On the plus side, ACATS is the feature/technology that makes moving brokerages so easy. I've got an account move in flight right now, and it took all of about 10 minutes to initiate. If you want out of Schwab you can probably ditch them if you like. If you're holding securities (stocks, bonds, etc), as long as they are transferable you can do an in-kind transfer (so the security never get sold to cash) and therefore there's no taxable event during the transfer.