Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: you open the account at the receiving firm and sign the transfer form there; the new firm pulls the account through ACATS. Stifel prices a full account transfer or termination at $100, and separately lists a $100 IRA and Qualified Plan Termination Fee: two identically priced but distinct line items, so a retirement account being closed can, on its face, trigger either row depending on how Stifel codes the closure. The annual IRA custodial fee is a smaller $40 ($30 if your statements are householded with other IRAs at Stifel). This page states only what the firm itself publishes.
The published numbers
Every figure below comes from Stifel’s own published Fee Schedule (document SN59-12/25, December 2025), fetched directly from stifel.com/feeschedule.
| What it charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Account Transfer/Termination Fee | $100 | Per account |
| IRA and Qualified Plan Termination Fee | $100 | Per account |
| IRA and ESA annual fee | $40 ($30 if householded) | Per year |
Fees are waivable at Stifel’s discretion, with no published dollar threshold. The schedule’s own footnote reads: “Fees may vary depending on circumstances, and Stifel and Stifel IRA Custodian reserve the right to waive fees and charges in their discretion.” Unlike some firms on this list, Stifel does not publish a specific account-balance or account-age condition that guarantees a waiver: asking your advisor is the only way to find out whether yours applies.
No separate partial-transfer fee is published. Adjacent physical-transfer items (“Cost of Certificate Issued $500”, “Cost of security moved electronically to be held by Transfer Agent $500”) apply to physical/DRS security moves, not to partial ACAT transfers.
Compare your next step
Just comparing fees? Keep reading the fee guide.Optional next step
Explore an adviser match
Compare the services and the full fee before deciding whether to hire anyone.
- No fee to request a match
- No obligation to hire
Expect questions about your situation, your name, email and phone, and phone verification by text. A match is not guaranteed.
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.
Opens here. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
How our partner relationships workCompare an adviser match before you decide
Ask about the full fee, what it covers and how the adviser is paid. A match is an introduction, not a recommendation from Clear Money Guide.
- Free matching service
- No obligation to hire
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. Advisers pay for the introduction. Clear Money Guide is paid when you complete the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. There is no obligation to hire anyone.
Continue to WiserAdvisorOpens on WiserAdvisor’s site in a new tab.
Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionThe sequence
1. Pull a current statement for every account, showing the exact registration, account numbers and complete holdings list. 2. Check the holdings for anything that will not move. Ask the receiving firm directly: “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 and three business days after validation to complete. 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 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 $100 for the exit charge and leave the cash to cover it in the account rather than sweeping the balance to zero first. Whether the fee 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. To put the exit charge next to the fee you would stop paying, the switching advisors cost calculator returns the break-even in months.
Vanguard is its own custodian, so its exit fee is not custodian-dependent like most firms in this series: see Vanguard Personal Advisor’s own $100 published transfer fee, plus Kestra Financial.
Want to know what Stifel Nicolaus charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Stifel Nicolaus’s own fee disclosure.
Before you decide to leave Stifel Nicolaus, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full Stifel Nicolaus review, including its fiduciary status and what it costs to leave.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.