London & Capital unveils tax-compliant portfolios to woo US investors

London & Capital has launched a range of US tax-compliant portfolios, targeting American citizens residing in the UK, as well as their wealth managers and advisers.

The news comes as Citywire reveals the likes of Brewins and Williams de Broe are ditching their US clients.  

The new range of risk-rated portfolios, badged the London & Capital US Managed Portfolios, has been launched on the Praemium platform and aims to offer a simple administrative solution to the onerous regulatory and compliance issues facing US clients.

Daniel Freedman, head of the US team at London & Capital, said the Inland Revenue Service (IRS) has significantly increased the pressure on US citizens residing in the UK and Europe, with many having to fill out a number of other time-consuming forms.

He adds that the problem has become a wider issue for the wealth management community in the UK.

He said: ‘As both an FSA and SEC regulated adviser, we have found ourselves getting calls from IFAs and other banks who are saying they can’t handle an American client as they can’t handle the extra compliance or understand the extra regulation.

‘We have also found that a lot of IFAs have professional indemnity insurance that excludes them from dealing with Americans. They are basically very aware that they are going to have to report to the US government.’

With this in mind, London & Capital has launched the fund range for individual US clients who do not have large sums of money to invest and also for wealth managers and IFAs who look after US citizens in the UK.

Freedman said there are two different ranges of portfolios, depending on the status of the US citizens. For those who have been living in the UK for less than seven out of the last nine years, London & Capital has launched a range of three exchange traded fund (ETF) portfolios.

These will range between the Conservative, aiming for a return of 4% to 6%; Balanced, which looks for growth between 7% to 9%; and an aggressive Growth portfolio, looking for a return in excess of 10%.