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. U.S. Bancorp Investments prices the combined “account transfers and IRA closeout” charge at $95 per account, and that figure is identical whether you hold a self-directed brokerage account or work with a full-service advisor: the firm publishes the same number in both fee schedules. The separate $50 annual account/IRA fee is waived for households with a statement balance above $250,000. This page states only what the firm itself publishes.
The published numbers
Every figure below comes from U.S. Bancorp Investments’ own fee schedules (self-directed and full-service, both effective November 2024, document WMI-4135 1327602 AT-7373133), fetched directly from usbank.com.
| What it charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Account transfers and IRA closeout | $95 | Per account; identical in the self-directed and full-service schedules |
| Annual account and/or IRA fee | $50 | Per account, per year |
Self-directed and full-service clients pay the same exit price. Both of U.S. Bancorp Investments’ published schedules print the identical line: “Account transfers and IRA closeout………… $95 per account.” That is not the usual pattern on this list, where self-directed accounts (WellsTrade, Merrill Edge) typically carry a lower exit fee than their full-service siblings. The $50 annual fee waiver, by contrast, is a stated dollar threshold: “Annual account/IRA fees may be waived for clients with a statement household balance > $250,000.”
Both schedules list only the combined $95 “Account transfers and IRA closeout” line; neither itemizes a separate partial-transfer-out fee.
Compare your next step
Just comparing fees? Keep reading the fee guide.Optional next step
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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 $95 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.
U.S. Bank also offers self-directed brokerage accounts alongside its advisory relationships; the outgoing-transfer fee at two of the largest discount brokerages: Charles Schwab ($50 full transfer) and Fidelity ($0).
Want to know what U.S. Bancorp Investments charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from U.S. Bancorp Investments’s own fee disclosure.
Before you decide to leave U.S. Bancorp Investments, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full U.S. Bancorp Investments 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.