Transferring stock account

Terry Says

That's very easy.  Simply contact one of the discount brokers and they will organize it for you, having you sign the transfer papers.  You do NOT want to liquidate your stock positions, because that would trigger tax consequences.  You just want your existing positions (and cash) transferred to the new firm.  Be very clear about that --to both the new brokerage firm and your existing firm.  One exception might be if you have mutual funds that are"proprietary" to the current firm and cannot be transferred.  Then you'll have to do some thinking about whether you want to keep the existing account open for just those funds, or deal with the tax issues of selling those funds and transferring cash.  Sounds complicated, but really it isn't