I thought it was a regular thing for Americans or anyone in the world to be able to make a Swiss account? Is that not the case? Or is it different if you live there?
If you are a resident, you can easily open a normal account in minutes… unless you are US, Russian or Belarus citizen.
Also, really expensive.
And I can vouch I had significantly less than 30M haha.
Compared to a normal Swiss bank: CHF wire transfer and EUR SEPA wire transfers are usually free of charge. Dukascopy charges 2.30 for each CHF or EUR transfer and 19 USD for each USD wire, on top of 0.50% currency conversion.
And, their FAQ clearly states they don’t accept US citizens.
> And, their FAQ clearly states they don’t accept US citizens.
Ah could be, I'm not from the US so I can't speak to that.
If you are UHNW every single bank, from private(Pictet etc) to universal, will bend over to have you. For US accounts it depends heavily on what you want to do with it. If it is just to keep your money and do investments by yourself 500k will be more than enough. It will be expensive in terms of trading fees/money transfer fees/ etc versus neobanks but that's the way it is.
The issues come if you want a wealth advisor. There are not that many wealth advisors with an SEC license (required to manage US clients) and most of them simply won't assume the risk unless they can have 1.5mio USD to manage, with something like 0.6% - 0.8% management fees p.a. Below 500k forget it because then you are categorised a private client according to FINMA and it is a pain in the ass compliance wise.
>If you are a resident, you can easily open a normal account in minutes
Depends which bank. Cantonal Bank have fun.
("Private" banks for very wealthy are another thing, but a software engineer isn't their customer.)