[mattofak]

I've had to get a medallion before to move a small retirement account and there were two things I very much did not like about the process:

(1) Most institutions require you to have been a member for 6 months before they will grant a medallion. I was transferring money between Fidelity and Schwab. Neither of which have branch offices within an hour of where I live. And I only have a virtual bank. There was no one willing to give me a medallion because I have no local banking relationships. I had to pull a favour with work to get our controller to vouch for me at our business bank.

(2) I've done domestic and international wires for much more money without needing anything like a medallion. Why can't I do something like log in to Fidelity and wire the funds across directly?

(Also, have fun finding the forms required to transfer your retirement account. Fidelity at least made the process exceptionally difficult, and their customer service agents acted like they didn't know what a Simple IRA was or why one would want to transfer out. Sure there's a page about transferring, but it likes to loop you into the "transfer funds into" flow.)