The hot news this week: TD Ameritrade to only serve accredited investors, discontinuing its services to non-accredited investors.
Unless you are able to meet any one of the criteria below, you need to explore moving your assets into other brokers.
From 27 Oct 2023 onwards, non-accredited investors will be charged a monthly maintenance fee of US$50.
Act fast if you don’t want to be slapped with this charge.
2 choices that non-accredited investors can explore:
Sell everything and cash out
Transfer all your stocks and assets to another brokerage
Sell everything and cash out
No matter whether your positions are in profit or loss, it’s hard to press the sell button.
With profitable positions, we tend to get greedy by shooting for more. With losses, selling means realising and locking in the loss (which is arguably more painful).
When we can reframe it differently, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Think of it as spring cleaning. Every once in awhile, we need to do a deep clean of our house, and dispose of items we don’t need anymore.
It’s the same with a stock portfolio.
Once we’ve sold everything, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and assess which companies are truly worthy of a place in our portfolio.
Transfer to another brokerage
The second option is to transfer to a different brokerage. This means that all your assets in TDA will be migrated to the brokerage of your choice.
If you plan to hold on to the open positions and transfer them to your new brokerage account, you need to contact your new financial institution to initiate the Transfer of Assets (TOA).
You may need to complete the forms that your new financial institution provides, most commonly an Automated Customer Account Transfer Service (ACATS) transfer.
Note: there is a fee of $75 for ACAT transfers from TD Ameritrade Singapore to other brokers.
If you hold non-securities items like cash or options, then you need to make a non-ACAT request (e.g. DTC or DRS).
Processing times may be more lengthy (up to 1 month) compared to ACAT transfers (within 3 to 6 business days).
Some brokerages you might consider (ones which I am using):
Interactive Brokers (IBKR Pro)
The one that everyone’s talking about.
Widely regarded as the safest broker, Interactive Brokers allows access to US markets at low commission rates.
The platform might not be so user-friendly for first-timers, but it’s the most well established if you’re looking for safety.
If you intend to do an ACAT transfer into IBKR, more information can be found here
Information relating to funding your account can be found here.
Join IBKR: https://ibkr.com/referral/benedict531
Saxo Bank
Saxo is the first brokerage account I opened when I started my foray into the U.S stock market.
SAXO accounts are tiered, which means that you can choose the one that best suits your needs.
If you open your account by 31 Oct 2023, you get an additional S$188 commission credit.
Join Saxo: https://www.home.saxo/en-sg/campaigns/switch-broker
uSMART
Licensed by MAS, it prides itself as the SMART investment platform. I’m using its SMART savings plan to automate my investments.
The app is a breeze to use.
Instructions on asset transfer can be found here.
Join uSMART: https://m.usmartsg.com/promo/overseas/bonus-dec.html?ICode=ux55&langType=3&Id=
Moomoo SG
The broker with one promotion after another, Moomoo has been a favourite among newbie investors.
Even though the platform is not ACAT approved, you can still transfers your shares over by following the guide here.
Join Moomoo: https://invest.sg.moomoo.com/transfer_in
So, which to go for?
Among the plethora of options, it may seem confusing at first glance.
If I were choosing one myself, it would either be uSMART or IBKR.
I’m leaning towards uSMART for the sheer simplicity of the platform. Nothing but praise for it since I started using.
Its customer service is also top-notch.