Comments on: Adios to Wells Trade

By: indexfundfan

indexfundfan — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 23:28:57 +0000

Dave, if I recall correctly, I closed out the bank account first, then transferred out my holdings, then closed the brokerage account.

The reason was because without the brokerage assets (>$25k), I would be hit with the PMA monthly fees. Note: If your total assets drop below $25k, your trades will not be free but it is not important as I was already transferring out the account.

Are you stuck with huge capital gains? If no, you can just sell the assets, transfer out the cash, then close the account. There will be no ACAT fee for this.

If you need to ACAT, I have heard that partial transfer fees can be waived. You might want to try that first. Just transfer out those assets with capital gains leaving one or two behind, which you eventually sell and transfer the cash out.

In all cases, you need to watch the total assets level if you want to avoid the PMA fee.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:50:34 +0000

I’m ready to bail on Wells Fargo. Ever since they converted my account to Well Fargo Advisors, it has been a total mess. The customer support people are not friendly or helpful. What sequence did you follow to close out both the Brokerage and PMA accounts? Did you liquidate your holdings or did you do an ACAT transfer? I want to minimize the number of fees this stupid bank charges me, so I want to get the process right. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:33:11 +0000

You seem to have a type in the date “03/2010″, since that’s in the future.
A lot of brokerages refund ACAT fees charged by the other brokerage when you do a transfer, so I’m not super concerned about the fee increase.

By: indexfundfan

indexfundfan — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:14:55 +0000

Steve, that’s not a typo. Wells Trade has announced the fee increase, to start on 3/2010.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:07:58 +0000

By: indexfundfan

indexfundfan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:55:32 +0000

Jag, I am currently left with a Traditional IRA (TIRA) with Wells Trade. I am consolidating my TIRAs so that I can rollover the pre-tax portion to my 401(k) account. Of the remainder, I will convert to a Roth IRA tax-free. The tax benefits will far outweigh the close out fee or free trades. This is the main reason for my move.

The upcoming new fees for Wells Trade in Mar 2010 are probably OK as long as they continue to offer the free trades. But with the trend, I am not sure if they will not tinker with that when people are “more” locked in.

I had already moved out my taxable account from Wells Trade last year to take advantage of the savings rate to margin interest rate spread at another broker. That spread alone is sufficient to pay for any free trades and then some.

By: jag

jag — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:32:03 +0000

is there any othere reason for getting out of wellstrade. i have been using this for past 5 months. I am satisfied that i rolledover my 401k to them just strday. I am not worried about the closeout fee unless i decide to close the account. I am not worried about the sweep fund and rmmxx bcos i am fully invested and usally use a savings account to save any money. I still see the value in this 100 trades in my taxable and 100 trades in ira. Assuming the lowest price and am using the whole offer thats worht 800$ in trade fee i am saving per year. Now did u find any better deal or service some where else?