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. PNC prices the account termination or transfer at a flat $125 whether the account is a retirement account or not: the schedule prints the identical figure in both columns of its fee table. A separate $75 Annual Service Fee applies each year, and that one, not the $125 exit charge, is what PNC’s TotalRewards enrollment can waive. This page states only what the firm itself publishes.
The published numbers
Every figure below comes from PNC Wealth Management’s own Overview of Products and Services, effective June 15, 2026, fetched directly from pnc.com.
| What it charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Account Termination/Transfer Fee | $125 (Non-Retirement) / $125 (Retirement) | Per account, identical either way |
| Annual Service Fee | $75 (Non-Retirement) / $75 (Retirement) | Per year, waivable via TotalRewards |
The waiver reaches the annual fee, not the exit fee. PNC’s own language: “With enrolling in and meeting the eligibility requirements of the PNC TotalRewards Program, PNCWM clients have an opportunity to benefit from increased BDSP rates and/or an annual service fee waiver for eligible brokerage accounts.” That is a waiver of the $75 Annual Service Fee. The $125 Account Termination/Transfer Fee carries no published waiver condition of its own, and the schedule notes it may show on your statement under several different labels: “Retirement Fee,” “IRA Fee,” “Administrative Fee” or “Service Fee.”
No separate partial-transfer line is published; the schedule lists a single $125 termination/transfer fee, and separate certificate/legal-transfer items ($30 physical, $80 legal) cover registration handling, not partial ACAT transfers.
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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 and 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.
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A $125 exit fee decides nothing. What you move to decides everything.
Price the destination before you pay to leave. 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.
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.