peacefrog_0521 wrote: Sun Oct 26, 2025 10:53 am
simas wrote: Sat Oct 25, 2025 10:50 am
that is where I would start – if they are truly relocating (moving to live in a different country) and becoming expats, I would be absolutely honest with the financial institutions they are working with, upfront, and ask those questions (hey, we are considering this, would this work at XYZ firm and if yes how would this work).simas wrote: Sat Oct 25, 2025 10:50 amIf they want to live in India -> live in India and find providers that would support that business line appropriately. Never mislead, never lie.simas wrote: Sat Oct 25, 2025 10:50 amMany financial organizations (especially global ones) have international subsidiaries, do normal business with expats, etc and would do it by the book (Indian address, Indian phone number, may be even a local/regional office to contact to). What you do not want to do is pretend to be in US while being in reality elsewhere, it just asks for problems.Thanks -There isn’t any intent or attempt to lie, cheat, steal, mislead, or deceive. Merely access and convenience. They would still keep their home in the US (until & unless they decide to sell it), and there’s every possibility they my decide to move back (or at least my Dad might). He might have to anyway as he has a 1-year visa for India, and the clock is already ticking on its expiry (but could be extended I guess).
As they will still keep their home in the US, they also need to be able to pay utility and property tax bills while in India. Plan B (possibly Plan A) would be to set up a joint account with me, which I would use to disburse such payments on their behalf. My Dad & I already discussed this and he’s looking into it with his bank. (We both use the same bank but in different states.)
I suppose they could look at opening another bank account at a US branch of a “global” bank (i.e., HSBC, possibly Chase) has branch offices and/or ATM access in India. (I’m not sure theirs does.) That’s difficult to plan for right now as they have not yet decided exactly where in India to settle. Could be a major city, could be a small-ish town in the foothills of the Himalyas. But could be done.
simas wrote: Sat Oct 25, 2025 10:50 amWhat they (and you) do not want to find out hard way is being locked out of their accounts due to ‘irregularities’ that require in person visit and document submissions. I work for a bank now and have to be trained on a lot of items related to Bank Secrecy Act, OFAC rules, etc.Thanks, yeah that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid, or at least have a Plan B for.
Credit cards, they could notify the card companies that they are traveling so their accounts do not get locked while abroad. The issue is making payments remotely (they don’t use auto-pay; in fact I think they still send in checks ).
Also they have a bank account in India (many NRI’s do) and could presumably obtain a credit card there as well.
Totally understood, so it is something they would have to decide on, may be after trying it. Note that this is different from your original post that started this thread (‘ready to move overseas .. to obtain cheaper long-term/assisted living care’). The plan (honest, upfront communication) is the right one, nobody would bat a eye if they are visiting family abroad or whatever (and visits could take months), however if they are changing residency (truly moving to and living in India), then last thing to do is toy around a bunch of regs that may tripwire you (regulations that were meant to catch completely different scenarios and illegal conduct/conduct USA does not welcome). Banks/Broker dealers at minimum can and will ‘protect their accounts’ should ‘irregular access’ be discovered, that is just SOP and part of all normal operations (why is this elderly gentlemen’s account is being accessed from abroad? Do we have extended travel note on the file? Has account owner explicitly confirmed it (and absolved us from liability)? fraud warning immediately, funds blocked to protect the account holders, nice letter to their address in US with request to set up an appointment in person to speak to company officers to confirm and clear these irregularities). And that is just normal fraud protection, we are not talking about any actions relevant to the various state rules and regulations.
for credit cards, consider setting up autopay.
good luck for your parents!
