KYC

Know Your Customer, or KYC, is the process a financial business uses to confirm who its customers are. Anti-money-laundering law in almost every country requires it before an account can hold or move money. Fractional real estate platforms sell securities, so they are covered. In practice it means uploading a government ID, sometimes a selfie to match it, and confirming your address. Some platforms add a short questionnaire about the source of your funds. The check usually clears in minutes and occasionally takes a few days if a document is unclear.

Three reasons. Money laundering rules, which require the platform to know who is sending money. Securities rules, which require it to know where you live, because most offerings are only open to certain countries. And tax rules, which require it to report your distributions to the right authority under the right taxpayer number. The jurisdiction check is the one that bites most often. A property offered under US securities law may be closed to non-US residents, or open only to residents of specific countries the platform has cleared. The KYC step is where that gate is applied.

Threeworld runs no KYC of its own, because it never handles money or holds securities. Browsing, comparing and saving properties needs only an email. The KYC happens on the platform when you invest, and each platform runs its own, so investing on three platforms means three checks. What Threeworld does show is which platforms require KYC and which countries each platform serves, on the listing and on the platform's page, so you can see before clicking through whether a check is coming and whether it is likely to pass.