Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 23, 2026. Quick answer: you open an account at the receiving firm and sign the transfer form there; the new firm pulls the account through ACATS. Ameritas Investment Partners, Inc. (“AIP”) charges nothing extra of its own to end the Private Clients relationship, and its Form ADV states plainly it has “no… termination or surrender fees.” The actual transfer cost comes from AIP’s clearing custodian, National Financial Services (NFS), and AIP’s own ADV says it reimburses that fee to the client in full. Ameritas’ own published fee schedule states the reimbursed amount: $50.00 for a standard, non-retirement account, or $160.00 for an IRA or other retirement account ($125 transfer fee plus a $35 annual maintenance fee).
The published numbers
From Ameritas Investment Partners, Inc.’s Private Clients Wrap Fee Program Brochure (Form ADV Part 2A, Appendix 1), Item 4: “There are no sales loads, termination or surrender fees associated with the Private Clients account.” The same brochure and AIP’s Firm Brochure both state, Item 5: “Fees charged by the custodian that are related to AIP’s management of client accounts, including wire fees, liquidation fees, inactivity fees, and outgoing account transfer fees, will be reimbursed to the client by AIP… Current transaction fee and activity fees schedules are also posted at www.ameritas.com/investments/disclosures.” That page links Ameritas’ own NFS Brokerage Account Fee Schedule (form AIC 1879, dated 08-27-25), which states: “Outgoing Account Transfer: Non-Qualified Accounts… $50… Outgoing Account Transfer: Qualified Accounts… $160 ($125 transfer fee + $35 annual fee) Annual fee reduced to $10 for Mutual Fund Investment IRA.”
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| AIP’s own exit charge | $0.00 extra: no termination or surrender fee (Private Clients brochure) |
| Outgoing transfer, non-qualified account | $50.00, reimbursed by AIP (Ameritas NFS Brokerage Account Fee Schedule) |
| Outgoing transfer, IRA / retirement account | $160.00 ($125 transfer + $35 annual fee), reimbursed by AIP (same schedule) |
| ACATS validation + completion window | 1 business day to validate, 3 business days to complete (FINRA Rule 11870) |
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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. 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 Ameritas charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Ameritas’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Ameritas Investment Partners, Inc., Firm Brochure (Form ADV Part 2A): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1026490
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Ameritas Investment Partners, Inc. firm summary (CRD 109381): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/109381
- Ameritas, NFS Brokerage Account Fee Schedule (form AIC 1879, dated 08-27-25): https://www.ameritas.com/OCM/GetFile?doc=716779
Methodology. This page was built September 23, 2026, drawing on Ameritas’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.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full Ameritas 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.