Dad passed away nearly 2 years ago and one of the investment accounts he left behind is a Morgan Stanley account with a high six figure balance. I recently called Morgan Stanley to get an idea of the asset mix in the account and he told me that it’s all in municipal bonds, that is getting around 3% interest tax free. However, there’s also a margin balance on the account, from when my dad borrowed money from this account a few years ago. The Morgan Stanley account rep was surprisingly helpful in giving me a surface level understanding of what is happening in the account, but I’d like to get a more detailed understanding of how to address the margin balance. Morgan Stanley said it’s best we sell off however many municipal bonds shares we need to in order to pay off the margin balance, but that just seems like an easy way for them to get that balance paid off. The martin balance is roughly 40% of the total account balance. How do these margin balances work? I’d prefer to just sell off all the municipal bonds and then reinvest all the money in stocks since I’m way more knowledgeable in that investment pool and have had my own success in stocks over the past 3-4 years. If that margin balance wasn’t in the picture, I’d already have sold off all the municipal bonds, but with that margin balance I want to make sure I make the most informed decision. Thanks all!
Submitted September 20, 2024 at 12:56AM by HK_Ootoot https://ift.tt/QDEb5s9
