DRIPs that Welcome Foreign Investors
What are DRIPs?
Direct Investment Plans (DRIPs) have been around since the early 1960s. They are offered by more than 1000 dividend-paying public companies and allow individuals to invest without going through a stock broker.
Although many of these plans provide the advantage of no-fee investing, they are not widely known and used. Information about their availability is not advertised and the process of becoming enrolled is not widely understood.
At this site, you will find a complete and current list of companies that offer direct investment plans to U.S. citizens as well as to foreign investors. These companies include the bluest of blue-chip companies, many of which are among the most widely followed companies by the investing public.
Why would such an advantageous opportunity go unnoticed by the pubic?
When "dividend reinvestment plans" (as they were called in the early 1960s when they were first organized) were approved by the SEC the conditions prohibited the companies from advertising the plans and usage was limited to people who had shares registered in their own names and not in "street name." (When investors buy shares through a broker, the shares are typically held in the name of the broker.)
Foreign investors should keep the following in mind:
• They may face tax obligations in their own country on dividends and company-paid fees, just as U.S. investors do here.
• Investments must be made using U.S. currency.
• The enrollment procedure is the same as for U.S. citizens, except that a W-8 tax form must be filed so that taxes are not withheld from dividend distributions.
You can print a copy of the W-8 Form here.
Once you've decided on the DRIPs in which you’d like to enroll, you can do so online at this site.