Retirement accounts

Moving an investment account to another financial institution generally does not trigger taxes, provided it's a direct transfer of assets (in-kind) between custodians. In this scenario, you aren't selling anything, so there's no capital gain or loss realized. Your original cost basis and holding period simply carry over to the new institution. However, if you choose to sell assets within your existing account before transferring the cash to the new institution, any realized gains from those sales would be taxable. Similarly, if you take a distribution of cash from a retirement account (like an IRA) and don't complete a proper rollover, that distribution could be taxable. The key is whether the underlying investments are sold or simply transferred.