First, it is 'better' to have one trustee send the funds from the old
account to the trustee of the new account. You never handle any of the
assets/funds. No room for the transfer to be viewed as a withdrawal.

I say assets or funds as you can move either what you are invested in
or the cash after the assets are sold. To move assets to a new trustee
the new trustee needs to offer that asset as something you can invest
in. Each trustee tends to have a focus. Some allow stocks and bonds.
Others allow real estate and notes (a bit of an extreme example so you
have an idea). If you were moving from Equity Trust where your IRA owns
a rental property to Charles Schwab, Schwab will not accept the
property as an asset in the account.

Conclusion?

1. When possible transfer direct from the old trustee to the new. This
should be possible in almost all cases. The new trustee will have forms
that you sign and send them. They then manage the process.

2. If you are transferring something that is rather common, mainstream
and otherwise offered by the new trustee as an investment choice it is
likely you have a choice to transfer the cash value or the physical
asset. Your call as to what you want to do in that case. Obviously
there would be no benefit to selling and then purchasing the investment
if you really wanted to hold but needed a different trustee.

John Corey

Let me know if I understand the mechanics behind rollovers properly.
As far as I know, there's the type of rollover where you liquidate
(i.e., exchange for money) the assets in the account, close said
account, and then write a check drawn on that account for the amount
you want in the new account (new account being the payee), and then
with the money in that account buy whatever you want.

Is there a way to do a "direct" rollover that does not require the
liquidation of assets? That is, said stocks and bonds or whatever you
have in the account simply magically change trustees?