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. Abacus Wealth Partners, LLC’s Form ADV Part 2A states the advisory agreement “will continue in effect until terminated by either party,” with Abacus’s fees “prorated through the date of termination” and any remaining balance refunded. Abacus names FOUR possible custodians in its brochure, with no single default: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., Betterment, Northern Trust, and Fidelity. If you are custodied at Schwab, budget $50.00 per account. At Betterment, its own help center states a $75.00 flat fee for each outbound account transfer. At Northern Trust, its own published Schedule of Fees lists $75.00 for an Outgoing Account Transfer, with a separate $125 termination fee for retirement accounts. Fidelity’s own official fee schedule lists no equivalent transfer-out line item, an honest gap rather than a confirmed $0.
The published numbers
From Abacus Wealth Partners, LLC’s own Form ADV Part 2A (March 11, 2026), Item 5: “The Agreement between Abacus and the client will continue in effect until terminated by either party pursuant to the terms of the Agreement. Abacus’s fees are prorated through the date of termination and any remaining balance is charged or refunded to the client, as appropriate.” The same brochure names all four custodians it uses (Items 5/12): “Abacus generally recommends that clients utilize the brokerage and clearing services of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”), Betterment, Northern Trust, or Fidelity (collectively “the Custodians”) for investment management accounts.” From the Charles Schwab Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors (July 2026): “Full transfer (out) of assets: $50 per account.” From Betterment’s own help center: “Betterment Securities charges a flat fee of $75 for each investing account transfer to another company (outbound transfer).” From Northern Trust Securities, Inc.’s own Schedule of Fees, Traditional Brokerage Services: “Outgoing Account Transfer $75” (a separate $125 Termination Fee applies specifically to retirement accounts). Fidelity’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 |
|---|---|
| Abacus Wealth Partners’ own exit charge | $0.00 extra: pro-rated refund of any prepaid fee (Form ADV) |
| Full transfer-out at Schwab | $50.00 per account (Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide) |
| Outbound transfer at Betterment | $75.00 flat fee (Betterment’s own help center) |
| Outgoing account transfer at Northern Trust | $75.00 per account, $125.00 for retirement accounts (Northern Trust Securities, Inc.’s own Schedule of Fees) |
| Full transfer-out at Fidelity | Honest gap: no comparable line item found |
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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 Abacus Wealth Partners charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Abacus Wealth Partners’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Abacus Wealth Partners, LLC, “Form ADV Part 2A” (March 11, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1017416
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Abacus Wealth Partners, LLC firm summary (CRD 128590): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/128590
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Abacus Wealth Partners, LLC Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_128590.pdf
- Charles Schwab, “Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors” (July 2026): https://disclosures.schwab.com/SchwabDashboard/61256/REG23060SI.pdf
- Betterment, “Management Fees Following an Outbound ACATS Transfer”: https://www.betterment.com/help/management-fees-following-outbound-acats
- Northern Trust Securities, Inc., “Schedule of Fees, Traditional Brokerage Services”: https://www.northerntrust.com/content/dam/northerntrust/pws/nt/documents/wealth-management/schedule-of-fees-traditional-brokerage-services.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 Abacus Wealth Partners’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 Abacus Wealth Partners review.
What does it take to open an account? See Abacus Wealth Partners’s minimum investment, straight from its own Form ADV Part 2A brochure.
Comparing Abacus Wealth Partners against other options? See Abacus Wealth Partners alternatives, including a lower-fee full-service firm, a flat-fee route and a robo/hybrid.
Before you decide to leave Abacus Wealth Partners, 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.