Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 4, 2026. Quick answer: you open the account at the receiving firm and sign the transfer form there; the new firm pulls the account through ACATS. Baird prices an account transfer or closing at $150, matched by a $150 IRA Termination Fee if the account being closed is a retirement account. The annual IRA fee is $60 for the first IRA in a household and $50 for each additional one: but that annual fee, not the $150 exit charge, is the one Baird waives under two published conditions worth checking before you assume you owe it. This page states only what the firm itself publishes.
Leaving other advisory firms: How to Leave Coastal Bridge Advisors and How to Leave Coldstream Wealth Management.
For a closer look at this firm: Baird Alternatives.
The published numbers
Every figure below comes from Baird’s own Schedule of Fees and Service Charges (Updated March 2026), fetched directly from rwbaird.com.
| What it charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Account Transfer/Closing | $150 | Per account, under Security Transfer Costs |
| IRA Termination Fee | $150 | Per account |
| Individual Retirement Account (IRA) annual fee | $60 first / $50 each additional (per household) | Per year |
The annual IRA fee, not the $150 transfer charge, is what Baird will waive. The schedule’s footnote reads: “Annual IRA Fees are waived for 1) any account in the household established as an Advisory or Advisory Choice account provided the minimum account value requirement is met, and 2) all IRAs in statement households (Baird + networked) having less than $100,000 in total assets (increasing to $250k effective September 30, 2026), where the household incurred at least $500 in fees/commissions for the trailing 12-month period ending on October 31.” Neither condition touches the $150 you pay to leave: only the yearly custodial charge you would otherwise keep paying if you stayed.
No separate partial-transfer fee is published; the Security Transfer Costs table lists a single “Account Transfer/Closing $150” line.
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Source: WiserAdvisor’s service descriptionClosing the account vs transferring it: the $150 transfer-out fee
Closing an account and transferring it are different events. A transfer in kind moves your holdings to the new firm as they are. Closing by selling everything and withdrawing the cash is a liquidation. A liquidation is a taxable event; a transfer in kind is not, see IRS Publication 550 and Publication 590-B.
How do I close a Baird account?
To leave without selling, open the account at the receiving firm and start the transfer there. To close by liquidating, sell the holdings and withdraw the cash. The charge for moving the account is covered in the next answer.
What is the Baird transfer out fee?
The Baird Schedule of Fees and Service Charges lists “Account Transfer/Closing” at $150, charged per account, under Security Transfer Costs.
What is the Baird ACAT fee?
ACATS is the system the receiving firm uses to pull an account. The amount published for sending an account out is $150, from the Baird Schedule of Fees and Service Charges.
The 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. Budget $150 for the exit charge and leave the cash to cover it in the account rather than sweeping the balance to zero first. Whether the 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. To put the exit charge next to the fee you would stop paying, the switching advisors cost calculator returns the break-even in months.
Want to know what Baird charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Baird’s own fee disclosure.
Before you decide to leave Baird, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
Comparing an employee-model firm against an independent RIA? See how Mercer Advisors prices an exit: the firm itself charges nothing, but the custodian holding your account does.
Weighing whether to move ahead? Read the full Baird review, including its fiduciary status and what it costs to leave.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.