Selling ETF’s in commsec and rebuying in pearler

Hi Blake,

Thanks for this question!

The following information will also apply for anybody that is looking to transfer holdings outside of the normal share transfer process (between accounts of the same type, name and address).

I think a key thing to consider here is the Individual-to-joint decision. There is a way to do this, but it will be via whats called an off-market-transfer (OMT), I discuss that a little more below.

First though, if maintaining the shares in the individual name wasn’t that big a deal, then you could avoid transaction costs and potential tax implications by simply opening an individual account with pearler and instructing us to transfer the shares across. From the same login, you could then open a join account and just make future purchases in the joint name. This would mean having two accounts with us, but all within one app.

Back to your question though. So you are committed to moving all shares from the individual to a joing account:

Sell/Buy: You can go down the route of selling the holdings from your individual account and repurchasing with the joint account. 

Transfer: If you did want to transfer, we do offer off-market transfers (OMT) with a $40 processing fee per holding due to the manual handling required by our broker. This is expensive and is probably more than the brokerage you’d pay! We would recommend chatting to a tax professional before proceeding. Once you are ready though, simply send a message to us in the live chat to start the process :)

For both of the above scenarios, this will involve selling/buying, so you should absolutely consider the tax implications of this and get advice!

Hi Blake. Good question.

If you would like to keep owning those particular ETFs, then it probably makes sense to transfer them over (I think with a simple form, not too complex). This way you would avoid brokerage costs on both ends (especially the painful brokerage at Commsec lol), as well as possibly taxes, and having to declare the gain/loss on your tax return.

It may be faster to sell and re-buy, but the downsides above may not be worth it.

Hope that helps.
Dave