Dear Liz: My parents left me with financial accounts at two companies. My instinct is to combine them to deal with one less company. Is there a downside to doing this?
Answer: You should first determine whether any of the inherited accounts is a retirement account because those come with special rules. You can’t simply merge an individual retirement account with a taxable brokerage account, for example. And you’ll want to consult a tax pro to understand how to properly title and take distributions from any inherited retirement account.
If the accounts are regular taxable accounts, then consolidating can have many advantages. Your accounts will be easier to monitor, asset allocation strategies will be simpler to execute and your account expenses could drop, particularly if you use the lower-cost company. Some brokerages offer deposit bonuses, and a higher combined balance also may entitle you to additional perks.
The primary downsides to consolidation involve risk mitigation. Brokerage failures are rare, but they do happen, and some investors opt to use more than one brokerage if their account balances exceed coverage by the Securities Investor Protection Corp.
SIPC provides coverage of up to $500,000, including $250,000 for cash, if cash or securities are missing from an account when a brokerage fails. Similar accounts are combined for SIPC purposes, so multiple IRA accounts at one brokerage will be considered one account. However, the $500,000 limit applies to each category of account. So someone with an individual account, a joint account, an IRA and a Roth would have a total of $2 million in SIPC coverage.
Having accounts at different companies also can help you retain access to at least some of your money if one of your accounts is hacked.