"3. Nationwide refuses to transfer "in kind", will rollover cash only. This would result in a large loss to my worth."

Hi John,

I believe this is pretty much standard policy, cash only in and out of IRAs. Since, if I understand correctly, you are looking at doing a rollover into a Schwab IRA there are no taxes due. Some custodians charge a $50 fee to transfer. I would go to Schwab and initiate the transfer, Nationwide may or may not charge commissions to liquidate your positions. You should be able to get the numbers and decide if its worth doing...

If you are not rolling over into an IRA but a taxable brokerage account then you would have to pay taxes on your withdrawal from Nationwide. Also I believe you would pay taxes if the money was to go into a RothIRA.

Then, as Paul noted, buy back what you want and yes you'll be paying commissions but you can ask about that when you set up the rollover. It may be cheaper to do the rollover and then buy on line if it's cheaper than having Schwab do the buying after the rollover. On line trading is generally cheaper than having the broker do the buying.

When I retired I did a rollover from my 401K and it went into a rollover IRA at Fidelity, who was also my 401K administrator, I don't recall any commissions involved on the 401K side but I did pay when buying my positions in my IRA.

As far as I know, cost basis is not an issue as all withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income no matter how long you've owned them, assuming the money paid into Nationwide was pre-tax dollars. But as I noted above, that will occur when you take money out of your IRA.

The Tax Strategies board is also a resource for answers: http://boards.fool.com/Messages.asp?mid=30492201&bid=100...

Regards, Ken