My mother has several hundred thousand dollars worth of shares purchased via a stockbroker. She has been using the broker's "Portfolio Administration Service" (admin/accounting/reporting) at a cost of 1.25% in fees.
She is 58 and planning to quit working and retire in the next year, maybe two.
She wants to switch to having all of this money in an ETF, rather than through this broker-administered direct share ownership arrangement.
Many of these shares were purchased years/decades ago and have grown considerably. What would be the tax implications of attempting to do this?
With my limited understanding, I imagine that she would be up for CGT at half her marginal tax rate on all the shares sold, is that correct? Even though the money will be going straight back into the stock market, in many cases to buy a lot of the same shares (as they make up a large chunk of the ETF)?
Any suggestions on minimising taxes in this case, given that - in essense - what she basically wants to do is "swap" her shares for more shares?
