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. Frost Investment Services, LLC’s Form ADV Part 2A states either party “without penalty, may terminate the advisory agreement,” with any prepaid service fees refunded. FIS names National Financial Services LLC (“NFS”), “an unaffiliated clearing broker-dealer,” as its custodian: “FIS does not provide custody services. Custody of client assets is maintained by NFS.” Frost’s own published fee schedule states a “Full Account Transfer Fee $75”, plus a separate $125 IRA Termination Fee, confirmed independently in both Frost’s fee schedule and its current Form ADV’s own fee table.
The published numbers
From Frost Investment Services, LLC’s own Form ADV Part 2A (March 25, 2026), Item 5: “Either party, without penalty, may terminate the advisory agreement, subject to the terms of any contract in force at that time. Should either party terminate the advisory agreement before the end of a billing period, any prepaid service fees will be refunded.” The same brochure names its custodian (Items 12/15): “We recommend that National Financial Services LLC (“NFS”), an unaffiliated clearing broker-dealer, serve as the custodian for your account… FIS does not provide custody services. Custody of client assets is maintained by NFS, our designated custodian.” From Frost’s own Investment Advisory Services Schedule of Fees: “Full Account Transfer Fee $75” and “IRA Termination Fee $125”, both figures independently confirmed in the fresh Form ADV Part 2A’s own fee table. NFS does not publish a separate retail fee schedule of its own; these are Frost’s own published, client-facing charges.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Frost Investment Services’ own exit charge | $0.00: agreements terminate without penalty, prepaid fees refunded (Form ADV) |
| Full account transfer fee | $75.00 per account (Frost’s own Schedule of Fees) |
| IRA termination fee | $125.00 per account (Frost’s own Schedule of Fees) |
| 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 Frost Investment Services charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Frost Investment Services’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Frost Investment Services, LLC, “Form ADV Part 2A” (March 25, 2026): https://www.frostbank.com/dam/Docs/AgreementsAndDisclosures/Personal/Brokerage/Part2AFormADV.pdf
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Frost Investment Services, LLC firm summary (CRD 286129): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/286129
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Frost Investment Services, LLC Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_286129.pdf
- Frost Investment Services, LLC, “Investment Advisory Services Schedule of Fees”: https://www.frostbank.com/dam/Docs/AgreementsAndDisclosures/Personal/Brokerage/ManagedAccountsFeeSchedule.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, drawing on Frost Investment Services’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 Frost Investment Services review.
What does it take to open an account? See Frost Investment Services’s minimum investment, straight from its own Form ADV Part 2A brochure.
Comparing Frost Investment Services against other options? See Frost Investment Services alternatives, including a lower-fee full-service firm, a flat-fee route and a robo/hybrid.
Before you decide to leave Frost Investment Services, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.