Hi I'm opening an account with IB and planning to have IB tranfer the contents of my account with Etrade to IB's new account (and than close the Etrade account) - as well as some stocks held with a bank. Is it an easy process ? Anything I should be aware of before doing so ? Besides can I also transfer the cash balance on the Etrade account or do I need to transfer it out of this account separately ? I only hold stocks btw, IRE adrs and ETFs. Thanks Luis
The safe way is to close all positions at Etrade and open them at IB. The costs for this at IB side are neglegible. Do you know if Etrade charges for thansferring the shares away?
Actually I'm a non US person trading through a non US company so there are no tax consequences. But it would take over a week to close the positions with etrade, wait the 3 working days for the money to be credited, than transfer it back to the source account overseas. Than again transfer those funds to the IB USD account in the US before buying again the shares. This if Etrade releases the funds immediatly - they should though. There will be several bank transfer fees, and possibly intermediary bank fees as well. It does look easier to just transfer the shares under IB's custody , especially if I intend to stay long during the week plus it will last to liquidate the positions before entering them again. Anymore feedback on the process ?
I think the only question is if Etrade cooperates on the transfer (regarding cost & time of transfer). You just have to make sure they don't charge you for this. Probably you can find on this forum how this worked out for other people (otherwise somewhere else). http://www.google.nl/search?hl=en&q=transfer+shares+from+etrade&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= And usually there's a maximum to the cost which is reimboursed by the "receiving" broker.