diff --git a/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/java/migrate/util/ReplaceStreamCollectWithToList.java b/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/java/migrate/util/ReplaceStreamCollectWithToList.java
index 42c6da6813..67c1bef233 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/java/migrate/util/ReplaceStreamCollectWithToList.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/java/migrate/util/ReplaceStreamCollectWithToList.java
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@
 import org.openrewrite.java.search.UsesMethod;
 import org.openrewrite.java.tree.Expression;
 import org.openrewrite.java.tree.J;
+import org.openrewrite.java.tree.JavaType;
+import org.openrewrite.java.tree.TypeUtils;
 
 import java.time.Duration;
 import java.util.Collections;
@@ -95,6 +97,12 @@ public J.MethodInvocation visitMethodInvocation(J.MethodInvocation method, Execu
             Expression command = method.getArguments().get(0);
             if (COLLECT_TO_UNMODIFIABLE_LIST.matches(command) ||
                     convertToList && COLLECT_TO_LIST.matches(command)) {
+
+                // Check if the transformation would result in incompatible types
+                if (!areTypesCompatible(result)) {
+                    return result;
+                }
+
                 maybeRemoveImport("java.util.stream.Collectors");
                 J.MethodInvocation toList = JavaTemplate.apply("#{any(java.util.stream.Stream)}.toList()",
                         updateCursor(result), result.getCoordinates().replace(), result.getSelect());
@@ -102,5 +110,19 @@ public J.MethodInvocation visitMethodInvocation(J.MethodInvocation method, Execu
             }
             return result;
         }
+
+        private boolean areTypesCompatible(J.MethodInvocation method) {
+            if (method.getSelect() == null ||
+                    method.getSelect().getType() == null ||
+                    !(method.getSelect().getType() instanceof JavaType.Parameterized) ||
+                    !(method.getType() instanceof JavaType.Parameterized)) {
+                return false;
+            }
+            // Check if the stream element type and expected list element type are exactly the same
+            // If they differ (e.g., Stream<Integer> but List<Number>), don't transform
+            return TypeUtils.isOfType(
+                    ((JavaType.Parameterized) method.getSelect().getType()).getTypeParameters().get(0),
+                    ((JavaType.Parameterized) method.getType()).getTypeParameters().get(0));
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/openrewrite/java/migrate/util/ReplaceStreamCollectWithToListTest.java b/src/test/java/org/openrewrite/java/migrate/util/ReplaceStreamCollectWithToListTest.java
index 5e2f09a510..36d9f9db81 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/openrewrite/java/migrate/util/ReplaceStreamCollectWithToListTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/openrewrite/java/migrate/util/ReplaceStreamCollectWithToListTest.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
 import org.openrewrite.DocumentExample;
+import org.openrewrite.Issue;
 import org.openrewrite.test.RecipeSpec;
 import org.openrewrite.test.RewriteTest;
 
@@ -180,4 +181,99 @@ List<String> test(Stream<String> stream) {
         );
     }
 
+    @Issue("https://github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/791")
+    @Test
+    void doesNotReplaceWhenReturnTypeIsIncompatible() {
+        rewriteRun(
+          //language=java
+          java(
+            """
+              import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+              import java.util.stream.Stream;
+              import java.util.List;
+
+              class Example {
+                  List<Number> foo() {
+                      return Stream.of(Integer.valueOf(1)).collect(Collectors.toUnmodifiableList());
+                  }
+              }
+              """
+          )
+        );
+    }
+
+    @Issue("https://github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/791")
+    @Test
+    void replacesWhenTypesAreCompatible() {
+        rewriteRun(
+          //language=java
+          java(
+            """
+              import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+              import java.util.stream.Stream;
+              import java.util.List;
+
+              class Example {
+                  List<Integer> foo() {
+                      return Stream.of(Integer.valueOf(1)).collect(Collectors.toUnmodifiableList());
+                  }
+              }
+              """,
+            """
+              import java.util.stream.Stream;
+              import java.util.List;
+
+              class Example {
+                  List<Integer> foo() {
+                      return Stream.of(Integer.valueOf(1)).toList();
+                  }
+              }
+              """
+          )
+        );
+    }
+
+    @Issue("https://github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/791")
+    @Test
+    void doesNotReplaceInVariableAssignmentWithIncompatibleTypes() {
+        rewriteRun(
+          //language=java
+          java(
+            """
+              import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+              import java.util.stream.Stream;
+              import java.util.List;
+
+              class Example {
+                  void foo() {
+                      List<Number> numbers = Stream.of(Integer.valueOf(1)).collect(Collectors.toUnmodifiableList());
+                  }
+              }
+              """
+          )
+        );
+    }
+
+    @Issue("https://github.com/openrewrite/rewrite-migrate-java/issues/791")
+    @Test
+    void doesNotReplaceWithToListWhenConvertToListFlagIsTrue() {
+        rewriteRun(
+          recipeSpec -> recipeSpec.recipe(new ReplaceStreamCollectWithToList(true)),
+          //language=java
+          java(
+            """
+              import java.util.stream.Collectors;
+              import java.util.stream.Stream;
+              import java.util.List;
+
+              class Example {
+                  List<Number> foo() {
+                      return Stream.of(Integer.valueOf(1)).collect(Collectors.toList());
+                  }
+              }
+              """
+          )
+        );
+    }
+
 }