As its written. In fact, it is nothing but a strangulation to keep EU Citizens from Investing in Non-EU Investment Products. As I see it it came together with the MIFID II Regulations which effectively seem to only have only one goal: kill the Brokers by bureaucracy and keep their clients away of Non-EU Investment Products (where possible as they can't prohibit the purchase of US Stocks)
In Fact it lead to the following Situation:
US ETFs or other Structured Investment Products need to be UCITS Conform what might be that much bureaucrathic︀ that it doesn't make sense for many Products. All US ETFs are prohibited until they︁ get replicated within the EU itself (if so, then mostly in LUX and IRE)
If the ETF is not replicated within the EU itself and further on has no "Clients︂ Information Paper" no Broker will any EU Citizen purchase it. From ARK over RPAR, to︃ QQQ, any of the VanEck BDC ETFs and even VXX. Canadian Income Trusts and other︄ Products are also not investable. But what (still?) works are BDCs themselves as e.g. GSBD︅ and any REITs as they are handled as Stocks. As long as I know CEFs︆ are on the other hand not purchaseable. So one can say that there is a︇ huge amount of Investment and Trading Vehicles just even not possible to invest in for︈ Europeans.
BTW that is also one of the two reasons I was and still am︉ looking for a well suited US Broker Solution. Honestly, 1st is SIPC Protection (we got︊ 20k € Min up to normally max 100k € here while there are still Brokers︋ guaranteeing more, but there prices for one single Order start at 10€) while 2nd is︌ the free access to US Investment Products.
And yes Sir, IBUK (UK Protection Scheme +︍ US SIPC) is since Brexit not an available Option for Europeans anymore, instead we are︎ allowed to use IB Accounts in LUX (max 20k €), IRE (max 20k €) and️ HUN(gary) (up to 100k €).
While a US LLC (Corp-Class) might be a nice workaround, honestly I'd still have to assess whether it would be really worth it...? Honestly, actually I don't think so.
All the Best
BSA
