Clear Money Guide
What this guide covers
A quick view of the questions and evidence developed below.
Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: the structural fact that shapes this exit: Fisher Investments does not hold your assets itself. Its own Form CRS states that clients “generally pay trading commissions or fees to third-party brokerage firms we utilize to custody and make trades for your account.” So leaving has two separable steps — end the advisory agreement (which stops the fee) and move or retitle the account at the custodian (which moves the money) — and they do not have to happen on the same day. Export your cost basis and download your statements before you start.
The published fee, so you know what stops
From Fisher’s own Form ADV Part 3 (Client Relationship Summary) dated February 5, 2025, for US clients: an annual fee on assets under management, “calculated and billed quarterly,” on a tiered schedule of 1.5% for all relationships less than $1 million; 1.25% on the first $1 million for amounts equal to or greater than $1 million; 1.125% on additional amounts over $1 million and less than or equal to $5 million; and 1.00% on any additional amount over $5 million. The same document notes the firm is a discretionary adviser, meaning it can trade your account without asking first — which is why the written instruction to stop discretionary trading, below, is step one and not step three. It also states that the professionals who introduce the service “are compensated based on the total value of assets you entrust to our management”: useful context for the retention conversation, and a disclosure the firm makes about itself.
Find the right next step for your situation
Answer three quick questions to see the option that fits you best.
Since you have $250,000 or more, a network of vetted advisers may fit.
If your portfolio is $250,000 or more, this connects you — free, with no obligation to hire anyone — with 2 to 3 vetted advisors.
Before you start, what actually happens. The matching service is run by WiserAdvisor, an independent advisor-matching company. It opens on their site, asks for your ZIP code and a few questions, and matches you with 2 to 3 vetted advisors. It is free to you.
WiserAdvisor states the service is built for portfolios of $250,000 and above. By submitting, you consent to emails, phone calls and text messages from WiserAdvisor and up to three advisors, so expect to be contacted. Clear Money Guide is paid when you complete the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone.
Opens on WiserAdvisor’s site in a new tab.
The fee stops when the agreement ends, not when you decide.
Line up the destination before you send the letter. The matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you.
Before you start, what actually happens. The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. This is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.
The Kapitalwise form opens here — you stay on this page.
What happens when you press the button
It asks about nine questions — age, investable assets, location — then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
Compare flat-fee and hourly ranges before you call anyone.
Flat-fee and hourly advisers price the work directly instead of as a percentage of your assets. The comparison guide below has current per-year, per-project and per-hour ranges so you can price a quote before you book a call.
What leaving costs, and who charges it
Fisher Investments does not hold your money. Its own Form ADV names Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC and Northern Trust Company as the custodians that hold its client assets, which means the fee for leaving is charged by the custodian rather than by Fisher. For an account custodied at Charles Schwab, the published cost of a full transfer out is $50 per account, and a partial transfer costs nothing.
So the number to look up is your custodian’s, not Fisher’s. Check the statement for whose name is on it before you assume which schedule applies. For comparison, a full transfer out costs $95 at Edward Jones and $125 at Morgan Stanley — the custodial route is at the cheaper end, and if you are moving only part of the account, Schwab’s published partial-transfer charge is $0.
The sequence
1. Download everything first. Statements, tax documents, and a full holdings list with cost basis and acquisition dates, from the custodian’s portal as well as any Fisher-facing portal. Access can end when the relationship does. Under IRC §6045A the delivering broker must furnish a transfer statement with basis for covered securities within 15 days of a transfer, but having your own copy is what lets you check it. 2. Write to end the advisory agreement — naming the accounts, giving an effective date, instructing that discretionary trading stop, and asking for written confirmation and any prorated refund of a fee billed in advance. The generator writes this letter. 3. Decide about the custodian account. Depending on how it is set up you may be able to keep it and simply remove the adviser’s authority, or move it to a new firm via ACATS — ask the custodian which applies to you before assuming either. 4. Confirm the fee stopped on the next statement: the receipt email.
The two questions to settle in writing
Will anything have to be sold? If you move to a firm that cannot hold a position, it gets liquidated, and in a taxable account that is a realised gain in the year you leave — what will not transfer and the four tax cases. Am I owed part of the quarter? Fees billed quarterly are commonly billed in advance, and Form ADV Part 2A Item 5.D requires an adviser to explain how a client obtains a refund of a pre-paid fee when the contract ends mid-period — how to ask, with the exact sentence. Where the tiered rate above sits against the wider market: our benchmark of published adviser fee schedules. General mechanics: switching financial advisors.
To weigh the exit costs against the fee you would stop paying, the switching advisors cost calculator returns the one-time cost of leaving and how long the new arrangement takes to repay it.
Comparing exit steps at more than one firm? How to leave U.S. Bank, fee by fee and form by form.