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.
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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A $150 exit fee decides nothing. What you move to decides everything.
Price the destination before you pay to leave. The matching service below introduces you to advisers who pay to meet you.
Before you start, what actually happens. 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.
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What happens when you press the button
It asks about nine questions (age, investable assets, location), then your name, email and phone number, and verifies the phone by text. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
Compare flat-fee and hourly ranges before you call anyone.
Flat-fee and hourly advisers price the work directly instead of as a percentage of your assets. The comparison guide below has current per-year, per-project and per-hour ranges so you can price a quote before you book a call.
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.