Transferring assets to TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage

[ourkid8]

Hi,

 

I am looking to consolidate all my accounts with TD Waterhouse DB and I have the following questions:

 

-My 2 mutual funds - Chou associates and Chou Asia have distributions on December 31st, if I transfer my assets now, what would happen to my distribution? (I am reinvesting all my dividends)  Will that automatically transfer over or I should wait till the new year?

-Is there anything I need to look out for as I want all my securities transferred and nothing sold.  The option the branch rep picked was "All assets* but mixed In-Cash and In-Kind" (There are equities, mutual funds and cash in the account)

-Anyone have any reviews on this transferring of assets?  Is it very seamless? Have you heard of any problems?

 

The reason for the transfer is because I am sick of paying a yearly RRSP fee with my current brokerage and another bonus is that TD Waterhouse has $9.99 trades for accounts over $100k.  I do not trade a lot but why pay an RRSP fee and more for trading?  

 

Let me know...

 

Thanks,

 

S

[KFRCanuk]

-Anyone have any reviews on this transferring of assets?  Is it very seamless? Have you heard of any problems?

 

In the past I have transferred shares from SunLife to TD Waterhouse DB. I have mostly done "in kind".

 

The last time I did it was 2 years ago.

 

The transfer process wasn't the fastest in the world but the shares did get into the account.

[woodstove]

In early 2008, I transferred my RSP from a full-service broker to TD Waterhouse.  The transfer authorization specified "All in kind (as is)" not "All assets but mixed in cash and as is (in kind)".  On the form, the latter choice allowed specific assets to be listed with a choice of in-kind, in-cash, sharews/unit, or dollars.  As I was moving the entire account, as-is, that was not relevant to my situation.  I did not hold any mutual funds, which might be a complicating factor.

 

I think an accompanying letter specifying that you do NOT wish the Chou funds to be liquidated might be useful if you have a real concern re how the transfer will be handled.  Would be evidence of intent if they should screw up - they would have to eat the re-acquisition cost in such an event.  But it sounds like you've already gone ahead with the paperwork, yes?

 

The transfer was seamless.  Everything showed up in the new TDW account 17 days after the request was made.  There was some followup re a bit of unit trust income received at the old account - both cash dividend and a dividend paid in additional units.  That was resolved by contacting the old broker (with whom I still had/have a relationship for other accounts) about 3 months later, when the dust had settled, and getting the leftovers transferred - there was no additional transfer fee for that charged by the old broker.  And it was tricky, because the units received as a dividend were continuing to receive distributions.  Full service really is good service, for all their high trading fees.

 

Re TDW service:  I've been happy with them.  I like the low cost of trading.  They have an option to set up an additional trading password, which must be entered on trades (and is entered no-where else, eg upon inquiries), which I like - other online brokerages eg RBC do not provide that feature.  TDW's service has been down sometimes, but RBC has its outages too, at different times.  TDW's statement is not the easiest to read but all the info is present.

 

TDW's 9.99/trade commission rate is determined once a month, based upon the account balances about a week earlier.  You can request that it be activated earlier, by contacting their representative, but it may not expedite the matter.  Rather, after you have made a trade, telephone their rep and request that your commission be adjusted to 9.99 for that specific trade.  I did that before closing on the day of the trade, and it worked fine.

 

TDW's information for securities research is scanty, nothing like a full service brokerage (BMO-Nesbitt Burns), but there are a few bits that might be useful and are different from other sources available to me.  I generally don't use TDW for info gathering however.

 

I have never received any impression that TDW might be front-running my trades.

 

I looked into debentures trading with TDW, but have found a full service brokerage much better for that - limit orders easily handled, for example. Perhaps there are ways around that, which I have not seen because I've not fully investigated all the features available thru TDW.

 

TDW does not put many ads on your screen, which I appreciate.  I figure that as a customer, I deserve fast functionality, not being forced to watch as a captive audience.  I use a specific-IP firewall between my trading desktop computer and the internet, and allow traffic only with IP addresses which appear genuinely relevant to account purposes.  TDW looks generally moderate, but still one may wish to eliminate Google keystroke tracking and such, and make your own decisions re Globe and Mail info.  I prefer to get non-account info via a separate computer, not to risk compromise of the trading desktop.  RBC is more aggressive with ads, and also utilizes a service (which I block) to monitor how long the viewer spends on screens. However, I've never experienced an erroneous transaction or an account compromise with either service.

[omagh]

With a call to their help centre, you can extend those $9.99 trades to smaller accounts within the same household -- RESP accounts for kids, spousal accounts, business brokerage accounts, etc.  It will save $20/trade in any small accounts.

 

-O

 

TDW's 9.99/trade commission rate is determined once a month, based upon the account balances about a week earlier.  You can request that it be activated earlier, by contacting their representative, but it may not expedite the matter.  Rather, after you have made a trade, telephone their rep and request that your commission be adjusted to 9.99 for that specific trade.  I did that before closing on the day of the trade, and it worked fine.

[StubbleJumper]

Transferring accounts in-kind is a PITA.  My experience with RBC was that it took about 10 weeks during which my previous broker effectively froze my accounts (which is fair) but the securities had not yet appeared in my new account.  The good news is that I do not trade frequently, so the frozen assets issue was nothing more than an annoyance.  WRT dividends, I had them rolling across in dribs and drabs for the 10 week period.  Usually they were transferred over to my new account automatically, but there was one small divvy in my RRSP for which I had to make a phone call to wake up the admin staff.

 

Anyway, it's not really my idea of recreation, but sometimes you need to send a message to your existing financial institution that their fees are out of line.

 

SJ

[mranski]

Td is quite good overall.

Like most brokers, the real fees are made in foreign exchange if you buy foreign equities in your rrsp, which is where you should be buying them.

One purchase i did,  i estimate the spread was $600, so the 9.99 is not what i'm worried about.

They let you wash trade us money to us money, so that is some relief. Also, you can swap in equities from account to account which helps.

 

 

[ourkid8]

Anyway, it's not really my idea of recreation, but sometimes you need to send a message to your existing financial institution that their fees are out of line.

 

I totally agree!!!

[benhacker]

I just did this with my RIA broker and they immediately lowered my commissions 15-25%.  I still am not as low as I could go, but as I get bigger, I'm sure there is more room for improvement.

 

Definately always pays to send a note.  State your case rationally, and mention IBKR's fee structure. :)