Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 25, 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. Cetera Investment Advisers LLC itself charges nothing extra to end the relationship: prepaid advisory fees are refunded on a prorated basis. Cetera does not name one single custodian; its own Form ADV points clients to “the affiliated Firm’s schedules,” and its own affiliated clearing broker-dealer, Cetera Investment Services LLC, publishes an outgoing-transfer fee of $135.00. Pershing, another named custodian, separately publishes an Account Termination fee of $150.00 per account. Other named custodians (National Financial Services, Charles Schwab) publish no comparable figure this session located, an honest gap rather than assumed to be $0.
Leaving other advisory firms: How to Leave Ally Invest Robo Portfolios.
More on this firm: Cetera Minimum Investment and Cetera Alternatives.
The published numbers
From Cetera Investment Advisers LLC’s own Form ADV Part 2A Brochure (August 12, 2026), Item 5: “If You terminate Your account prior to the end of a quarter, We will refund any advisory fees owed to You on a prorated basis.” Item 12 directs clients elsewhere: “the affiliated Firm’s schedules… is also available from Your Advisor,” and names Cetera Investment Services (CIS), Pershing, and National Financial Services (NFS) as custodians, plus Schwab for two specific programs. Cetera Investment Services LLC’s own Fee Schedule states: “Process of Outgoing Transfers… $135” and “IRA Termination Fee… $135.” Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC’s own Schedule of Maximum Charges separately states: “Account Termination… $150.00 per account.” This applies instead of the CIS figure when the account is custodied at Pershing rather than CIS. NFS and Schwab’s own current fee schedules were not located this session, so their figures are left as an honest gap. A separate, narrower $200 fee applies only to closing a Preferred, Prime, or Premier wrap-program account within its first year, a program-specific charge, not a general transfer-out cost.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Cetera’s own exit charge | $0.00 extra: advisory fees refunded on a prorated basis (Form ADV) |
| Outgoing transfer at Cetera Investment Services (CIS) | $135.00 per account (CIS’s own Fee Schedule) |
| Full transfer-out at Pershing | $150.00 per account, Pershing’s own published MAXIMUM (Schedule of Maximum Charges) |
| National Financial Services (NFS) / Charles Schwab | NFS’s and Schwab’s own published fee schedules carry no comparable, clearly attributable outgoing-transfer line item for accounts custodied there; left as an honest gap rather than assumed to be $0. |
| ACATS validation + completion window | 1 business day to validate, 3 business days to complete (FINRA Rule 11870) |
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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 Cetera charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Cetera’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Cetera Investment Advisers LLC, Form ADV Part 2A Brochure (August 12, 2026): https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/reports/ADV/105644/PDF/105644.pdf
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Cetera Investment Advisers LLC firm summary (CRD 105644): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/105644
- Cetera Investment Services LLC, Fee Schedule: https://pages.cetera.com/rs/211-FLX-077/images/CI%20Fees%202023%20-%20V6.pdf
- Pershing Advisor Solutions LLC, Schedule of Maximum Charges: https://www.pershing.com/_global-assets/pdf/disclosures/pas-schedule-of-maximum-charges.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 25, 2026, drawing on Cetera’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.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.