It hurts my head to read the confusion concerning international trading and in particular Commsec.
Commsec provides a platform which uses a US clearing house (currently Pershing LLC) where your shares US shares are registered. When you apply for a Commsec internation trading account you automatically get the clearing house account which typically will give access to international shares in a range of countries and exchanges.
If you happen to have US shares in another US broker or clearing house, they can be easily transferred to, or from, any other clearing house such as the one Commsec uses.
But before you can own any US shares you need to fill out a W-BEN (or W-BENE) form which is part of the process of applying for a Commsec international account. I haven't taken a great interest in this merger but if you apply for US shares then they may well end up as an orphan in some US broker which, after you have got your paper work in order, can be transferred to your chosen US broker - be it Commsec affiliated or otherwise.
The one thing I will say about the merger is that my experience with Australian companies taken over by US companies has left a bad taste in my mouth. Notwithstanding, good luck.
