Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 25, 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. LPL Financial LLC is a self-clearing broker-dealer, meaning it custodies its own client accounts, so there is no third-party custodian to check. LPL’s own published Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees Schedule lists $125.00 for an “Outgoing Account Transfer” of a non-retirement account, and a separate $125.00 “IRA/QRP and 403(b)(7) Termination” fee for closing a retirement account, so the figure is the same either way, just billed under a different line item.
More on this firm: LPL Financial Review, Is LPL Financial a Fiduciary? What Its Own Form CRS Says and LPL Financial Minimum Investment.
The published numbers
LPL’s own Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees Schedule for RIA Accounts (Form FS14-RIA, Revised 03/25) states, verbatim: “Outgoing Account Transfer: for processing full account transfer of all assets and positions to another financial institution (excludes retirement accounts)… $125… Per account,” and separately, “IRA/QRP and 403(b)(7) Termination… $125… Per account.” A smaller, related charge on the same schedule: “Outgoing Account Transfer Check: for processing outgoing account transfer of physical checks… $15… Per check over $1,000.” LPL’s live site blocked a direct document fetch this session; the figures above come from a copy of LPL’s own branded, form-coded document (FS14-RIA, Revised 0325) mirrored on a financial advisor’s public site, and a Wayback Machine snapshot independently confirms the identical filename is live at lpl.com.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| LPL’s own account-closure charge | $0.00 beyond the fees below; no separate flat closing fee found |
| Outgoing account transfer (non-retirement account) | $125.00 (LPL’s own Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees Schedule for RIA Accounts) |
| IRA / QRP / 403(b)(7) termination | $125.00 (same schedule) |
| Outgoing account transfer check (physical check over $1,000) | $15.00, a related charge on the same schedule |
| ACATS validation + completion window | 1 business day to validate, 3 business days to complete (FINRA Rule 11870) |
Compare your next step
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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 LPL Financial charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from LPL Financial’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- LPL Financial, Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees Schedule for RIA Accounts (Form FS14-RIA, Revised 03/25): https://www.lpl.com/content/dam/edam/practice-management/fees/fs14-ria.pdf
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, LPL Financial LLC firm summary (CRD 6413): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/6413
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, LPL Financial LLC Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_6413.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 25, 2026, drawing on LPL Financial’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.
What does leaving cost elsewhere? Compare the published exit fee at 115 advisory firms and brokerages, each taken from that firm’s own schedule or its custodian’s.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.