TJ Palanca

Stock and Crypto Market Values. Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

I was lucky enough to be part of two companies that went public via an IPO: Uber and Grab, both ridesharing companies.

A common platform for managing and distributing these employee shares is Shareworks/Solium (now part of Morgan Stanley at work). While it’s great for seeing your stock compensation as you earn it, it’s not really a platform that you could use once those shares are granted to you and tradeable in the public market.

I use Interactive Brokers¹ for managing my non-fund equity investments. It’s a great platform with very low fees. I wanted to transfer my employee shares to IBKR so I can manage them and liquidate them with low fees.²

This TIL is just my personal experience, your mileage may vary. Please try with a small test transfer before sending a larger amount of shares.

First, initiate the transfer in IBKR by going to Transfer & Pay > Transfer Positions.

Afterward, select United States as your region (as both Solium/Shareworks and IBKR are located in the US).

Select Free of Payment Transfer of US Securities as your preferred method. This is the best method as it does not involve any fees (hence the name).

Enter Solium Capital as your broker, your Soliium Employee Number as the account number, and other relevant information. You also need to put in which and how many shares you would like to transfer.

Sign your name in transfer verification.

Click on View Form to get the information that you need to give Solium. Note the DTC Number 0534 which is critical for making sure the shares move to the right broker.

Now, log into solium to initiate the transfer from their end. In Shareworks/Solium:

1. View your portfolio, then select Sell or Transfer. Input the Brokerage information that you have received before. The critical parts are the DTC Number and the Interactive Brokers Account Number.
2. Go through confirmation steps to request Solium to transfer shares to IBKR.

It takes 3-5 business days for the transfer to proceed. Since FOP notifications expire after 5 business days, make sure to take these steps in one sitting rather than doing them in parts.

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