- 1). Determine who is the custodian of your IRA account. To avoid wasting time contacting the wrong parties, check your records to find out who the custodian is of your IRA account. The custodian is financial institution that your account statements come from. For example, if your IRA statements come from Fidelity, then that company is your account custodian. You will want to contact that company to sell, not the mutual fund company.
- 2). Collect your account information, including the account number. If your IRA account is at an online brokerage account, be sure to get your username and password as well. Unless your broker knows you personally, you will have to verify your identity as well as provide the account number.
- 3). Investigate any possible penalties or fees associated with selling the mutual funds. Some mutual funds, particularly those called Class B shares, charge a fee if they are sold without being held for a minimum period of time. Depending upon the specific features of your IRA account, there may also be a commission charged for executing a sell order.
- 4). Determine which mutual funds you wish to sell. If you are not selling the whole position, determine how much you want to sell. You can enter a sell order for mutual funds as a dollar amount or as a specific number of shares. Remember that mutual funds are only priced after the end of the day. Also, all trades are executed after the shares have been priced. Therefore, if you sell a certain number of shares, the net proceeds may be a little bit higher or lower than anticipated.
- 5). Call your broker or brokerage firm or log into your online brokerage account. Enter the order to sell. You will need to give the name of mutual fund to be sold and the amount to sell. Confirm the order when the person reads the order back to you, or by reviewing the confirmation screen.
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