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. Edgemoor Investment Advisors, Inc.’s Form ADV Part 2A states “A client agreement may be terminated at any time, by either party, for any reason upon receipt of 5 days’ written notice.” Edgemoor Investment Advisors, Inc. names two possible custodians in its brochure, with no single default: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (Schwab Advisor Services), and National Financial Services LLC and Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. If you are custodied at Schwab, budget $50.00 per account, per Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.’s own current fee schedule. National Financial Services LLC / Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC’s own published fee schedule has no comparable line item for a full transfer-out, an honest gap rather than a confirmed $0.
The published numbers
From Edgemoor Investment Advisors, Inc.’s own Form ADV Part 2A: Investment Adviser Brochure (March 25, 2026), Item 5, Fees and Compensation, “Termination of Advisory Relationship” (page 6): “A client agreement may be terminated at any time, by either party, for any reason upon receipt of 5 days’ written notice. Upon termination of any account, any prepaid, unearned fees will be promptly refunded.” The same brochure names its custodians (Item 12, Brokerage Practices, “Brokerage Accounts with Schwab and Fidelity” (pages 12-14)): “Edgemoor recommends that clients establish brokerage accounts with the Schwab Advisor Services division of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”)… or with National Financial Services LLC and Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC (“Fidelity”) to maintain custody of clients’ assets and to effect trades for their accounts. Schwab and Fidelity are both independent, third party, qualified custodians.” From Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.’s own Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors: “Full transfer (out) of assets: $50 per account.” National Financial Services LLC / Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC’s own Brokerage Commission and Fee Schedule contains no comparable line item for a full account transfer out; left as an honest gap rather than assumed to be $0.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Edgemoor Investment Advisors’ own exit charge | $0.00 extra: pro-rated refund of any prepaid fee (Form ADV) |
| Full transfer-out at Schwab | $50.00 per account (Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.’s own Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors) |
| Full transfer-out at Fidelity | Honest gap: no comparable line item found |
| ACATS validation and completion window | 1 day to validate, 3 days to complete under FINRA Rule 11870 (measured in business days) |
Compare your next step
Just comparing fees? Keep reading the fee guide.Optional next step
Explore an adviser match
Compare the services and the full fee before deciding whether to hire anyone.
- No fee to request a match
- No obligation to hire
Expect questions about your situation, your name, email and phone, and phone verification by text. A match is not guaranteed.
The form is run by Kapitalwise, our advisor-matching partner. Kapitalwise sends your details to advisers who pay for the introduction, so expect calls and texts. Clear Money Guide is paid when you submit the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. This is free to you and there is no obligation to hire anyone.
Opens here. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
How our partner relationships workCompare an adviser match before you decide
Ask about the full fee, what it covers and how the adviser is paid. A match is an introduction, not a recommendation from Clear Money Guide.
- Free matching service
- No obligation to hire
The matching service is run by WiserAdvisor, an independent advisor-matching company. It opens on their site, asks for your ZIP code and a few questions, and matches you with 2 to 3 vetted advisors. It is free to you. WiserAdvisor states the service is built for portfolios of $250,000 and above. By submitting, you consent to emails, phone calls and text messages from WiserAdvisor and up to three advisors, so expect to be contacted. Advisers pay for the introduction. Clear Money Guide is paid when you complete the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. There is no obligation to hire anyone.
Continue to WiserAdvisorOpens on WiserAdvisor’s site in a new tab.
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 Edgemoor Investment Advisors charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Edgemoor Investment Advisors’ own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Edgemoor Investment Advisors, Inc., “Form ADV Part 2A: Investment Adviser Brochure” (March 25, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1026299
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Edgemoor Investment Advisors, Inc. firm summary (CRD 109104): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/109104
- 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 Edgemoor Investment 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.
Before you decide to leave Edgemoor Investment Advisors, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
What does it take to open an account? See Edgemoor Investment Advisors’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.