Setting Up My Questrade Account

Well, I am almost finished setting up my Questrade account. Here's what I've done so far:

CIBC ACCOUNT

Called them up and asked them to close it down. In actual fact, what they did was liquidate my current holdings and place them into a money market fund. When you transfer your account to Questrade, you have the following choice of how you want to transfer your investments:

• In cash – they will liquidate your accounts for you upon your transfer from your old broker or bank.
• In kind – they will transfer your investments as is – all stocks, mutual funds or whatever you have intact.

I knew that I was not going to keep my current funds so by liquidating and placing the proceeds into a money market (pretty close to cash) beforehand, it should make it easier and quicker (?) for Questrade to transfer my account as cash. I wonder – would they have charged me a fee to liquidate my account had CIBC not done it?

QUESTRADE

I filled out all the paperwork online and electronically signed the documents. They actually check your credit report for this and ask you questions to verify certain information from your account to make sure it is you.

I then emailed a copy of my driver's license and that's pretty much it. My account should be open soon.

Once your account is open you then have to transfer funds. Thankfully, Questrade made it fairly easy and they automatically generated a Form T2033 (here in Canada) to transfer your registered account from one broker to another without any taxes withheld or penalties. In Canada, if you cash in your retirement account, there is a 10% withholding tax. This form T2033 prevents that.

Since my CIBC has been liquidated and is (pretty much) in cash, the transfer should be fairly straightforward.

All in all the process was fairly smooth but a slight glitch happened … I think. I was done setting up and then I realized they didn't give me a password and I had already logged out! So, I had to request a new password by email. Strange. I'm fairly detailed and find it hard to believe that I missed such an important step.

That's it for now! I'll keep you posted on what I purchase in the coming weeks … or should I leave as cash and wait for the market to come down?

Hmm, the age-old question.

RELATED POSTS

• Discount Broker Choice
• Investor Reading List
• Do It Yourself Investing – Taking the Plunge
• Friday Night Links – DIY Investing Edition
• Do You Suffer From Portfolio Envy?
• Going Self-Directed with an RRSP

FOLLOW ME on TWITTER

If you like this post, then subscribe for free email updates HERE or click on the bright orange logo on the TOP RIGHT section of my blog. You can also sign up for updates via RSS FEED. What is RSS?