Important Information

An Accredited Investor is an individual who meets the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) requirements below and has opted in to be treated as an Accredited Investor. In order to qualify, you must satisfy one of the below criteria and opt in to be an Accredited Investor:
 

• Minimum Income:
  Minimum income of S$300,000 in the last 12 months (or its equivalent in a foreign currency); or 
  
• Net Personal Assets:
  Net personal assets exceeding S$2 million, of which the net value of your primary place of residence can only contribute up to S$1 million; or
  
• Net Financial Assets:
  Net financial assets exceeding S$1 million (or its equivalent in a foreign currency)

Please complete the Declaration and Opt-In Form for Accredited Investor Status and Cross-Border Arrangement and submit the required evidence for review. You will also need to complete the TD Ameritrade Inc. application form to open your new account. This entire process can be completed digitally using DocuSign here.

For more details, please refer to the Declaration and Opt-In Form for Accredited Investor Status and Cross-Border Arrangement. Some of the common supporting documents required may include: 

• Latest income tax statement

• Recent payslip(s)

• Recent bank statement(s) 

• Title deed

• Property Tax statement

• Other brokerage statement(s)

Yes, they are taken into consideration for the qualification assessment.

In addition to all the benefits of becoming an Accredited Investor with TD Ameritrade now, you can look forward to more with the Charles Schwab integration coming in early 2024. 

• By opting in to convert your account to Accredited Investor status, you will be establishing an account with our U.S. Foreign Related Corporation ‘TD Ameritrade, Inc’ through the Singapore Cross Border Arrangement framework.  

• You will retain the same log in and platform experience and continue to have access to the thinkorswim suite of trading platforms. 

• Schwab merger in March 2024 and bringing improved platform, service and product experience. 

Only one individual account holder of a joint account is required to qualify as an Accredited Investor for the entire joint account to be designated as an Accredited Investor account. However, all joint account holders need to sign the opt in form to acknowledge their treatment as an Accredited Investor.

You will need to submit a separate Declaration and Opt-In Form for Accredited Investor Status and Cross-Border Arrangement for each account you wish to opt in for Accredited Investor status.

Please see Annex A of the Declaration and Opt-In Form for Accredited Investor Status and Cross-Border Arrangement and for more details on your account protection, please see below.

As an Accredited Investor customer, you would no longer be subject to certain Singaporean customer protection rules, please refer to Annex A of the Declaration and Opt-In Form for Accredited Investor Status and Cross-Border Arrangement for more details. Today, the cash and securities held in your TD Ameritrade Singapore account, are protected through the TD Ameritrade Inc. and TD Ameritrade Clearing, Inc. ’s U.S. customer protection rules.  This protection will continue under the Cross-Border Arrangement available to Accredited Investor customers. By opting-in to become an Accredited Investor and opening an account with our Foreign Related Corporation, TD Ameritrade Inc., there is no change to how your assets and cash are protected by our affiliate U.S. broker-dealers, and they will continue to be held in the same way they are today. 

Read the following FAQs for more detail on how U.S. investor assets are protected.

The first thing to remember is your securities — like stocks and exchange traded funds — held at TD Ameritrade are yours. The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 15c3-3, commonly known as the "Customer Protection Rule" or "SEC Rule 15c3-3" safeguards customer assets at brokerage firms by preventing firms from using customer assets to finance their own proprietary businesses.  

At TD Ameritrade, clients' fully paid securities are segregated from other firm assets and held at third party depository institutions and custodians such as the Depository Trust Company and Bank of New York. There are reporting and auditing requirements in place by government regulators to help ensure all broker-dealers comply with this rule. In the very unlikely event that TD Ameritrade should become insolvent, these segregated securities are not available to general creditors and are protected against creditors' claims. ​

Additionally, The Securities Investor Protection Act (SIPA) and its operating corporation, the Securities Investor protection Corporation (SIPC), provide protection against lost brokerage securities in the amount of $500,000 per customer. Both TD Ameritrade, Inc. and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. also provide privately funded Excess SIPC coverage of USD$ 500 million.

Your securities and funds are held in the U.S. and TD Ameritrade is a registered broker-dealer and transfer agent with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"); is a member firm of self-regulatory organizations, including the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA"), and the following depository and clearing agencies: the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation ("DTCC"), National Securities Clearing Corporation ("NSCC") and Options Clearing Corporation ("OCC"); and several US exchanges. As a result, TD Ameritrade client accounts are subject to all applicable U.S. laws, rules, regulations, and customer protection provisions associated with fully disclosed accounts trading and settling in the US.

Understanding that your account is held in the U.S., the below table provides a simple comparison of the protection afforded to your funds if they were held in Singapore.  Today, they are not currently held in Singapore and would not be in the future if you opted-in to become an Accredited Investor.  All Accredited Investor customers will be directly protected by the U.S. customer protection rules by opting in to become an Accredited Investor and opening an account with TD Ameritrade Inc.

Singapore

• Yes: Segregated Funds
• Yes: Funds protected against insolvency
• Yes: SDIC SGD 75,000 maximum*
• No: SEC Rule 15c3-3 Customer Protection Rule
• No: SIPC Insurance (up to a limit of US$500,000 including a US$250,000 limit on claims for cash)
• No: TD Ameritrade Clearing Inc (limited combined return of US$152 million)

United States

• Yes: Segregated Funds
• Yes: Funds protected against insolvency
• No: SDIC SGD 75,000 maximum*
• Yes: SEC Rule 15c3-3 Customer Protection Rule
• Yes: SIPC Insurance (up to a limit of US$500,000 including a US$250,000 limit on claims for cash)
• Yes: TD Ameritrade Clearing Inc (limited combined return of US$152 million)

*SDIC only insures bank deposits in the event of failure of the bank (not broker) up to SGD $75,000 per account 

As your funds and securities are held with our (Foreign Related Corporation) U.S. clearing and custodial firm’s Special Reserve Account or SIPC protected brokerage account in the U.S., only U.S. cash and asset protection laws apply.  

TD Ameritrade is a member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members (including you), excluding futures and options on futures, up to a limit of US $500,000, including a US $250,000 limit on claims for cash (against brokerage insolvency). SIPC protections are activated in the rare event that the broker-dealer fails (bankruptcy), and client assets are missing due to fraud or other causes.  Please note that this does not protect against loss in market value of the securities. An explanatory brochure is available on request at www.sipc.org. 

TD Ameritrade maintains an additional insurance policy through a group of London underwriters (with Lloyd's of London Syndicates as lead underwriter) to supplement the SIPC protection, which becomes available to TD Ameritrade clients in the event that the SIPC limits are exhausted. TD Ameritrade provides you US $149.5 million worth of protection for securities and US $2 million of protection for cash through supplemental coverage provided by London insurers. In the event of a brokerage insolvency, you may receive amounts due from the trustee in bankruptcy and then SIPC. Supplemental coverage is paid out after the trustee and SIPC payouts and under such coverage each client is limited to a combined return of US $152 million from a trustee, SIPC, and London insurers. The supplemental coverage has an aggregate limit of US $500 million over all customers. This policy provides coverage following brokerage insolvency and does not protect against loss in market value of the securities.

For Accredited Investors, your account is now contracted directly with our U.S. Foreign Related Corporation ‘TD Ameritrade, Inc.’, and you must establish new wire instructions. For new wire instructions please login to your TD Ameritrade U.S. account once it’s been opened and navigate to My Account > Deposits > Wire Transfer to retrieve the Incoming International Wire Instructions.

You will need to re-apply to enable futures trading for your new account. Clear steps and instructions will be sent to you after your existing account is successfully converted as an Accredited Investor.