<prompt> Human: BPAS inherited my 401k after my previous employer booted me from their plan. Heres the message I received from BPAS after trying to initiate a transfer through Vanguard: I have received your request to process a transfer in kind of your funds to Vanguard. Unfortunately, we are not a brokerage firm and do not honor Transfer In Kind Requests. We will have to liquidate the mutual funds then transfer. Please complete and return the attached IRA Distribution Form.Are there any penalties for going this route? Obviously I cant just liquidate the account and put the money in my pocket. What sort of restrictions should I be aware of?Reading the fine print of the above-mentioned form, I can see that their is a fee to liquidate 50 but Im having trouble finding any information about the process generally.  <response>: When transferring, there are two ways you can do it:1. Transfer the actual stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc from one brokerage to another.2. Liquidate everything, transfer the balance as cold hard , and then buy assets stocks, bonds, mutual funds at the new place.Sounds like BPAS cant do 1 so theyre asking you to fill out the forms to make 2 happen. This is very common. Because this is a 401k, there will be no tax consequences to the liquidation, though as you point out there may be a fee. You can also call Vanguard and ask for their advice here--since you are transferring assets to them, you will likely get the best customer service from them. 