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. Thrivent splits the exit charge in a way most peers do not: the Full Transfer Out Account Delivery Fee is $50, but a separate IRA Custodial Closing Fee runs $125 if the account being closed is a retirement account: two-and-a-half times the general transfer price. The annual IRA custodial fee is $35, waived once the account reaches $250,000. This page states only what the firm itself publishes.
The published numbers
Every figure below comes from Thrivent Investment Management’s own “Miscellaneous other fees and charges for brokerage and managed accounts” schedule (document 25001 R12-23), fetched directly from thrivent.com.
| What it charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Full Transfer Out Account Delivery Fee | $50 | Per account |
| IRA Custodial Closing Fee | $125 | Per IRA account |
| IRA Custodial Maintenance Fee / HSA Annual Fee | $35 (waived at $250,000+) | Per year |
Which fee applies depends entirely on the account type, and the gap between them is large. The schedule lists “Full Transfer Out Account Delivery Fee $50” as a general line, and separately “IRA Custodial Closing Fee $125”: a retirement account closing costs two and a half times what a general transfer costs. The $35 annual maintenance line carries its own published waiver: “IRA Custodial Maintenance Fee and Health Savings Account (HSA) Annual Fee (waived if account value $250,000 or more) $35.”
No partial-transfer-out fee is listed as a separate line item from the $50 Full Transfer Out Account Delivery Fee.
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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.
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A $50 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.
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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 $50 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.