How to invest in US stocks from the Philippines

Can Filipinos actually invest in US stocks?

Yes. Nothing in Philippine law prevents a resident from opening an account with a foreign or foreign-licensed broker and buying US-listed shares, mutual funds, or ETFs. What actually varies, and what trips people up, is which specific platforms are practical to use day to day and reliably reachable from a Philippine connection, not whether the underlying activity is allowed.

Your options at a glance

Four names come up constantly in this conversation. Only three of them actually let you own individual US shares directly, the table below is worth reading in full before picking one.

A fifth name still circulates in older posts and comment threads: Shari-Shari. It shut down in September 2024 after its brokerage partnership ended, and isn't a live option regardless of what an outdated article says.

Interactive Brokers (IBKR), the full-featured option

Interactive Brokers is a US-listed, SEC- and FINRA-regulated broker, one of the largest in the world by trade volume, and client securities are SIPC-protected up to $500,000, the same protection a US-resident client gets. It supports a standard cash account with no minimum deposit (a margin account needs roughly $2,000), direct ownership of individual US stocks and ETFs, and access to more than 150 markets worldwide, including London-listed funds relevant to the estate tax section further down. That range comes with a genuinely more complex platform than a first-time investor's phone app, built for someone who wants full control, not the fastest path to a first trade.

Is IBKR reliable to access from the Philippines?

This is worth knowing before choosing IBKR as your only platform, and it's the one thing most beginner guides on this topic don't mention. Since 2025, Philippine ISPs have intermittently restricted access to the IBKR website and roughly 50 other financial platforms, apparently following a directive from the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission and National Telecommunications Commission, since IBKR isn't itself locally registered as a Philippine broker. IBKR has responded in writing to affected clients that it has not received formal communication from any Philippine regulator about the restriction, and that it does not affect assets already held with them in any way.

In practice, this shows up as the IBKR site occasionally failing to load on a home internet connection, then working again later or from a different network. It isn't a ban on Filipino clients, IBKR continues to accept and serve Philippine accounts, and it isn't unique to the Philippines either: Indonesia has taken a similar ISP-level stance since 2021 without IBKR dropping Indonesian clients. Treat it as a real, ongoing regulatory-friction risk to factor into your decision, not a reason to panic if it happens once, and not a reason to assume your account or money is at risk.

GoTrade and Invesko, the simpler starting point

GoTrade and Invesko both solve for the same problem: a mobile-first app where you can start with a few dollars in fractional shares of US stocks and ETFs, without Interactive Brokers' learning curve. Invesko is Philippine-founded and built around thousands of US equities and ETFs with SIPC protection passed through its underlying broker-dealer partner; GoTrade follows a similar fractional-share model. Neither currently offers the London-listed Irish-domiciled funds covered in the next two sections, so if minimizing US estate tax exposure on a large long-term holding matters to you specifically, that's a reason to look at Interactive Brokers instead despite the steeper setup.

What about DragonFi?

DragonFi comes up in the same searches and conversations as IBKR and GoTrade constantly, understandably, since it's a well-known Philippine trading app. It doesn't do the same job, though. DragonFi is built as a PSE brokerage app first, covered in the brokerage account chapter as one of several PSE broker options, and its international exposure comes through mutual funds with US and other foreign holdings, not direct ownership of individual US shares or ETFs. If the goal is buying a specific company like Apple, or a specific ETF like an S&P 500 fund, directly and by name, DragonFi isn't currently built for that; if the goal is simply some US market exposure without picking individual names yourself, its international mutual fund options are worth a look on their own terms.

Investing in the S&P 500 specifically

“How do I just buy the S&P 500” is probably the single most common version of this question, since it's the most talked-about US index and a common core holding. There are two ways to get that exposure, and which one makes sense depends entirely on the estate tax question in the next section:

• A US-domiciled S&P 500 ETF(like VOO or SPY), buyable directly on IBKR, GoTrade, or Invesko. Simple, cheap, and liquid, but it's a US-situs asset for estate tax purposes, covered next.
• An Ireland-domiciled UCITS equivalent(like CSPX or VUAA), tracking the same S&P 500 index, buyable through Interactive Brokers on the London Stock Exchange. Functionally very similar performance, but structured to sit outside US estate tax exposure entirely.

US dividend tax and the W-8BEN form

US dividends are withheld at source before they ever reach you, so this isn't something you calculate or file yourself. The default US withholding rate for a foreign investor is 30%. Filing Form W-8BEN with your broker, a standard part of account setup on every platform covered here, not a separate application, drops that to 25% under the US-Philippines tax treaty. Your broker applies the correct rate automatically once the form is on file. It expires after roughly three calendar years and needs renewing, most platforms prompt you when that's due.

The US estate tax most guides don't mention

This is the gap worth knowing about before putting meaningful money into US-listed shares. The United States levies estate tax on the US-situs assets of a non-resident alien, which includes individual US stocks and US-domiciled ETFs, starting at just $60,000 in value, a dramatically lower threshold than what applies to a US citizen or resident, and there's no US-Philippines estate tax treaty to soften it. In plain terms: if a Filipino investor holding, say, $80,000 in individual US shares or a US-domiciled ETF like VOO were to pass away, the estate could face US tax exposure on the amount above that threshold, separate from and in addition to whatever applies under Philippine law.

The common, legal way around this, well established among non-US investors generally, is to hold the same market exposure through an Ireland-domiciled UCITS fund instead of a US-domiciled one, such as CSPX or VUAA in place of VOO, covered above. Because the fund itself is legally Irish, not American, it falls outside US-situs classification entirely, regardless of how much US stock the fund holds underneath. As a side benefit, Ireland's own tax treaty with the US also reduces dividend withholding drag inside the fund. This only applies to funds; buying Apple or Tesla directly always means US-situs exposure, since there's no non-US-domiciled way to own a specific US company's own shares.

This is general tax information, not personalized advice for your specific situation or estate size. A cross-border estate planning professional is the right call for anything beyond a general understanding of the mechanism.

Opening an account, in general terms

The specifics vary by platform, but the shape is broadly the same across all of them:

1. Sign up with a government-issued ID and basic personal and employment details.
2. Complete identity verification (KYC), sometimes instant, sometimes a day or two.
3. Submit Form W-8BEN, usually presented automatically as part of setup, to claim the reduced 25% dividend withholding rate covered above.
4. Fund the account, typically by international wire transfer or a linked local payment method depending on the platform, which can carry its own transfer fees separate from the broker's own charges.
5. Place your first order once funds show as available.

Fees, minimums, and exact verification steps change over time and vary by platform, confirm current details directly with whichever one you're considering before applying.

Common mistakes specific to investing abroad

• Assuming DragonFi buys individual US stocks.It doesn't, see the dedicated section above.
• Skipping the W-8BEN form. Missing it means paying 30% dividend withholding instead of the 25% treaty rate, for no benefit.
• Not knowing about US estate tax until it's a large position. The $60,000 threshold is easy to cross without realizing it once a position has grown for a few years.
• Panicking at an IBKR access hiccup.A site that won't load from a Philippine ISP is a known, documented issue, not automatically a sign your account or money is at risk.
• Forgetting currency conversion costs. Moving pesos to US dollars and back carries its own spread or fee, on top of whatever the broker charges for the trade itself, worth checking on both the way in and the way out.