Guides › Financial Advisor Fees
Updated September 28, 2026. Quick answer: Ballentine Partners is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser (CRD #152802, confirmed ACTIVE this session via SEC IAPD). Per its own current fee brochure, a $500,000 account would run $40,000 a year under its published fee schedule. Already a client and thinking about leaving? Budget $50 at Schwab, or $150 at Pershing, depending on your custodian. This review covers what its fee brochure and current SEC registration confirm today; this firm also has a fiduciary-status page and minimum-investment page on this site.
For a closer look at this firm: Ballentine Partners Alternatives.
Ballentine Partners at a glance
| Fact | What Ballentine Partners’ own pages say |
|---|---|
| Legal entity | Ballentine Partners, LLC |
| Registration | Ballentine Partners, LLC is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser (CRD #152802, confirmed ACTIVE this session via SEC IAPD). |
| Fee on a $500,000 account | $40,000 a year, per its own current brochure |
| Minimum to open an account | See the minimum-investment page for Ballentine Partners |
| Cost to leave (exit fee) | $50 at Schwab, or $150 at Pershing, depending on your custodian |
What Ballentine Partners’ own fee schedule charges
CRD 152802 is ACTIVE and SEC registered per a live IAPD lookup performed this session (isSECRegistered: Y, iaScope: ACTIVE). Ballentine’s own Part 1A filing, independently fetched and confirmed this session, states total regulatory assets under management of $15,316,738,538 across 7,401 accounts; a separate table in the Part 2A brochure gives a broader $34,188,583,457 figure for total client assets under advice, which includes assets the firm advises on but does not manage. The High Net Worth fee schedule discloses a minimum annual fee of $40,000 but no minimum account size; because average client relationships run into the tens of millions of dollars, the $40,000 minimum fee floors every balance priced here.
“Our standard tiered fee schedule based on assets under management for services provided to High Net Worth clients ranges from 0.95% to 0.25% of the value of your portfolio, per annum, with a minimum annual fee of $40,000.”
Ballentine’s brochure describes its High Net Worth fee schedule only as a declining range, from 0.95% at the smaller end of a portfolio down to 0.25% at the larger end, without publishing the underlying dollar breakpoints; the top of that range, 0.95%, is used here as the priced ceiling. At every balance shown, the disclosed $40,000 minimum annual fee exceeds the computed percentage amount, so the minimum is the figure actually charged in each case.
| Account balance | Annual fee |
|---|---|
| $250,000 | $40,000 |
| $500,000 | $40,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $40,000 |
| $2,000,000 | $40,000 |
See the full breakdown, including how the figure is calculated, on Ballentine Partners’ own fee page.
Registration
Ballentine Partners, LLC is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser (CRD #152802, confirmed ACTIVE this session via SEC IAPD).
This is a registration confirmation only, not a fiduciary-standard verdict (a registered investment adviser can still be a dual registrant with a broker-dealer, which changes which standard applies in each capacity). For the fiduciary-standard question itself, see the fiduciary-status page for Ballentine Partners.
What it costs to leave
Ballentine Partners, LLC’s Form ADV Part 2A states “If you terminate your Client Agreement part-way through the quarter, we will promptly refund the unearned portion of the quarterly fee.” Ballentine Partners, LLC names three possible custodians in its brochure, with no single default. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.’s own published fee schedule states “Full transfer (out) of assets: $50 per account.” Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC’s own published fee schedule states “Account Termination $150.00 per account.” Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC / National Financial Services LLC discloses no comparable line item (an honest gap).
The full walkthrough for Ballentine Partners is on our how to leave Ballentine Partners page; the general mechanics of switching financial advisors and a dated termination letter apply regardless of firm.
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- Form ADV Part 2A (March 17, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1024479
- SEC IAPD firm summary (CRD #152802, checked September 28, 2026): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/152802
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, drawing directly on Ballentine Partners’ own current fee brochure, linked above, and a fresh SEC IAPD registration check run the same day. As of September 28, 2026, this site publishes a fiduciary-status page and a minimum-investment page for Ballentine Partners; where the exit-fee page already exists it is linked above and drawn from that already-sourced page. Any fact we could not independently confirm is named as an honest gap rather than presented as verified. Nothing here is personalized financial, tax, legal, or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for reading Ballentine Partners’ own Form ADV Part 2A and Form CRS. We have not used Ballentine Partners as a client. Ballentine Partners did not pay for, review, or influence this content. See our Editorial Policy, Corrections, Affiliate Disclosure, and Disclaimer.
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