UK broker, foreign address

FrankR

How do you handle this situation.
You are a student who is self-employed and will travel and study in Europe and live in Europe for 2 years.
You have a lot of money invested in a UK based broker.
You continue to log into your broker account and invest living outside of the UK - is this legal?

- Will the UK broker accept the foreign address?
- If I travel for more than 6 months, will the broker still accept a bank statement from my last known UK address before travelling (and putting my items into storage)?

eskbanker

FrankR said:

How do you handle this situation.

First port of call is obviously the broker Ts & Cs to see what they say about moving abroad - if there's any lack of clarity there then you could contact them, or alternatively identify them on here so that posters can perhaps offer specific guidance rather than guessing....

Thrugelmir

Why not ask your broker?  Be a far more informative discussion than asking on here. 

maxsteam

FrankR said:

You continue to log into your broker account and invest living outside of the UK - is this legal?

- Will the UK broker accept the foreign address?
- If I travel for more than 6 months, will the broker still accept a bank statement from my last known UK address before travelling (and putting my items into storage)?

As far as I am concerned, if you open an account with a broker, you keep the account until you decide to ask the broker to close it. You need to keep the broker and your bank informed of your current address but, unless it is some tuppenny broker/bank, they should be able to handle overseas addresses and phone numbers.

I am unsure why you are wanting to show your broker a bank statement. The broker should have completed all necessary ID checks when you opened the account. If you manage the account online, you should be able to just log in and change the address.

The only issue that should arise, if you are using a decent broker, is that you cannot contribute to an ISA or UK pension unless you are a UK taxpayer.

As to the legality, it only becomes illegal for the broker to accept funds if they have any reason to think that you might be laundering money.

dunstonh

ISA will not be recognised as tax free in Italy.

You will not be able to transact on any UK financial product once you are a resident within the EU. (exception being to sell or close or find a rare provider that has offices in Italy).