Hi,
I'm a UK resident and I've been recently delivered some stock (RSUs) by my former employer on a Schwab brokerage account in the US.
My plan is to sell part of that stock (on Nasdaq) regularly over a few years. I'm not currently planning to trade anything else on Nasdaq from this account, will just sell that stock little by little, and bring cash proceeds back to the UK.
Given this, I'm wondering if I should leave the stock with that US broker, or transfer it to a UK based one (which one ?)
Pros of staying with Schwab
Pros of moving to a UK broker
What would you recommend ?
Do you think there is a UK broker that will be :
Thanks !
I'm a UK resident and I've been recently delivered some stock (RSUs) by my former employer on a Schwab brokerage account in the US.
My plan is to sell part of that stock (on Nasdaq) regularly over a few years. I'm not currently planning to trade anything else on Nasdaq from this account, will just sell that stock little by little, and bring cash proceeds back to the UK.
Given this, I'm wondering if I should leave the stock with that US broker, or transfer it to a UK based one (which one ?)
Pros of staying with Schwab
- The deal that my former employer negotiated for us doesn't look bad and might be hard to match at a UK broker, especially for Nasdaq stock : no annual fee, and a flat selling fee of $8.95 + SEC fees.
- I might be able to plug a better 3rd party currency exchange service such as HiFX in the process of wiring money out of Schwab to my UK bank account, which I suppose is impossible with a UK broker as they would do the conversion for you ?
(I haven't found yet how to do so though : looks like Schwab wants proof (cancelled cheque) that the account you're setting up wire transfers with belongs to you, it doesn't look possible to wire funds to a third party) - Simplicity. It's already there.
Pros of moving to a UK broker
- It looks like a pain to transfer cash out of the Schwab account to the UK : $25 wire transfer fee, need to fax things + call them each time.
- I have no idea what kind of USD/GBP exchange rate they'd provide for the wire transfer. Possibly, UK brokers that are used to having lots of customers dealing on Nasdaq will offer more competitive exchange rates ?
- A UK broker may be more helpful when dealing with UK Capital Gains Tax reporting : either auto report it, or provide the right documents as standard ? (I'm asking, because I'm not new to trading but am rather new to the UK and I know very little about the process here. What I'm sure is that getting help with this from a US institution will be hell.)
- As part of the deal I've got, Schwab won't charge fees for transferring the shares out to another broker, so it's costless for me to switch.
What would you recommend ?
Do you think there is a UK broker that will be :
- zero/low annual fee for Nasdaq shares
- competitive with the selling fee and the USD/GBP exchange rate
- less hassle than a US broker for a UK resident
Thanks !
