by a legit Swiss investment firm/bank, which does not have branches in the US. I would think that if this was possible one might want to put 25-33% of assets overseas, say $500-750K.
Ordinarily Google is your friend, but there are way too many pages of Swiss banking scams to get this easily answered. Has anyone looked seriously into this? What do you think? Is this a stupid idea? Would Swiss taxes kill it? Should it even be considered?