Nothing to do with the Patriot Act, or the Office of Foreign Asset Control. However a lot of the time these are either poorly understood, or can function as convenient excuses if they just don't want to do business with non-residents.
Perhaps ask them to point out the particular section of the Patriot Act they are concerned about? The expectation is that following this question, you may get no reply. However there is always the possibility of a more meaningful response.
Also perhaps make use of the following resource, even if not a U.S. citizen:
http://americansabroad.org/issues/ba...ot-act-update/
TOPIC
Opening IRA after leaving the US?
Discussion started on 16 Apr 2014
ID: #81
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JAAJJA
COMMUNITY MEMBER
JAAJJA
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:35
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Pulaski
COMMUNITY MEMBER
Pulaski
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:35
You are exactly right. It is a fairly effective strategy to avoid most of the risk of fines or other sanctions, for financial services businesses to more or less refuse to do business with people who are outside the US, or not in the US legitimately. ..... Further to my advice above, it is difficult for a large business with millions of customers and likely hundreds of new customers every week, to do anything but a cursory check on their identity. So if you have an SSN, a name and date of birth linked to that, and a non-PO Box mailing address, opening a new account is rarely a problem, opening a new account as an existing customer is unlikely, IMHO, to attract a second glance.
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dunroving
COMMUNITY MEMBER
dunroving
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:37
Those links look very useful. I may take the next step of using the Patriot Act to make my case. As the information suggests, this is just a convenient way of banks avoiding awkward situations and potential fines.
Come on, this is my pension we're talking about!!
Come on, this is my pension we're talking about!!
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dunroving
COMMUNITY MEMBER
dunroving
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:37
I wondered if anyone has experience or knowledge of how this information is used by the institutions? It occurred to me that if this is associated with something like a credit check (procedurally, I mean; I know it isn't a credit check), then using a mailbox or a friend's address wouldn't work.
Surely if the goal of the Patriot Act is to "look into you" to check you are not a money launderer (or worse), surely they will check any address you give them against public records (property tax, other paper trail that you live/lived at this address)?
Surely if the goal of the Patriot Act is to "look into you" to check you are not a money launderer (or worse), surely they will check any address you give them against public records (property tax, other paper trail that you live/lived at this address)?
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fulwood
COMMUNITY MEMBER
fulwood
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:37
goodness knows why really you can't convert your OWN money to a Roth..
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durham_lad
COMMUNITY MEMBER
durham_lad
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:38
It is very disappointing to hear that your current provider won't allow you to open a ROTH IRA, but I discovered that the company managing a 401k may have a different set of rules to the company itself. My 401k provider was Schwab and when I wanted to roll it over to an IRA with Vanguard I talked with Schwab and Vanguard but when it came to doing the actual transfer the Schwab representative was somewhat surprised to discover that electronic transfer of funds was not allowed. He told me that Schwab didn't have such restrictions but the rules of the 401k itself said that only a check mailed to my address was allowed. Schwab mailed me a check, made out to Vanguard, payable to a new IRA account that I had just opened, and I then immediately mailed the check to Vanguard. (This process ensured no penalties for early withdrawal).
I talked to Vanguard in January about our move back to the UK and they told me that as long as our accounts were set up ahead of time then we could keep our accounts when the address was changed to a UK address.
I didn't ask if they would accept a US PO Box as an address, but does this restriction mean that folks who live in their RV, traveling around the country are unable to open new accounts with financial institutions?
I talked to Vanguard in January about our move back to the UK and they told me that as long as our accounts were set up ahead of time then we could keep our accounts when the address was changed to a UK address.
I didn't ask if they would accept a US PO Box as an address, but does this restriction mean that folks who live in their RV, traveling around the country are unable to open new accounts with financial institutions?
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durham_lad
COMMUNITY MEMBER
durham_lad
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:39
I just checked and Vanguard do require a street address when opening a new account online.
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fulwood
COMMUNITY MEMBER
fulwood
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:40
It's plain and simple you cannot convert to Roth once you have left US and reside in UK. But if dunroving came back for a year he would be able to do so. I am over time going to start converting my money into Roth..
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durham_lad
COMMUNITY MEMBER
durham_lad
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:40
Nun has done the research and reckons that under section 18.1 of the treaty ROTH conversions are treated like pension lump sums and are only taxable in the USA, but you need to have your ROTH set up ahead of time to be able to do ROTH conversions while in the UK.
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Pulaski
COMMUNITY MEMBER
Pulaski
Posted on 15 Apr 2014, 22:40
ot necessarily. So long as your name, DOB, and SSN, tie together the address needs to exist, it doesn't necessarily need to have any documented usage, otherwise every time someone moved they would find it impossible to open new accounts, .... which is exactly when people are most likely to need new accounts. The likely problem would be with (true) PO Boxes which are commonly disallowed, but which UPS Store mailboxes conveniently circumvent if you use "Unit" or "Apt", and not "Box".
A few years ago I actually persuaded one bank's system to accept my address as "P0 Box" (P"zero" Box), when a PO Box address was prohibited!
A few years ago I actually persuaded one bank's system to accept my address as "P0 Box" (P"zero" Box), when a PO Box address was prohibited!