Hello, I'm considering opening an IB Friends & Family advisor account. I live in Canada. Does anyone know if I can place trades in IB's American customer's accounts as well? Or does it work only for IB's Canadian accounts? Thanks!
Hmm... just to clarify: if you only have US accounts, that doesn't answer my question. My question was: can I, with my Canadian IB advisor account, execute trades in some American IB Accounts? I'm sure if both the advisor and the advisor's customers have IB accounts in the same country it must work.
For Friends and Family accounts, Canadian advisor accounts cannot manage US customer accounts, and US advisors cannot manage accounts for Canadian customers. When the advisor is a professional and properly registered in the country where the customer resides, the rules allow it.
Hey Salvatore, I was delighted with your answer. I've been trying to confirm your answer with IB Canada's customer rep, and they say that the American IB system is separate from the Canadian IB system -- that even if I am registered, I won't be able to place orders on behalf of American IB customers. Is there any informatio anywhere on the IB site that would confirm what you said? Thanks!
People with "Friends and Familiy" accounts do not have "customers"... And cannot deal with the public... For that you need full registration. To start... It is a good idea to remember than IB USA and IB Canada are SEPARATE companies in DIFFERENT sovereign counties... And IB CANADA is governed SOLELY by the IDA and Quebec Securities Commission. It is illegal for you to open a IB USA account... Only an IB Canada US Dollar account is possible. That said... Since a "Friends and Family" is a private, non-public structure... I see no reason why all of your "friends and family" MUST reside in Canada... And you can probably have a few Americans or international persons... As long as all the correct tax forms are done.
friends and family accounts are a TYPE of advisor account the accounts that are UNDER the master advisor account in a friend and family account structure are referred to as "clients". yes, technically they are not CUSTOMERS, but they are CLIENTS. in the case of an advisor account, if the #of clients and money managed is under the de minimus federal standard, then whether or not one needs to be licensed/registered depends on one's state (or country if outside the US) regulations. but, the accounts under an advisor in friends and family ARE considered CLIENTS. "Friends and Family accounts may be opened for customers who are not registered and want to manage a small group of clients (generally 15 or fewer" http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/advisors/advisorsMain.php?ib_entity=llc
I think you missed the jist of the questions -- and you're not the only one, so allow me to clarify: I don't disagree with that. The question was more about IB itself. First, as someone with a Financial Advisor (FA) account with IB Canada, can I "invite" customers that reside in the States so that they would open a sub-account with IB USA? As far as I can tell, when I use the "Send Client Invitation" feature in IB's account management page, that leads customers to open an IB Canada account... Second, are the IB trading systems linked across country -- so with the IB Trader Workstation logged in to my Canadian FA account, can I place trade in sub-accounts that are registered with IB USA?