I will be transferring out account at Schwab to Fidelity in Seattle. We were a transfer from TD Ameritrade to Schwab. Does anyone know of a contact at Fidelity in Seattle who has worked with investment clubs and can help us make the switch.
Amy
Its Relative Investment Club
From: club_cafe@bivio.com <club_cafe@bivio.com> On Behalf Of Sarah Cornwell via bivio.com Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2025 9:41 AM To: club_cafe@bivio.com Subject: Re: [club_cafe] Selling all and starting over
Margaret, We are in the process now of switching and Fidelity is wonderful about it. I can put you in touch with our contact there if at all helpful.
We have a similar situation with two of us being charter members since 1998 and one since 2005. Our percentage of ownership means if one of us oldies has to withdraw for whatever reason, it would trigger huge capital gains when enough stock is sold to cover the cost. The two of us who are older have decided to graually reduce our holdings by taking out smaller partial withdrawals of $5000.00 periodically.
I wish we had switched to Fidelity instead of Schwab, but since two of us are in our mid 80's now with our time in the club a matter of a few years, we are going the cash route.
Peg Wentworth, Women's Investment Network, Lititz, PA
We are in the same boat, but we're just looking to reduce the total invested by distributing stock to those members who have the largest accounts. We DEFINITELY do not want to sell stock for cash! The tax bill for individual members would be way too high, and for some of our older members, they could end up with a much higher Medicare premium payment 2 years down the road. (IRS determines Medicare costs using a 2 year look-back at individual's taxes for premium cost for any given year.) It's better if you distribute stock to members, then they can sell, or not sell, any time in the future, and take into account their individual tax situation for any year when making a decision to sell. (Or they could never sell, and when they die, their beneficiaries would get a step-up basis for the stock on the members date of death.)
We transitioned from TDA to Schwab (like so many others), and then found out they wouldn't let us transfer stock to members, so we moved to Fidelity because they do.
I'd suggest you consult bivio staff before embarking on selling it all; I'm fairly certain they can help you do a dummy trial withdrawal to see exactly what the tax implications would be if you sold it all. At least that way, you'd know what the tax consequences would be for each member.
All - I know people will have definite opinions on what my club wants to do, but I really just need to know the best way to do this. We are considering selling all of our stock by the end of the year, disbursing everything and then having a new "buy in". We currently have some 20+ year members and some fairly new members. We have done various disbursements over the years because we are a small club and honestly none of us want to be responsible for a large sum of money in this. We would like to put everyone even by starting over. We know there will be tax implications. We don't want to distribute stock (even if Schwab would let us) - we want cash. What do we need to think about when doing this? If we cash out everything in November should we add back in our "buy in" of say 300 per member (10 members) in December or should we wait until new year in January? Are there implications in Bivio or Schwab to letting our account zero out for a month or two? Thanks in advance for any and all guidance. Michelle G, Central KY Investment Club
Michelle Gadberry on
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Since all of our members actually plan to remain, I got good advice from Becky with Bivio to maintain at least some money in each person's account so the club isn't closed out.
I will be transferring out account at Schwab to Fidelity in Seattle. We were a transfer from TD Ameritrade to Schwab. Does anyone know of a contact at Fidelity in Seattle who has worked with investment clubs and can help us make the switch.
We have a similar situation with two of us being charter members since 1998 and one since 2005. Our percentage of ownership means if one of us oldies has to withdraw for whatever reason, it would trigger huge capital gains when enough stock is sold to cover the cost. The two of us who are older have decided to graually reduce our holdings by taking out smaller partial withdrawals of $5000.00 periodically.
I wish we had switched to Fidelity instead of Schwab, but since two of us are in our mid 80's now with our time in the club a matter of a few years, we are going the cash route.
Peg Wentworth, Women's Investment Network, Lititz, PA
We are in the same boat, but we're just looking to reduce the total invested by distributing stock to those members who have the largest accounts. We DEFINITELY do not want to sell stock for cash! The tax bill for individual members would be way too high, and for some of our older members, they could end up with a much higher Medicare premium payment 2 years down the road. (IRS determines Medicare costs using a 2 year look-back at individual's taxes for premium cost for any given year.) It's better if you distribute stock to members, then they can sell, or not sell, any time in the future, and take into account their individual tax situation for any year when making a decision to sell. (Or they could never sell, and when they die, their beneficiaries would get a step-up basis for the stock on the members date of death.)
We transitioned from TDA to Schwab (like so many others), and then found out they wouldn't let us transfer stock to members, so we moved to Fidelity because they do.
I'd suggest you consult bivio staff before embarking on selling it all; I'm fairly certain they can help you do a dummy trial withdrawal to see exactly what the tax implications would be if you sold it all. At least that way, you'd know what the tax consequences would be for each member.
All - I know people will have definite opinions on what my club wants to do, but I really just need to know the best way to do this. We are considering selling all of our stock by the end of the year, disbursing everything and then having a new "buy in". We currently have some 20+ year members and some fairly new members. We have done various disbursements over the years because we are a small club and honestly none of us want to be responsible for a large sum of money in this. We would like to put everyone even by starting over. We know there will be tax implications. We don't want to distribute stock (even if Schwab would let us) - we want cash. What do we need to think about when doing this? If we cash out everything in November should we add back in our "buy in" of say 300 per member (10 members) in December or should we wait until new year in January? Are there implications in Bivio or Schwab to letting our account zero out for a month or two? Thanks in advance for any and all guidance. Michelle G, Central KY Investment Club
Michelle Gadberry on
I will also be cautious about wash sales, Ira. Thank you for the reminder about that.
On Wed, Oct 15, 2025 at 5:22â¯PM Michelle Gadberry <mg7620@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Since all of our members actually plan to remain, I got good advice from Becky with Bivio to maintain at least some money in each person's account so the club isn't closed out.
I will be transferring out account at Schwab to Fidelity in Seattle. We were a transfer from TD Ameritrade to Schwab. Does anyone know of a contact at Fidelity in Seattle who has worked with investment clubs and can help us make the switch.
We have a similar situation with two of us being charter members since 1998 and one since 2005. Our percentage of ownership means if one of us oldies has to withdraw for whatever reason, it would trigger huge capital gains when enough stock is sold to cover the cost. The two of us who are older have decided to graually reduce our holdings by taking out smaller partial withdrawals of $5000.00 periodically.
I wish we had switched to Fidelity instead of Schwab, but since two of us are in our mid 80's now with our time in the club a matter of a few years, we are going the cash route.
Peg Wentworth, Women's Investment Network, Lititz, PA
We are in the same boat, but we're just looking to reduce the total invested by distributing stock to those members who have the largest accounts. We DEFINITELY do not want to sell stock for cash! The tax bill for individual members would be way too high, and for some of our older members, they could end up with a much higher Medicare premium payment 2 years down the road. (IRS determines Medicare costs using a 2 year look-back at individual's taxes for premium cost for any given year.) It's better if you distribute stock to members, then they can sell, or not sell, any time in the future, and take into account their individual tax situation for any year when making a decision to sell. (Or they could never sell, and when they die, their beneficiaries would get a step-up basis for the stock on the members date of death.)
We transitioned from TDA to Schwab (like so many others), and then found out they wouldn't let us transfer stock to members, so we moved to Fidelity because they do.
I'd suggest you consult bivio staff before embarking on selling it all; I'm fairly certain they can help you do a dummy trial withdrawal to see exactly what the tax implications would be if you sold it all. At least that way, you'd know what the tax consequences would be for each member.
All - I know people will have definite opinions on what my club wants to do, but I really just need to know the best way to do this. We are considering selling all of our stock by the end of the year, disbursing everything and then having a new "buy in". We currently have some 20+ year members and some fairly new members. We have done various disbursements over the years because we are a small club and honestly none of us want to be responsible for a large sum of money in this. We would like to put everyone even by starting over. We know there will be tax implications. We don't want to distribute stock (even if Schwab would let us) - we want cash. What do we need to think about when doing this? If we cash out everything in November should we add back in our "buy in" of say 300 per member (10 members) in December or should we wait until new year in January? Are there implications in Bivio or Schwab to letting our account zero out for a month or two? Thanks in advance for any and all guidance. Michelle G, Central KY Investment Club
Larry Reno on
I know an Angle in Fidelity Support, here name Amy Byrd. She is located in Florida at 800-756-0128 at the Fidelity Service Support Group (ironically @ (SSG)) ext 47618. She has gone above and beyond to help me and my Clubs. Please tell her I said help and recommend her!!!
Larry Reno
Good judgement comes from experience. Experience
comes from bad judgement--Mark Twain
Stay positive....Test negative!!
On Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at 04:36:48 PM EDT, Amy Carlson via bivio.com <user*31169100001@bivio.com> wrote:
I will be transferring out account at Schwab to Fidelity in Seattle. We were a transfer from TD Ameritrade to Schwab. Does anyone know of a contact at Fidelity in Seattle who has worked with investment clubs and can help us make the switch.
Amy
Its Relative Investment Club
From: club_cafe@bivio.com <club_cafe@bivio.com> On Behalf Of Sarah Cornwell via bivio.com Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2025 9:41 AM To: club_cafe@bivio.com Subject: Re: [club_cafe] Selling all and starting over
Margaret, We are in the process now of switching and Fidelity is wonderful about it. I can put you in touch with our contact there if at all helpful.
We have a similar situation with two of us being charter members since 1998 and one since 2005. Our percentage of ownership means if one of us oldies has to withdraw for whatever reason, it would trigger huge capital gains when enough stock is sold to cover the cost. The two of us who are older have decided to graually reduce our holdings by taking out smaller partial withdrawals of $5000.00 periodically.
I wish we had switched to Fidelity instead of Schwab, but since two of us are in our mid 80's now with our time in the club a matter of a few years, we are going the cash route.
Peg Wentworth, Women's Investment Network, Lititz, PA
We are in the same boat, but we're just looking to reduce the total invested by distributing stock to those members who have the largest accounts. We DEFINITELY do not want to sell stock for cash! The tax bill for individual members would be way too high, and for some of our older members, they could end up with a much higher Medicare premium payment 2 years down the road. (IRS determines Medicare costs using a 2 year look-back at individual's taxes for premium cost for any given year.) It's better if you distribute stock to members, then they can sell, or not sell, any time in the future, and take into account their individual tax situation for any year when making a decision to sell. (Or they could never sell, and when they die, their beneficiaries would get a step-up basis for the stock on the members date of death.)
We transitioned from TDA to Schwab (like so many others), and then found out they wouldn't let us transfer stock to members, so we moved to Fidelity because they do.
I'd suggest you consult bivio staff before embarking on selling it all; I'm fairly certain they can help you do a dummy trial withdrawal to see exactly what the tax implications would be if you sold it all. At least that way, you'd know what the tax consequences would be for each member.
All - I know people will have definite opinions on what my club wants to do, but I really just need to know the best way to do this. We are considering selling all of our stock by the end of the year, disbursing everything and then having a new "buy in". We currently have some 20+ year members and some fairly new members. We have done various disbursements over the years because we are a small club and honestly none of us want to be responsible for a large sum of money in this. We would like to put everyone even by starting over. We know there will be tax implications. We don't want to distribute stock (even if Schwab would let us) - we want cash. What do we need to think about when doing this? If we cash out everything in November should we add back in our "buy in" of say 300 per member (10 members) in December or should we wait until new year in January? Are there implications in Bivio or Schwab to letting our account zero out for a month or two? Thanks in advance for any and all guidance. Michelle G, Central KY Investment Club
John W Ranby Trustee PGM Cariboo Trust on
Regarding Randy Purvis's comment about the 50% rule. Read
the IRS notice that the rule was eliminated for tax years
after 31 December 2017.
Our club had planned to disband this year and my assistant
treasurer and I did a tentative plan on who gets which
stock(s). It was a lot of work with the dividend
reinvestment lots. When we presented our work there was a
lot of pushback. People unhappy with their assigned stocks,
etc., questioning whether we should sell everything and
distribute cash, so we agreed to meet again to discuss
everything. One member suggested we sell off all the
reinvestment lots to make it easier to divide the original
stocks. We have about 180,000 total unrealized gain and
selling all the reinvested dividends would use up about
15,000 of that. Sort of a drop in the bucket but it would
be easier to just be looking at the stocks themselves. Are
there any pitfalls to this idea? And have other clubs had
these hard feelings? Any ideas or advice?
ira smilovitz on
The issues you are encountering are not uncommon when clubs disband. The first thing you should communicate to your members is that each member's ultimate capital gain is already determined based on the difference between their status report value - (status report tax basis + tax allocation income). Whether some stocks are sold prior to dissolution, or all shares are distributed, you are only affecting the timing of recognizing those gains.
Now to mechanics. Most brokers will not transfer fractional shares. This means that you will have to do one of two things: - restrict transfers to only whole shares and sell all of the fractional share holdings. or combine various fractional share holding to create additional full shares and distribute them. You can probably foresee the massive effort for the treasurer. Personally, I would sell the reinvestment lots (or at least the fractional components of each lot) and then consider how to distribute the remaining whole shares of stock.
At this point there are several ways to proceed. In no particular order, you could sell everything and distribute cash. This forces everyone to recognize their gain or loss this year.
You could sell the losing stocks and then distribute what's left.
If some members want cash, the ones that are willing to take stock could determing which shares to sell to raise the cash for the "cash only" members and then determine how to allocate the remaining stock.
You can try to allocate whole shares by proportional ownership in the club, rounding up or down to full shares of the stocks being distributed.
You can take each stock and see how much interest there is by the individual members and create your own method to completing the allocation.
Bottom line, there is no right or wrong way. There's only the way your members can agree seems fair to them.
Our club had planned to disband this year and my assistant
treasurer and I did a tentative plan on who gets which
stock(s). It was a lot of work with the dividend
reinvestment lots. When we presented our work there was a
lot of pushback. People unhappy with their assigned stocks,
etc., questioning whether we should sell everything and
distribute cash, so we agreed to meet again to discuss
everything. One member suggested we sell off all the
reinvestment lots to make it easier to divide the original
stocks. We have about 180,000 total unrealized gain and
selling all the reinvested dividends would use up about
15,000 of that. Sort of a drop in the bucket but it would
be easier to just be looking at the stocks themselves. Are
there any pitfalls to this idea? And have other clubs had
these hard feelings? Any ideas or advice?
On Sunday, November 2, 2025, 1:43 PM, ira smilovitz via bivio.com <user*2883400001@bivio.com> wrote:
The issues you are encountering are not uncommon when clubs disband. The first thing you should communicate to your members is that each member's ultimate capital gain is already determined based on the difference between their status report value - (status report tax basis + tax allocation income). Whether some stocks are sold prior to dissolution, or all shares are distributed, you are only affecting the timing of recognizing those gains.
Now to mechanics. Most brokers will not transfer fractional shares. This means that you will have to do one of two things: - restrict transfers to only whole shares and sell all of the fractional share holdings. or combine various fractional share holding to create additional full shares and distribute them. You can probably foresee the massive effort for the treasurer. Personally, I would sell the reinvestment lots (or at least the fractional components of each lot) and then consider how to distribute the remaining whole shares of stock.
At this point there are several ways to proceed. In no particular order, you could sell everything and distribute cash. This forces everyone to recognize their gain or loss this year.
You could sell the losing stocks and then distribute what's left.
If some members want cash, the ones that are willing to take stock could determing which shares to sell to raise the cash for the "cash only" members and then determine how to allocate the remaining stock.
You can try to allocate whole shares by proportional ownership in the club, rounding up or down to full shares of the stocks being distributed.
You can take each stock and see how much interest there is by the individual members and create your own method to completing the allocation.
Bottom line, there is no right or wrong way. There's only the way your members can agree seems fair to them.
Our club had planned to disband this year and my assistant
treasurer and I did a tentative plan on who gets which
stock(s). It was a lot of work with the dividend
reinvestment lots. When we presented our work there was a
lot of pushback. People unhappy with their assigned stocks,
etc., questioning whether we should sell everything and
distribute cash, so we agreed to meet again to discuss
everything. One member suggested we sell off all the
reinvestment lots to make it easier to divide the original
stocks. We have about 180,000 total unrealized gain and
selling all the reinvested dividends would use up about
15,000 of that. Sort of a drop in the bucket but it would
be easier to just be looking at the stocks themselves. Are
there any pitfalls to this idea? And have other clubs had
these hard feelings? Any ideas or advice?
dabay3 on
On Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 02:12:56 PM CST, Anne Weeks via bivio.com <user*6029900001@bivio.com> wrote:
On Sunday, November 2, 2025, 1:43 PM, ira smilovitz via bivio.com <user*2883400001@bivio.com> wrote:
The issues you are encountering are not uncommon when clubs disband. The first thing you should communicate to your members is that each member's ultimate capital gain is already determined based on the difference between their status report value - (status report tax basis + tax allocation income). Whether some stocks are sold prior to dissolution, or all shares are distributed, you are only affecting the timing of recognizing those gains.
Now to mechanics. Most brokers will not transfer fractional shares. This means that you will have to do one of two things: - restrict transfers to only whole shares and sell all of the fractional share holdings. or combine various fractional share holding to create additional full shares and distribute them. You can probably foresee the massive effort for the treasurer. Personally, I would sell the reinvestment lots (or at least the fractional components of each lot) and then consider how to distribute the remaining whole shares of stock.
At this point there are several ways to proceed. In no particular order, you could sell everything and distribute cash. This forces everyone to recognize their gain or loss this year.
You could sell the losing stocks and then distribute what's left.
If some members want cash, the ones that are willing to take stock could determing which shares to sell to raise the cash for the "cash only" members and then determine how to allocate the remaining stock.
You can try to allocate whole shares by proportional ownership in the club, rounding up or down to full shares of the stocks being distributed.
You can take each stock and see how much interest there is by the individual members and create your own method to completing the allocation.
Bottom line, there is no right or wrong way. There's only the way your members can agree seems fair to them.
Our club had planned to disband this year and my assistant
treasurer and I did a tentative plan on who gets which
stock(s). It was a lot of work with the dividend
reinvestment lots. When we presented our work there was a
lot of pushback. People unhappy with their assigned stocks,
etc., questioning whether we should sell everything and
distribute cash, so we agreed to meet again to discuss
everything. One member suggested we sell off all the
reinvestment lots to make it easier to divide the original
stocks. We have about 180,000 total unrealized gain and
selling all the reinvested dividends would use up about
15,000 of that. Sort of a drop in the bucket but it would
be easier to just be looking at the stocks themselves. Are
there any pitfalls to this idea? And have other clubs had
these hard feelings? Any ideas or advice?
Vickie Rabourn on
A Schwab rep told me that they will distribute fractional shares. All members must sign a letter of authorization for any transfer of shares. Shares can only be distributed to Schwab accounts, though, so each member must have a Schwab account, which can be opened without depositing any funds to it.
The issues you are encountering are not uncommon when clubs disband. The first thing you should communicate to your members is that each member's ultimate capital gain is already determined based on the difference between their status report value - (status report tax basis + tax allocation income). Whether some stocks are sold prior to dissolution, or all shares are distributed, you are only affecting the timing of recognizing those gains.
Now to mechanics. Most brokers will not transfer fractional shares. This means that you will have to do one of two things: - restrict transfers to only whole shares and sell all of the fractional share holdings. or combine various fractional share holding to create additional full shares and distribute them. You can probably foresee the massive effort for the treasurer. Personally, I would sell the reinvestment lots (or at least the fractional components of each lot) and then consider how to distribute the remaining whole shares of stock.
At this point there are several ways to proceed. In no particular order, you could sell everything and distribute cash. This forces everyone to recognize their gain or loss this year.
You could sell the losing stocks and then distribute what's left.
If some members want cash, the ones that are willing to take stock could determing which shares to sell to raise the cash for the "cash only" members and then determine how to allocate the remaining stock.
You can try to allocate whole shares by proportional ownership in the club, rounding up or down to full shares of the stocks being distributed.
You can take each stock and see how much interest there is by the individual members and create your own method to completing the allocation.
Bottom line, there is no right or wrong way. There's only the way your members can agree seems fair to them.
Our club had planned to disband this year and my assistant
treasurer and I did a tentative plan on who gets which
stock(s). It was a lot of work with the dividend
reinvestment lots. When we presented our work there was a
lot of pushback. People unhappy with their assigned stocks,
etc., questioning whether we should sell everything and
distribute cash, so we agreed to meet again to discuss
everything. One member suggested we sell off all the
reinvestment lots to make it easier to divide the original
stocks. We have about 180,000 total unrealized gain and
selling all the reinvested dividends would use up about
15,000 of that. Sort of a drop in the bucket but it would
be easier to just be looking at the stocks themselves. Are
there any pitfalls to this idea? And have other clubs had
these hard feelings? Any ideas or advice?