Why invest in US shares?

Please check out our blog article that discusses this topic here.

Type of accounts supported

For now, we only support onboarding Individual, Joint and Minor for US trading, with supporting other types of accounts being our priority in the coming months.

Fractional Investing

US shares will be in fractionals, you will be able to buy/sell in fractional units. An example would be if AAPL is $130 per unit, you can buy 0.1 of a unit for $13.

Can I access all US stocks?

Drivewealth offers shares/ETFs that have at least 300 million in assets under management. You can view all available options on our Explore > Invest page.

Brokerage Cost

Brokerage cost is AU$6.50. This is always deducted from your Primary Cash (AU) account in AUD.

W8-BEN tax form

The W8-BEN tax form is pre-filled and filed on your behalf by our brokerage partner (DriveWealth) when you open a US investment account with us! No further action needs to be taken.

Are the stocks held under my name? or Pearler?

Your holdings are held under our brokerage partner in your name. Here is a snippet of the legal statement from our US broker (DriveWealth) :

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DriveWealth custodies Securities and Other Assets held in your Account at approved Depository Trust Company Custodians (“DTC Custodians”). DriveWealth holds all positions in nominee name with the DTC Custodians; DriveWealth maintains all records related to the holdings in your Account.

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Insurance

Our brokerage partner (DriveWealth) is a US broker-dealer registered with FINRA (US regulator) and is a member of SIPC.
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If Pearler fails, you will still have access to all your cash and securities. DriveWealth will establish contact with you on how to proceed.
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If DriveWealth fails, the SIPC gets involved and appoints a trustee to manage the liquidation of the firm and protect customers' cash and securities up to $500,000. ($250,000 for claims for cash).

Share Registry

Since the shares are held custodially by our US brokerage partner, you won't receive any emails from the relevant share registry.

Dividends

You will receive any dividends of a share in proportion to your holding (accounts for fractional units) and it will go into your Primary Cash (USD) on Pearler.

How does Pearler handle AUD <-> USD FX conversion? What are the fees?

Check out this article for an in-depth explanation.

What happens to my USD when I sell shares?

Your USD will remain in Primary Cash (USD) which you can use to buy other US shares, if you want it back as AUD in Primary Cash (AUD), you will have to make a USD -> AUD transfer which will take 2 business days.

Autoinvest US shares

You can now autoinvest into US shares just like you would with AU shares. We charge the same fee for AUD to USD conversion as if you manually transfer yourself.

Can I transfer US shares to Pearler?

Yes, you can, please check out this article for more information.

What is a Good Faith Violation (GFV)?

A Good Faith Violation is a policy in the US where you cannot sell shares you bought with unsettled funds.

If you have completed a buy recently, you will need to wait T+2 days for settlement (date shown on the contract note) before selling any of the units purchased.

If you earn three GFVs in a 12-month period, our US broker (Drivewealth) will restrict the cash account for 90 days. This means that during this time, you will only be able to buy with fully settled funds.