Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 28, 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. Allworth Financial, L.P.’s Form ADV Part 2A states clients “can terminate its investment management agreement with Allworth at any time without penalty,” with Allworth refunding “a full refund of any fees paid… if the agreement is terminated within five business days,” and a pro-rated refund otherwise. Allworth’s own brochure recommends two primary custodians, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Adviser LLC and Schwab Advisor Services, and separately discloses that some clients from acquired practices sit at National Advisors Trust Corporation. If you are custodied at Schwab, budget $50.00 per account for a full outgoing transfer, per Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide. Fidelity and National Advisors Trust are honest gaps: neither publishes a comparable transfer-out figure.
The published numbers
From Allworth Financial, L.P.’s own Form ADV Part 2A (July 29, 2026), Item 5: “Each client has the option [to] terminate its investment management agreement with Allworth at any time without penalty… Allworth will provide a refund of fees paid in advance upon termination.” The same brochure names its custodians (Item 12): “Allworth will recommend that clients establish brokerage account(s) with Fidelity Institutional Wealth Adviser LLC… or Schwab Advisor Services… a division of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.” From the Charles Schwab Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors (July 2026): “Full transfer (out) of assets: $50 per account.” Fidelity’s own Brokerage Commission and Fee Schedule contains no comparable line item; National Advisors Trust Corporation, used for some acquired-practice legacy accounts, publishes no public fee schedule at all. Both left as honest gaps rather than assumed to be $0.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Allworth Financial’s own exit charge | $0.00: refund of any prepaid fee, no penalty to terminate (Form ADV) |
| Full transfer-out at Schwab | $50.00 per account (Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide) |
| Full transfer-out at Fidelity | Honest gap: no comparable line item found |
| National Advisors Trust Corporation (some acquired-practice accounts) | Honest gap: no public fee schedule located |
| ACATS validation and completion window | 1 day to validate, 3 days to complete under FINRA Rule 11870 (measured in business days) |
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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 Allworth Financial charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Allworth Financial’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Allworth Financial, L.P., “Form ADV Part 2A” (July 29, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1053280
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Allworth Financial, L.P. firm summary (CRD 111167): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/111167
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Allworth Financial, L.P. Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_111167.pdf
- Charles Schwab, “Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors” (July 2026): https://disclosures.schwab.com/SchwabDashboard/61256/REG23060SI.pdf
- Fidelity, “Brokerage Commission and Fee Schedule”: https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/Brokerage_Commissions_Fee_Schedule.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, drawing on Allworth 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.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full Allworth Financial review.
Before you decide to leave Allworth Financial, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
What does it take to open an account? See Allworth Financial’s minimum investment, straight from its own Form ADV Part 2A brochure.
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.