Mutual Funds For Dummies®, 6th Edition

Chapter 16. Applications, Transfers, and Other Useful Forms

In This Chapter

• Explaining application basics

• Understanding nonretirement and retirement account forms

• Establishing an automatic investment program

• Asking for help

When you invest money, completing forms is unfortunately a requirement. But don't despair. If you truly detest paperwork and mailing things, you'll be happy to know that you can now complete many application forms online. In this chapter, I explain how to fill out fund application and transfer forms.

Although the subject of this chapter may seem mundane, I explain some extra-nifty things that perhaps you didn't know you could do with fund investing. And, unlike dealing with IRS tax forms year after year, fund paperwork isn't unpleasant to deal with. You won't have much (if any) ongoing paperwork to do, except for filing the taxes owed on mutual fund distributions held outside of retirement accounts (the subject of Chapter 18).

Taking the Nonretirement Account Route

As I discuss in Chapter 9, you can purchase most of the excellent mutual funds that I recommend in this book either directly from the mutual fund company responsible for them or through a discount brokerage firm. Though you see many similarities between mutual fund company and discount broker applications, you also see that brokerage account applications are a different type of animal than mutual fund company applications. I show you how to handle both in this chapter.

Filling in the blanks: Application basics ...