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. Commonwealth Financial Network publishes a $75 Full Account Transfer Fee as its own separate, custodian-agnostic line: but Commonwealth custodies client accounts through both NFS and Pershing, and each custodian layers its own additional termination fee on top: $125 at NFS, or $100 at Pershing. The annual IRA maintenance fee is $45 at Pershing ($35 at NFS). Which combination applies to you depends on where your specific account is custodied. This page states only what the firm itself publishes.
The published numbers
Every figure below comes from Commonwealth Financial Network’s own Schedule of Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees (document OPS-3901-32176, dated 09/23), fetched directly from Commonwealth’s own hosted document assets.
| What it charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Full Account Transfer Fee | $75 | Per account, custodian-agnostic |
| NFS Termination Fee | $125 | Per account, NFS-custodied accounts |
| Pershing Termination Fee | $100 | Per account, Pershing-custodied accounts |
| Pershing IRA Annual Maintenance Fee | $45 | Per year |
Two custodians, two different termination numbers, on top of the same $75 base fee. Commonwealth’s schedule lists “Full Account Transfer Fee | $75 | Per account” as one line, and separately, custodian-specific termination fees: “NFS Termination Fee $125 Per account” and “Pershing Termination Fee $100 Per account.” The document does not label either termination fee as IRA-specific versus general, so which one you owe, and whether it stacks with the $75 base fee, depends on which custodian holds your specific account: worth confirming with your advisor before you assume a total.
The schedule’s only waiver language is a general footnote: “Some of these fees may be waived under certain conditions.”
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Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionClosing the account vs transferring it: the $75 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 Commonwealth Financial Network 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 Commonwealth Financial Network transfer out fee?
The Commonwealth Financial Network Schedule of Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees (OPS-3901-32176) lists “Full Account Transfer Fee” at $75, charged per account, custodian-agnostic.
What is the Commonwealth Financial Network ACAT fee?
ACATS is the system the receiving firm uses to pull an account. The amount published for sending an account out is $75, from the Commonwealth Financial Network Schedule of Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees (OPS-3901-32176).
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 $75 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.
Want to know what Commonwealth Financial Network charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Commonwealth Financial Network’s own fee disclosure.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full Commonwealth Financial Network 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.