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. Rockefeller Financial LLC is a registered broker-dealer, but it does not self-clear: its own Wrap Fee Brochure names National Financial Services LLC (“NFS”) as its clearing broker-dealer. NFS charges Rockefeller a set of fees that Rockefeller discloses and passes along to clients directly in its own Client Relationship Brochure: a $100.00 “Transfer of Assets” fee for a general outgoing transfer, and a separate $125.00 fee to liquidate and close a retirement account.
The published numbers
From Rockefeller Financial LLC’s own Client Relationship Brochure (as of March 31, 2026): “A Transfer of Assets (‘TOA’) fee of $100.00 per transfer from Rockefeller, which is assessed when clients elect to transfer account assets to another firm.” The same brochure, under its IRA section: “if a Rockefeller Financial client closes his or her IRA account, he or she will be subject to a $125.00 per account closure fee to cover the liquidation or transfer of the assets from our clearing firm, NFS,” and elsewhere describes “retirement account liquidation and transfer fees of $125.00 per account, which NFS charges to Rockefeller and are passed along to clients leaving Rockefeller.” Both figures were confirmed identical in the prior year’s edition of the same brochure (dated November 12, 2024), consistent with a stable, recurring firm-disclosed fee rather than a one-off.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Rockefeller’s own general account-closure charge | $0.00 beyond the fees below; no separate flat closing fee found |
| Transfer of Assets (TOA) fee, general outgoing transfer | $100.00 per transfer (Rockefeller Financial LLC’s own Client Relationship Brochure) |
| Retirement account (IRA) liquidation and closure | $125.00 per account (same brochure) |
| 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 Rockefeller Capital Management charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Rockefeller Capital Management’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Rockefeller Financial LLC, Client Relationship Brochure (as of March 31, 2026): https://rcmbrand.rockco.com/Client%20Relationship%20Brochure.pdf
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Rockefeller Financial LLC firm summary (CRD 291361): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/291361
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Rockefeller Financial LLC Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_291361.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 25, 2026, drawing on Rockefeller Capital Management’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.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.