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. RBC Wealth Management prices the account transfer at $125 per account, per occurrence, and charges the identical $125 again under a separate line if the account is an IRA being terminated. The annual IRA fee is $85, waived if you are enrolled in an advisory wrap-fee program, hold Premier household status, or your household carries $500,000 or more in assets. This page states only what the firm itself publishes.
The published numbers
Every figure below comes from RBC Wealth Management’s own Schedule of Fees (document 26-56-4575140_56283, dated 06/26), fetched directly from rbcwealthmanagement.com.
| What it charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Account transfer fee | $125 | Per account, per occurrence |
| IRA account termination | $125 | Per account, per occurrence |
| Individual Retirement Account (IRA) fee | $85 | Per account, annual, billed on account anniversary |
Three separate conditions each independently waive the $85 annual IRA fee: not the $125 transfer or termination charge. The schedule’s own line reads: “Fee waiver criteria: Advisory wrap-fee program, Premier household, household assets of $500,000.” Meeting any one of the three, not all three, is enough. None of them is stated to reduce the $125 you pay when the account actually leaves.
No full/partial distinction is published for the $125 account-transfer line; separately listed physical-securities items (DRS eligible $650/transaction, Non-DRS eligible $200/transaction) are not labeled as partial-account-transfer fees.
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Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionClosing 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 a RBC Wealth Management 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 RBC Wealth Management transfer out fee?
The RBC Wealth Management Schedule of Fees (document 26-56-4575140_56283) lists “Account transfer fee” at $125, charged per account, per occurrence.
What is the RBC Wealth Management 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 RBC Wealth Management Schedule of Fees (document 26-56-4575140_56283).
The 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 $125 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.
Two more exits where the firm’s own broker-dealer affiliate, not a third-party custodian, publishes the transfer fee: Mariner Wealth Advisors and Wealth Enhancement Group.
Want to know what RBC Wealth Management charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from RBC Wealth Management’s own fee disclosure.
Before you decide to leave RBC Wealth Management, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full RBC Wealth Management 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.