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. Covestor Ltd, doing business as Interactive Advisors, states in its current Informational Brochure that the advisory agreement “will continue in effect until terminated by either party,” with fees “prorated through the date of termination” and any remaining balance refunded. Interactive Advisors does not custody assets itself: its brochure names its affiliated broker-dealer, Interactive Brokers LLC (“IB LLC”), as the qualified custodian. Unlike most custodians on this site, Interactive Brokers’ own current fee page states plainly: “ACATS Deposit or Withdrawal: None”, with a footnote confirming it does not charge for incoming or outgoing ACATS transfers. By comparison, Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide lists $50.00 per account for the same full transfer out on a standard RIA account, so Interactive Brokers is the cheaper custodian of the two.
Leaving other advisory firms: How to Leave Capital Wealth Planning, How to Leave CAPTRUST and How to Leave Carnegie Investment Counsel.
The published numbers
From Covestor Ltd’s own Informational Brochure (Form ADV Part 2A and 2B, March 24, 2026), Item 4: “The agreement between Interactive Advisors and the client will continue in effect until terminated by either party pursuant to the terms of that agreement.” Item 5 states: “Interactive Advisors’ fee shall be prorated through the date of termination and any remaining balance shall be charged or refunded to the client, as appropriate, in a timely manner.” The same brochure names its custodian (Item 4): “our affiliated broker-dealer, Interactive Brokers LLC (“IB LLC”, “Broker-Dealer”, or “Custodian”).” From Interactive Brokers’ own “Other Fees” page (fetched fresh this session): “DTC Position Transfers… ACATS Deposit or Withdrawal: None… While IBKR does not charge for incoming or outgoing ACATS transfers, customers should consult with their sending or receiving firm to determine if there will be any applicable fees for the transfers.”
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Interactive Advisors’ own exit charge | $0.00: pro-rated refund of any remaining balance (Form ADV) |
| ACATS transfer at Interactive Brokers (the firm’s own custodian) | $0.00: “ACATS Deposit or Withdrawal: None” (Interactive Brokers’ own published fee page) |
| For comparison, full transfer-out at Schwab | $50.00 per account (Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide; not Interactive Advisors’ own custodian) |
| 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 Interactive Advisors charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Interactive Advisors’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Covestor Ltd (d/b/a Interactive Advisors), “Informational Brochure” (Form ADV Part 2A and 2B, March 24, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1024287
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Covestor Ltd firm summary (CRD 145694): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/145694
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Covestor Ltd Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_145694.pdf
- Interactive Brokers LLC, “Other Fees”: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/pricing/other-fees.php
- Charles Schwab, “Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors” (July 2026): https://disclosures.schwab.com/SchwabDashboard/61256/REG23060SI.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, drawing on Interactive Advisors’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 Interactive Advisors review.
What does it take to open an account? See Interactive Advisors’s minimum investment, straight from its own Form ADV Part 2A brochure.
Before you decide to leave Interactive Advisors, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
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.