I have just under $8M portfolio paying .85% to a dopey FA holding only mutual funds. I want to move to a fee-only financial advisor ($9k/year) who does ETF only portfolios. The current portfolio has \~ $1.5M in UNrealized gains (mostly long term). SO, I'm wondering, at least for 1-4 years, if I should put at least some of my portfolio in FREC or [Public.com](http://Public.com) so that, instead of holding the VTI, I directly index the CRSP total market index to generate some tax losses to offset the big gains.
1) Does that sounds like a smart plan
2) Related: would I really generate that much in tax losses to make it worth the complications of not just handing the old assets to the new advisor and telling then to sell the old mutual funds over 1-4 years to spread out the gains and just shift everything into their plain ETF portfolio? (The new FA says to 'rip off the bandaid' and just sell everything in one year and move it into their model portfolios, but that sounds not very smart to me (and my CPA agrees).)
3) I had a non-CPA tax guy mention 351 exchange funds to generate losses, but the CPA who does my taxes for me says he's seen lots of clients think about 351 funds, but never use them because the money gets locked up for such a long time. So, has anyone ever actually used those 351 funds with any success when trying to change portfolios and reduce tax implications?
4) Catchall question: any other suggestions for now to reduce the tax implications while trying to get out of my terrible current mutual fund portfolio?
Thank you for any thoughts/advice you have.