We solve that problem through a wealth management platform only for Indian expats - https://www.goinri.com/
Our Launch HN post for more context - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35389110
One of the trickiest parts for investors in this process has been KYC - Know Your Customer requirements by Indian financial institutions. For the longest time, Indians abroad were either required to submit physical paperwork or required to be in India to complete KYC to get started.
We have made this 100% online - You submit your docs in less than 5 mins and your KYC gets done in 3-4 working days.
The other problem for Indians abroad who have wanted to invest in India is not knowing where to start. For that, we curate investment options based on cross-border compliances (e.g. Not all mutual funds are open for US / Canada residents) and make the entire investment journey simple and personalized to your investment goals, like Wealthfront. Additionally, the platform also offers support for cross-border tax reporting and repatriation to solve for the full journey in a self-serve manner.
We know this is a bit of a niche product for HN but we saw a lot of great comments in our launch last time, so we would love to get your feedback on the product! Thank you!
There is a serious and large amount of ambiguous tax complications (form 8621) when an NRI tries to do this. I'd love to see more commentary on this on your landing page. Are you addressing it or is that your customer's responsibility?
After factoring in taxation on foreign assets by US gov and leakage due to weak INR, a repatriation situation looks very underwhelming. A 7% yield is more likely 3%. One is better of just putting $ in an index fund in the US unless one has decided to relocate to India in the long term and want to hold assets there. How do you folks think about this?
Post the zero interest rate regime, it's unlikely US will give that much return as it has in the last decade. AT the same time, India is in a better position vs last decade because foreign reserves are stronger, so depreciation probability is lower as well as fundamentals are better - RBI revised its growth forecasts upwards from 6% to 6.8%, capex to GDP has doubled in the last 7 years etc.
Overall, these factors make India a good diversification for X% of your capital, X can be higher if you choose to move to India, and lower if not, but it can be non-zero, provided the friction of investing is removed
Your point on India's growth rate likely to be higher than US is well received, but I want to understand something more tangible. Let's say I invest a dollar in India which grows at 7-8% risk free just using the FD instrument. At the end of each year though, US Gov will tax that growth at 30-40%. Next, If one repatriates that money, one loses even more value due to currency conversion. So in effect, your money grows at 4% most likely.
4% growth + tax paperwork hell seems imprudent. I'd like to learn what am I missing here? Many of my NRI friends don't bother investing in India. There is a serious lack of education in this regard.