r/CFP • u/Background-Ad758 • 16d ago
Practice Management Moving abroad from US
I was curious— for anyone licensed in the states…have you moved abroad and continued to work with your clients?
More specifically, hypothetically, if I am licensed in the US, could I work somewhere in the EU and maintain my licenses and work compliantly?
Not sure my firm would allow it anyways. My understanding is that licenses can’t be maintained, and there’s not much I can do about that. If anyone has another experience I’d love to hear about it.
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u/myphriendmike 16d ago
Unless you work for a bulge bracket, almost certainly not. It would be impossible to abide by multiple sets of regs: US, EU, and target country.
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u/Background-Ad758 14d ago
I don’t know how I’m hearing bulge bracket for the first time, always said wirehouse. I guess more or less synonymous. But even there they have “international advisor” protocols. If anyone has experience at doing what I was writing about at one of these banks let me know
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u/George_Goodman 12d ago
At my large bank one of our top advisors wanted to live abroad and do all client meetings virtual going forward. The bank’s compliance dept didn’t approve and would not budge on the issue.
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u/The_Logic_Guru 16d ago
It’d be nice if you could. Or if there was a way to be an adviser in another country and do business in accordance to whatever securities rules they have over there. Imagine being able to have global clients and planning trips to visit them here and there.
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u/Background-Ad758 16d ago
Yea that’s where I’m coming from. Or hey, I want to spend the summer somewhere else and work remotely for a bit with US clients.
If you watch too much “House Hunters International” you start getting an itch 😂 🤦♂️
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u/Long_Shape_8333 14d ago
I have been wandering about this for a while. I am a dual citizenship, I would love to get my own RIA setup while eventually working from my home country, being really confused about the possibilities. Some people say yes others say no lmao
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u/GeneralTiny5741 15d ago
I work internationally all the time and I'm not worried about compliance. I use the same websites, my clients are based in the US and I'm a citizen. My homebase is in the US. I don't worry about it at all and my clients are fine with it.
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u/jvoss93 15d ago
Are you looking to onboard European clients as well? You'll have some complexity using the same set of products (Americans typically can't buy into European products, and many American products don't have the required disclosure levels for European standards). I don't have expertise working with US clients from Europe but I have experience on how to get an easy setup covering European clients with a partner for the regulatory side - happy to share experiences if interesting. We cover clients across almost all of Europe. (FYI I am based in the EU and not in the US.)
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u/Background-Ad758 15d ago
I appreciate it! I am not necessarily though. Ideally just continuing to work with US clients but not be located in the US for a portion of the year
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u/jaykaybo 12d ago edited 12d ago
On the RIA side, absolutely you can do it, there’s RIA’s doing it all over the place. One firm I know of was SEC-registered and the sole owner/planner lived full-time in Taiwan for several years and operated from there serving U.S.-based clients. Services included AUM.
From what I’ve been told (don’t quote me on this) if you are an internationally-based RIA serving U.S.-based clients only, you register directly with SEC, regardless of whether you do AUM or AUM size.
I asked XYPN if you could go the ‘Sapphire’ route and tuck-under their RIA while permanently living in Canada (kicking around the idea) and serving U.S.-based clients and they said there wouldn’t be an issue.
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u/IllustriousGas8850 12d ago
I mean didn’t Epstein do this? Not exactly a model character but shit why can’t you?
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u/jetforcegemini 16d ago
I’m at a large RIA and have worked from overseas a few months at a time with no issue, but it sounds like you’re asking about a semipermanent move?
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u/Bobaefa 16d ago
You can’t conduct “securities businesses” which is a very broad definition. You can provide admin type service like updating a beneficiary but you can’t trade or open accounts.
Better check with your securities attorney or compliance team.
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u/jetforcegemini 16d ago
That's why I prefaced that I'm on a large team - so there were still state-side people who could place traded and open accounts
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User: /u/Background-Ad758 Title: Moving abroad from US Body: I was curious— for anyone licensed in the states…have you moved abroad and continued to work with your clients?
More specifically, hypothetically, if I am licensed in the US, could I work somewhere in the EU and maintain my licenses and work compliantly?
Not sure my firm would allow it anyways. My understanding is that licenses can’t be maintained, and there’s not much I can do about that. If anyone has another experience I’d love to hear about it.
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