Author Topic: Changing Brokerage due to work.  (Read 1592 times)

Cordivae

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Changing Brokerage due to work.
« on: March 23, 2019, 08:51:43 AM »
I've taken a new job with a financial company and found this in the onboarding pamplet:

Employee personal brokerage accounts must be held at a <COMPANY> approved brokerage firm.
Accounts held with a non-approved broker must be moved to an approved broker within 60 days
of hire. The <COMPANY> approved brokerage firms include:

• Betterment • Merrill Lynch
• Charles Schwab • Morgan Stanley
• E*Trade • Scottrade
• Fidelity Investments • TD Ameritrade
• Goldman Sachs • UBS
• Interactive Brokers • Wells Fargo Advisors

Up until now, all of our accounts (IRA, Regular Brokerage) have been with Vanguard and 100% in VTSAX.  Any thoughts on which of these I should go with (I see Fidelity pop up as the Vanguard alternative here). 

Any tips on how to mitigate tax liability as part of this transfer?  Can I do it without selling / buying?

« Last Edit: March 23, 2019, 08:55:00 AM by Cordivae »

Another Reader

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Re: Changing Brokerage due to work.
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2019, 08:57:00 AM »
Transfer everything "in kind."  You may have to direct dividends and capital gains to cash if Fidelity or Schwab or whoever you choose charges to reinvest them into the Vanguard funds.  Just invest them in the equivalent funds at the new broker.

Cordivae

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Re: Changing Brokerage due to work.
« Reply #2 on: March 23, 2019, 09:42:51 AM »
Thanks!

flipboard

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Re: Changing Brokerage due to work.
« Reply #3 on: March 23, 2019, 11:21:55 AM »
Schwab are also a good choice (as Another Reader already mentioned): they have some very competitive Funds/ETF's that trade commission free.

Schwab have a nice deal where if you transfer in $100k in assets, you can get 200 free trades for 2 years. (You need to register for the deal before sending the transfer.) That makes it possible to buy Vanguard or Fidelity ETF's if there are any that interest you.

One thing to be careful of is that some of the Schwab and Fidelity funds distribute capital gains. It's worth researching that in advance (the ETF's don't suffer from that problem, which is yet another good reason to use ETF's).

terran

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Re: Changing Brokerage due to work.
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2019, 08:27:23 PM »
I would go with Fidelity, but you can find perfectly good options (low fee index funds/ETFs with no wrap fees or other transaction fees) at Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Etrade too. You might find https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Fidelity helpful.

CowboyAndIndian

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Re: Changing Brokerage due to work.
« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2019, 07:53:02 AM »
Schwab are also a good choice (as Another Reader already mentioned): they have some very competitive Funds/ETF's that trade commission free.

+1.
I have used Schwab and find them very good. They would be my first choice. My second would be Fidelity.

I'm surprised you have so many choices.  worked for financial companies for 20 years until I FIRE'ed in 2018 and I would only get one or two choices (e.g when I moved to Merrill Lynch, had to use the Merrill brokerage which I hated)

Quote
Schwab have a nice deal where if you transfer in $100k in assets, you can get 200 free trades for 2 years. (You need to register for the deal before sending the transfer.)
Every time I switched a job, I was forced to move my funds to a new brokerage. I would find out what cash awards were available to move funds. E.g. Move $500k and the brokerage would add $500 to your account. I would find out awards given by all companies, even those not in the list. Then I would ask the brokerage to match it. I made out like a bandit with several moves ;-)