Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated August 20, 2026. Quick answer: you open the account at the receiving firm and sign the transfer form there; the new firm pulls the accounts through ACATS and your Ameriprise advisor never has to agree to it. Budget $125 per account — Ameriprise prices the row per account, so a household moving three registrations pays it three times — and check the statement for non-traded or restricted positions before you start, because those are the ones that will not move as they are. This page states only what Ameriprise itself publishes.
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The published numbers
Every figure below was read out of Ameriprise’s own Fee Schedule for brokerage accounts, document code L (12/24) 114234, retrieved from ameriprise.com on August 20, 2026. The exit row is worded “Transfer Out Termination $125 Per Account”. The document says of itself: “All fees are subject to change at our discretion, and other fees may apply. We will provide at least 30 day’s written notice before we increase these fees, unless required or otherwise permitted by law or regulation.” It also points readers to the live version: “A current fee schedule can always be found at ameriprise.com/brokeragefees or talk with your Ameriprise financial advisor for more information.”
| What Ameriprise charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer Out Termination | $125 | Per account |
| Individual Retirement Account (IRA) custodial fee | $75 | Annual, per plan |
| Tax-Sheltered Custodial Account (TSCA) | $50 | Annual, per participant |
| Custodial 401(a) plan account | $75 | Annual, per participant |
| Brokerage 529 plan account | $25 | Annual |
| Legal Transfers | $30 | Per transfer |
| Certificate Delivery | $80 | Per CUSIP |
| Wire Transfer Out (domestic) | $30 | Per wire |
| Estate Settlement Processing Fee | $200 | One time at estate settlement |
The transfer row is the whole exit charge, and it is charged per account. There is no separate IRA closure or termination row; Transfer Out Termination is the only such row. So an IRA and a taxable joint account leaving together are two charges of $125, not one. If you hold an IRA, the $75 annual custodial fee is a separate line from the exit charge, and the schedule says nothing about prorating it in the year you leave.
Ameriprise does not publish a price for a partial transfer. The schedule publishes one transfer row, labelled Per Account, and no partial-transfer row at all. We print “not published” rather than $0, because the absence of a row is not a promise of no charge — ask before you move part of an account and leave the rest open.
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Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionWhat may not move as it is
Ameriprise’s schedule charges annual custody on three classes of position that a receiving firm may simply refuse: $150 a year per position for a registered non-traded security, $100 a year per position for restricted stock, and $250 a year per position for an unregistered security. The schedule defines the first class itself: “The term Registered Non-Traded Security includes traditional Limited Partnerships, Non-Traded Business Development Companies (BDCs), NonTraded REITs and other instruments.” Those custody rows are the tell — a firm does not price the storage of something its clients do not hold. Ask the receiving firm about each one by name before you sign anything, because a position nobody will accept has to be sold, and in a taxable account that sale is a realised gain in the year you switch.
Closing the account vs transferring it: the $125 transfer-out fee
Closing an account and transferring it are different events. A transfer in kind moves your holdings to the new firm as they are. Closing by selling everything and withdrawing the cash is a liquidation. A liquidation is a taxable event; a transfer in kind is not, see IRS Publication 550 and Publication 590-B.
How do I close an Ameriprise account?
To leave without selling, open the account at the receiving firm and start the transfer there. To close by liquidating, sell the holdings and withdraw the cash. The charge for moving the account is covered in the next answer.
What is the Ameriprise transfer out fee?
The Ameriprise Fee Schedule for brokerage accounts (document code L (12/24) 114234) lists “Transfer Out Termination” at $125, charged per account.
What is the Ameriprise ACAT fee?
ACATS is the system the receiving firm uses to pull an account. The amount published for sending an account out is $125, from the Ameriprise Fee Schedule for brokerage accounts (document code L (12/24) 114234).
The sequence
1. Pull a current statement for every account, showing the exact registration, the account numbers and the complete holdings list. The receiving firm works from that, not from memory. 2. Ask the receiving firm what it cannot hold. The question is literally “Can you hold every position on this statement?” — anything they cannot hold has to be sold, and in a taxable account that is a realised gain in the year you switch. The categories that commonly do not transfer. 3. Open the receiving account and sign the transfer form there. Under FINRA Rule 11870 the delivering firm then has one business day to validate the instruction or take exception to it, and three business days after validation to complete the transfer. 4. Send a dated termination letter for the record — the generator writes it — and confirm in writing that billing has stopped.
Two things to get right
Cost basis. Under IRC §6045A the delivering broker must furnish a transfer statement carrying basis for covered securities within 15 days of the transfer. Keep your final Ameriprise statements anyway, and check the first statement at the new firm for positions showing a missing or zero basis. Retirement accounts move as a direct transfer, trustee to trustee — not as a distribution to you. Why that distinction matters. Budget the $125 per account as a known, published cost rather than a surprise on the closing statement. Whether the exit charge is worth paying at all is a question of what you are moving to: our benchmark of published adviser fee schedules puts the weighted median annual cost near $2,000 to $2,500 on $250,000 — the benchmark. The general mechanics: switching financial advisors, and what switching costs across firms.
To see what the per-account charge means against the fee you would stop paying, the switching advisors cost calculator returns the one-time cost of leaving and the months 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.
Want to know what Ameriprise charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Ameriprise’s own fee disclosure.
Before you decide to leave Ameriprise, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full Ameriprise review, including its fiduciary status and what it costs to leave.
Three more exits, each with a published or reimbursed transfer figure: Acorns, Ameritas, and Aspiriant.
What does leaving cost elsewhere? Compare the published exit fee at 115 advisory firms and brokerages, each taken from that firm’s own schedule or its custodian’s.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.