How to Fill Out and Submit an IRA Transfer Form

An IRA transfer form is the document you give your new financial institution to pull your retirement assets directly from your old custodian, so the money never passes through your hands. You get the form from the receiving firm — the company where you want the IRA to land — and they use it to initiate the move on your behalf. Because the funds travel custodian to custodian, the IRS doesn’t treat the transfer as a distribution, so nothing is withheld and no early-withdrawal penalty applies.¹ Once you submit a completed form, the whole move typically takes two to three weeks.²

Why This Form Instead of a Rollover Check

A direct (trustee-to-trustee) transfer and a 60-day rollover are not the same thing, and confusing them is where expensive mistakes happen. A direct transfer isn’t reported on Form 1099-R and doesn’t count toward the one-rollover-per-year limit under IRC Section 408(d)(3)(B).³⁴ You can do as many as you want in a year.

A 60-day rollover puts the money in your hands first. The old custodian cuts you a check (withholding 10% for federal taxes unless you opt out), and you have 60 days to deposit the full original amount into another IRA. Miss that window and the IRS treats the entire amount as a taxable distribution, with a 10% early-withdrawal penalty on top if you’re under 59½.³ The transfer form exists specifically so none of that risk applies. If you have the option, use it.

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull everything together before you sit down with the form. Scrambling for an account number mid-process is how fields get entered wrong.

Full legal name, mailing address, and account numbers for both the delivering and receiving firms. If you haven’t opened an account at the receiving firm yet, do that first, because the form usually needs a destination account number.
Your full legal name exactly as it appears on both accounts, your Social Security Number or ITIN, date of birth, and current address. A name mismatch between the two accounts is one of the most common reasons transfers get rejected, so if you’ve changed your name, update the old account first or be ready with documentation.⁵
A recent statement from your current IRA, so you can verify holdings and decide what to transfer.
The delivering firm’s transfer-out or account-termination fee, commonly in the $50 to $150 range. Know it going in so it doesn’t surprise you.

If you don’t have a Social Security Number, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number serves the same purpose on the form.⁶

Filling Out the Form

Forms vary by firm, but every one asks you to make the same core decisions.

Match the Account Type

The form will ask what kind of IRA you’re transferring from and to: traditional, Roth, SEP, or SIMPLE. The account types must match. Traditional transfers to traditional, Roth to Roth. Moving a traditional IRA into a Roth is a conversion, not a transfer, and the entire converted amount becomes taxable income for the year. The form won’t catch this for you, so verify the destination account type before signing.

Full or Partial Transfer

You’ll pick between moving everything and moving only part. For a full transfer, expect the delivering firm to liquidate any remaining fractional shares and deduct its close-out fee from the cash balance before sending the rest.

For a partial transfer, be precise. If you want specific securities moved rather than a dollar amount, list each one by name and, where available, its CUSIP number, the nine-character identifier assigned to every publicly traded security. Vague instructions like “transfer some of my bonds” invite delays.

In-Kind or Cash

The form asks whether you want assets transferred in-kind (your existing investments move intact) or liquidated to cash first. In-kind preserves your positions so you don’t sell at a bad time and then wait to reinvest. Cash makes sense when the receiving firm doesn’t carry the same funds, or when you intend to restructure the portfolio anyway. Some firms default to liquidation if you leave this blank, which can trigger mutual fund redemption fees, so mark it clearly.

Medallion Signature Guarantee

Some firms require a Medallion Signature Guarantee on the transfer form, especially for larger balances or when the account holds individual securities. A Medallion is not a notary stamp. A notary confirms you signed the document; a Medallion means the guaranteeing institution accepts financial liability if the signature turns out to be forged.⁷ No firm will accept a notary stamp in place of one.

To get the stamp, visit a bank, credit union, or broker-dealer where you already have an account. Bring government-issued photo ID. The institution verifies your identity and account ownership, then applies the barcoded Medallion stamp. Three programs administer these guarantees (STAMP, SEMP, and MSP), and your firm’s form may specify which it accepts, so check before you go.⁷

Assets That Won’t Transfer

Not everything in your IRA can make the trip. Proprietary mutual funds or money market funds that belong exclusively to your current custodian won’t transfer because the receiving firm has no arrangement to hold them. The same can apply to certain limited partnership interests, foreign securities in unusual denominations, and annuity contracts still inside a surrender period.⁸

When the delivering firm flags an asset as non-transferable during validation, it has to notify you in writing and ask how you want to handle it. Your options are usually to liquidate the asset (so the cash transfers) or leave it in the old account. If you choose liquidation, the firm has five business days after receiving your instructions to process it.⁸ Checking your holdings against what the receiving firm supports before you submit saves a round of back-and-forth.

Where to Send It

Send the completed form to the receiving firm, not the delivering one. The receiving firm uses it to initiate the transfer, often through the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service (ACATS) for brokerage-held IRAs.⁸ For IRAs at banks or non-brokerage custodians, the receiving firm may send a physical letter or check request to the delivering firm instead.

If the form carries a Medallion stamp, most firms want the physical original, not a scan or fax. Send it by certified mail or a tracked courier so you have proof of delivery. Some firms accept electronic submission through their portals for transfers that don’t require a Medallion guarantee, so ask before defaulting to paper.

After You Submit

Once the receiving firm submits the request, assets typically arrive at the new custodian within two to three weeks.² Under FINRA Rule 11870, the delivering firm has to validate or reject the request within three business days for ACATS-eligible accounts.⁹

Delays happen for predictable reasons: a name mismatch between accounts, a missing or illegible Medallion stamp, outstanding fees that need to settle, or non-transferable assets awaiting your instructions. You can usually track status through the receiving firm’s online portal or by calling its transfer department. When the assets land, both firms should send confirmation statements.

If You’re 73 or Older, Take Your RMD First

If you’re subject to required minimum distributions, take the current year’s RMD before you submit the transfer form. An RMD is not eligible for rollover, and it cannot be transferred trustee-to-trustee; it has to come out as a distribution to you.¹⁰ If your assets are mid-transit at year-end, getting the distribution processed in time becomes a scramble.

Missing an RMD triggers an excise tax of 25% of the amount you failed to withdraw. If you catch and correct the error within two years, the penalty drops to 10%.¹¹ Contact your current custodian, take the RMD, then submit the transfer form for the remaining balance.

Inherited IRAs Follow Different Rules

Inherited IRAs can be transferred trustee-to-trustee, but the restrictions are tighter. A non-spouse beneficiary has to move an inherited IRA into another inherited IRA; it cannot be merged with your own IRA or rolled over.³ The account title at the receiving firm must include both your name and the original owner’s, for example, “Jane Smith as beneficiary of John Smith.”¹² If the receiving firm titles the account incorrectly, the IRS can treat the whole transfer as a taxable distribution.

You cannot make new contributions to an inherited IRA, and a non-spouse beneficiary cannot convert an inherited traditional IRA to a Roth. Under the SECURE Act’s 10-year rule, most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty the account within 10 years of the original owner’s death, taking annual RMDs along the way. Moving the account to a new custodian doesn’t restart or change any of those deadlines. Before you submit a transfer form for an inherited IRA, confirm the form has a section for beneficiary details and that the receiving firm can properly title and administer the account.

1
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Letter Ruling 200807025
2
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Transferring Your Brokerage Account: Tips on Avoiding Delays
3
Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions
4
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 (2025)
5
Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. FFIEC BSA/AML Assessing Compliance with BSA Regulatory Requirements – Customer Identification Program
6
Internal Revenue Service. About Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number
7
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Medallion Signature Guarantees: Preventing the Unauthorized Transfer of Securities
8
FINRA. FINRA Rule 11870 – Customer Account Transfer Contracts
9
FINRA. Customer Account Transfers
10
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements
11
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
12
Ascensus. What You Need to Know When Accepting Inherited Retirement Assets