There are a number of reasons, but we can list the top five (5) :

1. Largest & Most Innovative Market: The U.S. stock market is 6 times bigger than India’s stock market, has the most innovative businesses, offering unmatched growth potential.
2. Invest in Brands You already Trust : tech businesses who dominate globally - like Google, Microsoft, Meta, AWS, Apple and many more.
3. Innovation driven businesses : Most good businesses in USA are driven by innovation and represent businesses of tomorrow - while most businesses in India are today’s businesses. The returns of innovation are far greater than returns on investment in Indian businesses.
4. Make the US dollar work for you : A rising U.S. dollar adds to your returns
5. Insurance - your money and securities are insured upto US $ 500,000 (approx. INR 4.30 crore).

Our Investment Portfolios : We offer two expertly curated portfolios to suit different risk appetites:

1. Most Relevant Stocks - Ideal for : investors looking for high-growth opportunities in cutting-edge sectors. To generate Alpha, this Stack invests in those businesses that are most relevant in today’s time, and are demonstrating a clear momentum. These would include stocks of tech companies and businesses that are either innovating fast or disrupting incumbents, and are growing rapidly. To manage risk, allocations are made to a broad set of stocks and safer havens like Gold or cash rich companies and a dash of contra bets. The Stack is actively monitored and rebalanced at least once a quarter to reflect changes in the underlying economy, the companies or the performance.

2. AllWeather - Ideal for : investors seeking capital preservation with consistent growth. This Stack invests in those businesses that have an all weather demand. These would include stocks of businesses that have an year round demand like utilities, healthcare, consumer staples. We combine it with allocation to tech companies that are almost a monopoly, businesses that are critical to core economy and safe haven like Gold. Some allocation is done to companies that are experienced an upswing as compared to their peers in order to generate and Alpha. The Stack is actively monitored and rebalanced at least once a quarter to reflect changes in the underlying economy, the companies or the performance.

In both portfolios, we invest mathematically using a mix of Equities, Debt, REITS, Commodities, ETF’s MBS, BDC, etc thus ensuring smart risk-reward balancing. Both portfolios deliver different asset categories and risk return profiles to the investors.

The offering is compliant with both Indian and USA regulations :

1. INDIAN : Under their Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), the RBI explicitly allows resident Indian citizens to invest in listed securities in global exchanges (viz. USA). Current limits : any amount up to maximum of US $ 250,000 (approx. Rs 2.15 crore) per person per year.

2. USA : All holdings in our 2 portfolios are listed on New York Stock Exchange. Our broker & custodian is DriveWealth, which is registered with Securities Exchange Commission of USA, and governed by FINRA of USA. Your money account will be with JP Morgan Chase Bank, which is governed by US Fed.

By choosing to invest in either or both these Portfolios, you will stand to gain 7 Benefits :

1. Full Control : at all times, you retain control over your money and securities.

2. Zero Lock-in : withdraw anytime with full liquidity, and no exit fee.

3. Easy to operate : single click investing/withdrawal.

4. Make the US Dollar work for you

5. No hassle rebalancing.

6. Compliant : with regulations of India & USA.

7. Insurance : for your money and your securities.

The main risk is price risk - of prices of underlying securities changing significantly in a very short tenure. We manage this risk by rebalancing (at least) once every quarter.

The other risks of your money and securities are covered by the insurance you are automatically eligible for.

US $ 10,000

US $250,000 (approx. Rs 2.15 crore) - per person, Per year.

The platform is secured with 256 bit encryption, better than what banking platforms are. The platform is owned by Stockal, and ShiftAltCap has partnered with Stockal to execute the transactions through DriveWealth, a stock broker registered with SEC in the USA.

In simple words, one can think of Stockal as a digital pipe that enables citizens of one country to access and invest in markets of another country in a complaint regulated manner.

RBI mandates transfers of money from India to any country only be done through Form A2. This is a standard form made by RBI which all banks have to follow.

Currently 6 banks have digitised the process of Form A2 and sending the money abroad - these are HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, IndusInd bank, IDFC First Bank and Yes Bank. If you have a bank account with any of these 6 banks, you can comfortably transfer the money from your laptop.

If you have an account with any of the other banks, you will need to go to your bank and do the Form A2 process on paper.

The money will be credited to your US based JP Morgan Chase bank within 1 to 2 working days.

When you login to your account, click on ‘Portfolio’ to see your holdings. You can also download your statement.

Your investing account is opened with our partner platform DriveWealth LLC - regulated by FINRA and registered with the SEC in US.

The holdings in custody account are insured by SIPC (Securities Investor Protection Corporation - created by an act of the US Congress) by upto US $ 500,000.

You will need to consult your taxation advisor for your specific situation, but I can give you a general overview of how the taxation will work.

First, the taxation depends upon your residential status - it will be different for Resident Indians and for Non Resident Indians.

Second, India and the USA have signed a Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) that helps a person being taxed in only one country - and not both.

Third, tax is charged on taxable income. In our portfolios, taxable income arises from two sources viz.

• In the form of Capital Gain when you sell your portfolio, the profit is your Capital Gain;
• As dividends / Interest you receive from any company in the portfolios.

These 2 will be taxed as follows :

• Capital Gains : will NOT be taxed in the USA. Will be taxed in India as per Indian laws.
• Dividend / Interest : will face a tax deduction at source of 10% to 25% in the USA; you can claim this tax deduction as an offset in your regular taxes when you pay them in India.

When you open your account, you will need to add US $ 5 as a one time fee payment to get a “W8-BEN”. This is a form mandated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the USA to collect correct information on investors who are not residents in the USA and is used for reporting purposes.

When you are filing your taxes in India, you can refer to the checklist of documents in our note on taxation - for which form is needed, where to get it and what documents to give to your CA who files your tax returns so that he can claim an offset on tax deducted in USA.