E-Trade is offering an increased transfer offer for existing E-Trade customers of up to $6,000 for transferring in new assets. This specific offer only applies to non-retirement accounts. You must enroll in the offer first after logging into your E-Trade account, fund within 60 days, and keep there for at least 6 months. These tiers are currently better than their offer for new customers.
Existing E-Trade customers (non-retirement taxable accounts only)
- $125 bonus with $5,000 to $24,999 in new assets
- $250 bonus with $25,000 to $99,999 in new assets
- $625 bonus with $100,000 to $199,999 in new assets
- $1,000 bonus with $200,000 to $499,999 in new assets
- $2,000 bonus with $500,000 to $999,999 in new assets
- $4,500 bonus with $1,000,000 to $1,999,999 in new assets
- $6,000 bonus with $2,000,000+ in new assets
These are relatively good percentages for a more established broker. (Morgan Stanley bought E*Trade in 2020, and is in the Top 10 for assets under management.) Importantly, I don’t see any minimum hold period on the offer page beyond keeping the assets there through the end of the 60-day qualification period after enrollment. (Update: The minimum hold period is 6 months, something but not too bad.)
Overall Brokerage Transfer Tips
- Many brokers will charge an “Outgoing ACAT fee” of $50 to $100 when you leave them. (Notably, Fidelity and Vanguard do not. Schwab allows free partial transfers.) I recommend contacting your destination broker and asking them to reimburse you for this fee, on top of any bonuses. If you qualify for one of these bonuses, your account is probably big enough for them to consider it. The worst they can say is no. You may have to send them a statement showing the fee.
- Before moving, I would download all your old statements and tax cost basis information to make sure it transfers over correctly.
- An ACAT transfer can take a week or so to complete, so you won’t be able to make any sell transactions during that time. As long as you do an in-kind transfer, you’ll just keep the same shares of the same securities as before.
- Consider performing a “partial” ACAT transfer where you only move over specifically designated shares (ex. only all 455 shares of BRKB) if you wish to keep some of your original brokerage account open. I would personally transfer over all shares of any specific ticker, so that the tax cost basis carries over neatly.
- Compare bonuses across different brokers. Look carefully at the tiers, there may be a sweet spot where the percentages are better.
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