Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 18, 2026. Quick answer: you open an account at the receiving firm and sign the transfer form there; the new firm pulls the accounts through ACATS. Unlike most firms in this series, Vanguard is its own custodian : there is no third party to check. Vanguard Brokerage Services’ own commission and fee schedule, effective July 10, 2026, lists a $100.00 “Account closure and full transfer out fee” for moving a full account to another firm. The same schedule adds a carve-out: the fee “will not be charged to any brokerage accounts enrolled in a Vanguard-affiliated advisory service”, and Personal Advisor is exactly that kind of service. Vanguard’s own documents do not say plainly whether that exemption still applies once you are transferring the whole account away (which necessarily ends the advisory enrollment in the same act), so we present $100 as the stated fee and flag the carve-out as an unresolved honest gap rather than promising you $0.
The published numbers
From Vanguard Advisers, Inc.’s Digital Advisor and Personal Advisor Brochure (Form ADV Part 2A) (August 20, 2026), the Fee Collection section: “Accrued fees will not be collected for the portion of the gross advisory fee equal to the net advisory fee for the period from the last quarterly fee collection upon termination of an account’s enrollment.” In plain terms: no extra fee to end the advisory relationship itself, fees simply stop as of the termination date. Separately, from Vanguard Brokerage Services’ commission and fee schedule (document v414, “Effective July 10, 2026”), under Additional Services: “VBS may charge a $100 processing fee for each account closure and full transfer of account assets to another firm. Electronic Bank Transfers and ACH are not subject to this fee. The fee will not apply to any accounts of clients with a QA of at least $5 million or Wealth Management clients. It also will not be charged to any brokerage accounts enrolled in a Vanguard-affiliated advisory service.” The same $100 figure is corroborated on Vanguard’s own live fee page, investor.vanguard.com/investing/transaction-fees-commissions/other. We could not confirm, on a Vanguard-owned document readable this session, whether the advisory-service carve-out actually applies to a full outgoing transfer (which ends that same enrollment); left here as an honest gap rather than resolved either way.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Vanguard’s own advisory termination charge | $0.00 extra: accrued fees simply stop as of the termination date (Personal Advisor brochure, Fee Collection) |
| VBS full account transfer-out, published rate | $100.00 per account, effective July 10, 2026 (Vanguard Brokerage Services fee schedule) |
| Fee waived above | $5,000,000.00 in Qualifying Assets, or for Wealth Management clients (same VBS fee schedule) |
| Advisory-service carve-out | VBS states the fee will not apply to accounts “enrolled in a Vanguard-affiliated advisory service”; whether that exempts a full transfer OUT of Personal Advisor is not clarified on any Vanguard-owned document we could read this session |
| ACATS validation + completion window | 1 business day to validate, 3 business days to complete (FINRA Rule 11870) |
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A $100 exit fee, or maybe $0: Vanguard’s own fine print doesn’t say. What you move to decides everything.
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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.
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Answer againClosing the account vs transferring it: the $100.00 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 Vanguard Personal Advisor 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 Vanguard Personal Advisor transfer out fee?
The Vanguard Brokerage Services fee schedule lists “VBS full account transfer-out, published rate” at $100.00. Vanguard’s schedule carves out accounts enrolled in an affiliated advisory service, and this page could not confirm from a Vanguard document whether that reaches a transfer out of Personal Advisor.
What is the Vanguard Personal Advisor ACAT fee?
ACATS is the system the receiving firm uses to pull an account. The amount published for sending an account out is $100.00, from the Vanguard Brokerage Services fee schedule.
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. Whether a transfer 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.
Want to know what Vanguard Personal Advisor charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Vanguard Personal Advisor’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Vanguard Advisers, Inc., “Digital Advisor and Personal Advisor Brochure” (Form ADV Part 2A, August 20, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1055528
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Vanguard Advisers, Inc. firm summary (CRD 106715): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/106715
- Vanguard Brokerage Services, “Commission and fee schedules” (document v414, effective July 10, 2026): https://personal1.vanguard.com/pdf/v414.pdf
- Vanguard, “Other fees”: https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/transaction-fees-commissions/other
Methodology. This page was built September 18, 2026, drawing on Vanguard Personal Advisor’s own Form ADV/wrap-fee brochure/fee schedule plus each named custodian’s own published fee schedule, with sources linked inline; any figure we could not independently confirm this session on a firm-owned or custodian-owned document is named as an honest gap above rather than presented as verified. Nothing here is personalized financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.
Four more exits from RIAs where your custodian, not the firm, sets the transfer cost: Park Avenue Securities, Plancorp, Principal Securities, and Savant Wealth Management.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.