How do you transition from one broker/platform to another, without making a loss? Anything else to take note of?

Hi anon,

If your holdings are held in custody, there's almost no way to escape transfer fees, especially when it comes to shares. That's the reality of things. (Unit trusts can be moved from broker to broker without any fees, and are the sole exception that I am aware of).

If your holdings are held in CDP, there's no issue, since you just need to link your new platform to CDP.

You'll have to work out the costs of the transfer vs selling and re-buying them, to see which makes more sense.

You could check with both platforms if they accept transfer of investments and if there are any transfers charges involved. Usually there are some.

If you don’t want to play the transfer fees:
You could continue to maintain the investments in the current platform and start new investments on the new platform, if the cost to maintain the account is negligible.

Otherwise you can choose to liquidate the investments in the current platform and use the money to purchase new investments on the new platform.

*Provided that your current investments are not negative returns.