How to transfer shares, other investments from one stock broker to another

An investor can move from one stock broker to another for various reasons like the services offered, ease of doing transactions, brokerage or research services offered. To maintain a single trading and demat account, one will need to transfer existing holdings to the new demat account and close the current one by following the below process.

• Open new demat and trading account

Once the new broker is finalised, the account can be opened using the broker’s portal and filling out an online form with basic details. Next, KYC documents need to be uploaded for verification and a video verification of the applicant is carried out. Once the OTP verification is done after this, the account is opened.

• Transferring holdings with same depository

If both new and old brokers are registered under the same depository ie. or NSDL respectively, then the transfer can be carried out online by the investor himself. One can do it by registering on the CDSL Easiest platform for CDSL accounts.

• Transferring holdings with different depository

In case the existing DP is registered with NSDL and the new DP is registered with CDSL, the investor needs to fill out a debit instruction slip (DIS) to the existing DP to transfer securities as mentioned in the form. This transfer may take up to two days.
Once the holdings are transferred, the investor can withdraw the cash lying in the trading account and place an instruction to close it. All demat account holders must sign the closure form. It takes about a week to close the old account.

Point to note

• It is important to understand the brokerage plans and other charges levied by the new broker before deciding to shift.

(Content on this page is courtesy Centre for Investment Education and Learning (CIEL). Contributions by Girija Gadre, Arti Bhargava and Labdhi Mehta.)