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. Unlike most firms in this series, D.A. Davidson & Co. is itself a full-service broker-dealer that generally custodies its own client assets, so there is no separate custodian to check. D.A. Davidson’s own Fees and Services schedule states the cost plainly: $100.00 to “Transfer of an account to another financial institution.” A separate, older D.A. Davidson disclosure independently confirms the same $100 figure and calls it the account’s “ACAT fee.”
The published numbers
D.A. Davidson & Co.’s advisory-side Form ADV/wrap-fee brochure names “transfer fees” only as an unquantified pass-through category and describes the account converting to a custody-only brokerage relationship when the advisory agreement ends, without stating a dollar amount. The actual figure lives in D.A. Davidson’s separate, brokerage-side Fees and Services schedule (dated “as of September 2024”): “Transfer of an account to another financial institution… $100.00.” A second, earlier D.A. Davidson document, Regulation Best Interest Disclosures (effective December 22, 2021), independently confirms the same number: “Account Transfer Fees. We will charge you a one-time, per account, ‘account transfer fee’ to reimburse us for the costs associated with transferring your account to another financial institution. The account transfer fee includes fees associated with the Automated Client Account Transfer System, commonly referred to as the ACAT fee. This fee is typically $100 and is paid when you initiate the transfer of your account to another broker-dealer.” Two D.A. Davidson documents from two different years agree on $100. The same September 2024 schedule separately prices a related move, settling an estate: “Estate accounts… transfer of estate assets registered in client name, processing of death puts or survivor options… $50.00 per issue.”
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Transfer of an account to another financial institution | $100.00 per account (D.A. Davidson & Co., Fees and Services, as of September 2024) |
| Corroborating figure | $100 “account transfer fee” / ACAT fee (D.A. Davidson & Co., Regulation Best Interest Disclosures, effective December 22, 2021) |
| Estate account asset transfer (per issue) | $50.00, a related charge from the same Fees and Services schedule |
| Custodian ambiguity | None: D.A. Davidson is itself the broker-dealer/custodian for most accounts |
| ACATS validation + completion window | 1 business day to validate, 3 business days to complete (FINRA Rule 11870) |
Compare your next step
Just comparing fees? Keep reading the fee guide.Optional next step
Explore an adviser match
Compare the services and the full fee before deciding whether to hire anyone.
- No fee to request a match
- No obligation to hire
Expect questions about your situation, your name, email and phone, and phone verification by text. A match is not guaranteed.
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.
Opens here. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
How our partner relationships workCompare an adviser match before you decide
Ask about the full fee, what it covers and how the adviser is paid. A match is an introduction, not a recommendation from Clear Money Guide.
- Free matching service
- No obligation to hire
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. WiserAdvisor states the service is built for portfolios of $250,000 and above. By submitting, you consent to emails, phone calls and text messages from WiserAdvisor and up to three advisors, so expect to be contacted. Advisers pay for the introduction. Clear Money Guide is paid when you complete the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. There is no obligation to hire anyone.
Continue to WiserAdvisorOpens on WiserAdvisor’s site in a new tab.
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 D.A. Davidson & Co. charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from D.A. Davidson & Co.’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- D.A. Davidson & Co., “Fees and Services” (as of September 2024): https://www.dadavidson.com/Portals/0/bus-corp/Disclosures/da_davidson_co/fees_and_services_information.pdf
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, D.A. Davidson & Co. firm summary (CRD 199): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/199
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, D.A. Davidson & Co. Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_199.pdf
- D.A. Davidson & Co., Regulation Best Interest Disclosures (effective December 22, 2021): https://www.dadavidson.com/Portals/0/bus-corp/Disclosures/da_davidson_co/regulation_best_interest_disclosures.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 23, 2026, drawing on D.A. Davidson & Co.’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 D.A. Davidson & Co. 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.