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Stockbrokers for Investment Clubs Sep’25
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Our Investment Club is going through the process of applying for an account with Interactive Brokers (IBKR). I have to say it is quite tortuous, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without help from Interactive Brokers sales staff. As for an LEI, I stated we didn’t have one, and the application offers that Interactive Brokers will apply on our behalf. Watch this space. So, we have reached the stage where our application for an account is in, and now waiting approval. No doubt there will be more questions along the way, but I will keep you informed of progress.0
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johncalvert said:Our Investment Club is going through the process of applying for an account with Interactive Brokers (IBKR). I have to say it is quite tortuous, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without help from Interactive Brokers sales staff. As for an LEI, I stated we didn’t have one, and the application offers that Interactive Brokers will apply on our behalf. Watch this space. So, we have reached the stage where our application for an account is in, and now waiting approval. No doubt there will be more questions along the way, but I will keep you informed of progress.0
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Has anyone had any experience applying for platform access to CFM please? They seemed amenable to signing up Investment Clubs a couple of weeks ago, though they may be quite small and may be overwhelmed at the moment. I think both CFM and IBKR only trade by phone - is that correct please?
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We are going through that tortuous process with IBKR.
We got an LEI number ourselves. Got stuck on the UTR as registering with HMRC as an unincorporated association would have meant paying corporation tax.
A girl at IBKR suggested using my NI number as an alternative to an UTR - I tried it, but it didn’t work.
I have raised a ticket with them on line via CHAT and will await response.
Could John Calvert very kindly tell me how he got so far please? I’m losing the will to live….0 -
Findthetruth, I'm not surprised you're losing the will to live. I could not have done this without the help of an IBKR sales staff member, and it took an hour on the phone to get this far. The problem is they don't have a specific Investment Club application, so were suggesting alternative solutions and boxes to tick. In the end I used my UTR on their recommendation just to progress the application. I'll worry about the consequences later. But, we're not over the line yet as all my entries are "Received- Being processed". Has anyone got beyond this and actually got an account open?1
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Thanks very much John Calvert.I’ll post my progress . I’m surprised there are not many others sharing their experience with IBKR on this forum.My IBKR sales person said they have Investment Clubs but is not really helping me in my efforts. Just keeps repeating that they need a UTR.0
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The person I spoke to at IBKR said that they didn't deal with investment clubs at all!2
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Findthetruth, I gave my UTR in the end because it asked what percentage of the fund is mine. I made a guess at 10%, so I'm hoping that I'm only on the hook for 10% of the income and gains. If/once we get approval I'll populate with all the other members and set their ownership percentages. But hey, who knows what we'll be asked for!0
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I posted on the 9th that I had been told emphatically that IBKR do not offer accounts for Investment Clubs. After seeing John Calvert's comments a few days later that he was being assisted by someone there to open such an account, I made several attempts to get some clarification from my contact there (I was using their online help desk form), but it has taken until today for me to receive a reply.
She continues to say that she has spoken to a number of colleagues who have told her that they cannot offer such an account but, at the same time, she says that John's contact "may" have better information. She did also say that she cannot guarantee that an application for an account of the type that I believe John is trying to open will be approved.
This all sounds a bit shambolic and too uncertain for us to try going this route, though I will offer John good luck and would certainly like to hear if his application eventually succeeds. However, I think that we will have to try the last man standing, namely Pilling (CFM look far too amateurish for us to chance). Pilling's admin charge actually appears to be slightly less than ii's, and while their trading charges are certainly much higher, we typically only make around half a dozen trades a year so can probably absorb them.2 -
findthetruth said:I have now obtained an LEI from Register-LEI Uk and started an application to IBKR.
3 problems already - the LEI is stated as invalid, which it isn’t. I can’t find a suitable account description for our investment club, and they want a UTR which of course, we haven’t got.
Maria from IBKR has stated that they can deal with Investment Clubs and I am waiting for her help…
Herein lies your problem. In America, investment clubs are constituted and operated as partnerships and as such in addition to LEIs are also assigned an IRS tax identifier.
No such system exsists here for UK investment clubs, which to my knowledge have never been accorded their own UTRs since they are entirely transparent look through entities.
Clearly you cannot supply your own UTR ( even if you were prepared to) since you (legally) are not the club and your UTR is specific to you only.
If IBKR systems are predicated on UK investment clubs having there own tax identifiers can't see how you can square that circle, in order to be accepted by their systems, without them removing the tax identifier requirement for UK Investment Clubs.
Be interesting to see whether @Johncalvert eventually hits the same brick wall.2
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