How Hard Is It to Get Money Out of a Swiss Bank Account?

We do a lot of these and have answered a lot of questions about them.

One of those – which applies to any Swiss account, IRA or not – is this:

How hard is it to get my money out of Switzerland?

There’s this perception that money sent overseas is hard to get back. But most of the time, that’s not true. Here’s a breakdown of the different accounts.

Any accounts you have signing authority over (personal, joint, LLCs, trusts where you serve as the trustee, any jurisdiction): At any time by making a request to your Swiss asset manager.

Irrevocable trusts (domestic or international): At any time the authorized party (i.e., whoever serves as trustee) makes a request to the account’s asset manager.

IRAs with Swiss accounts: Some asset managers will take the request directly. Others will ask you to have your IRA custodian (who is legally responsible for them) make the request.

Private Placement Life Insurance policies: Subject to the terms and conditions of the insurance policy. But generally speaking, you can’t force the insurance company to give you back money you’ve paid to them in premiums, no matter where it’s invested. (They have other ways to give you cash while you’re alive.)

And one other note…

If an account is non-taxable (i.e., IRA / Roth IRA), asset managers will usually sell the position and send back cash. If the account is taxable (i.e., virtually everything else on the list above), they may ask you whether you would like an in-kind transfer.

In short, this type of transfer changes the holder of the security (stocks, bonds, etc.) from the sending Swiss bank to the receiving US financial institution. Doing it this way avoids a sale and the resulting US tax bill.

Although it’s quite easy to get your money out, it does take some time to get an account set up – we haven’t found the Swiss to rush things; they rather do it right the first time. If you’re thinking about a Swiss account and you’re hoping to get it done sooner than later, feel free to get in touch to see how we can make it a smooth process for you.