If you own securities in a brokerage account and want to eliminate the “middleman” between you and your ownership, you can directly register your stock. For instance, let’s say you have a Scottrade account and you own 100 shares of Goldcorp. You can ask Scottrade to directly register your shares with the stock transfer agent. This takes your stock out of Scottrade’s “street name” and places the stock directly in your name with the stock transfer agent. Your broker then has no ability to collateralize your stock for any investments it might make itself. Recent court decisions have put client assets at risk. If you have notable value in your stock account and plan to hold the stock for the longer term, DRS may be a solution.
See: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/10/us-sentinel-appeals-decision-idUSBRE87900T20120810
PS: I have not moved my self-directed retirement accounts. I believe that the courts would not currently stoop to allow these accounts to be at risk as well. Who knows?