Hi, I'm a longtime lurker here, but this is my first post. I'm trying to move my and my husband's investment accounts over to Vanguard from Betterment. We both have a Roth IRA and I have a regular taxable account as well. I'm wondering if I should have the taxable account transfered over directly, or should I withdraw the money and buy the exact vanguard funds I want. The account has lost money since it's been at Betterment (they show a -$1900 'gains' on the taxable account) so I would assume that means I wouldn't owe any taxes if I withdrew it? I want to have a 3 or 4 fund 'lazy portfolio' a la Bogleheads instead of the 6 or so funds that betterment has me in so that I can keep expense ratios as low as possible. I'm just learning about wash sales as well.. just getting confused and not sure what I should do.
To complicate it, I'm wanting to recharacterize my 2015 and 2016 Roth contributions into a traditional IRA. Betterment will do it for me, and then I am wanting to move the IRA's to Vanguard as well. I am very new at navigating investments and taxes and I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way to get all of my investments moved over to vanguard without triggering any tax bills.
Sorry for the newbie questions, I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure this all out for a few days now.