DrRoy
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
I agree with the other advice you've been given. I'd do the following.
- Get the cost basis for current holders from old broker.
- Figure out what you want to invest in - mutual funds? Active vs Passive? Individual stocks? Bond funds or Individual bonds? Figure out if anything you currently own fits your new asset allocation/plan. But have a clear plan.
- Transfer funds in-kind.
- Rebalance/Reallocate to your new investment plan.
Obviously your new brokerage should match your new plan. If you are looking at mostly vanguard funds, or schwab funds, or fidelity funds - consider going with the company (vanguard or schwab or fidelity) since often there are advantages to buying/selling in house funds in terms of fees or premium (admiral class for example) products. If you want to own a bunch of individual stocks - go with a brokerage that does that well with low trade prices.
+1. You should not be getting pressure from the new financial firm. Perhaps you should pick a different one. When I did this, I went to Fido, and there was no pressure on their part at all. I switched the old investments over a period of several years because I did not want to take a big tax hit all at once.