If you’re interested in transferring your holdings from your current brokerage to the Public community, we’d be thrilled to help! This process happens through the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service or ACATS.
Transferring through ACATS from one brokerage to another allows you to move the full or whole shares in your portfolio. You won’t need to sell the stocks before transferring, which means you won’t incur a potential tax obligation.*
How Do I Initiate a Transfer?
Initiating an account transfer is super easy and you can set it up right in the app.
To get a transfer started:
Select the icon with 3 lines on it in the top left corner
Scroll down and select Account Settings in the bottom left
Under the Account section, tap on 'Transfer my stocks to Public'
Please make sure to have a PDF copy of your Account Statement from your other brokerage on hand, as that will be required during the transfer process.
Do I Have to Transfer Everything?
Nope! When moving your assets to your Public account, you can request a Full Transfer or a Partial Transfer.
A Full Transfer will move your entire account over to Public: any whole share amounts will transfer over.
A Partial Transfer will allow you to specify a list of the stocks and share amounts you intend to transfer over to Public.
An important heads up. - if you have any fractional shares or cryptocurrency positions, these positions may be liquidated by your other brokerage firm and will arrive in your Public account as a cash balance after the initial transfer takes place. Please check with your current brokerage firm on their policies if you have any questions. You can always choose a Partial Transfer if you don't want your cryptocurrency or fractional positions liquidated!
What Else Do I Need to Know?
With a Full Account Transfer, your current brokerage account will be closed once your stock positions and cash are moved to your Public account.
Options and Mutual Funds are currently not supported here at Public. Any unsupported assets that arrive will be liquidated upon arrival and cash proceeds applied to your account. You can always move only your stock positions by requesting a Partial Transfer.
Active margin balances with your former brokerage must be resolved prior to transferring your account to Public, as we do not offer margin accounts at this time.
We don't currently accept 401K or Retirement Account transfers.
Public will cover the transfer fee charged by your other brokerage as long as the value of your portfolio is a minimum of $1,000.00. We will apply the credit to your account once everything is complete.
If you ever have questions, the team is always here for you, so feel free to give us a shout on the app’s Chat or via email at support@public.com.
*Public.com does not offer tax advice and this is for informational purposes. Please consult your tax advisor.