Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 23, 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. Citizens Private Wealth, LLC (formerly known as Clarfeld Financial Advisors) itself charges nothing extra to end the relationship: any prepaid, unearned fee is generally refunded on a pro-rata basis. Citizens Private Wealth’s own Wrap Fee Program brochure names “Transfer of Assets (TOA) fees” as a cost not included in the wrap fee, but never states a dollar amount. The firm offers the program through two custodians, Charles Schwab and Fidelity Institutional Wealth Solutions, with no single default. If you are custodied at Schwab, budget $50.00 per account for a full outgoing transfer, per Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide. Fidelity IWS publishes no comparable figure, an honest gap rather than assumed to be $0.
The published numbers
From Citizens Private Wealth, LLC’s Form ADV Part 2A Appendix 1 (Wrap Fee Program Brochure, July 6, 2026): “If either we or a Client terminates the advisory agreement before the end of a billing period, the prepaid portion of the advisory or Wrap Fees attributable to the period after termination is generally refunded to the Client on a pro rata basis.” Under “Fees and Costs Not Included in the Wrap Fee”: “…Transfer of Assets (TOA) fees and wire fees.” No dollar amount is ever attached anywhere in the document. The same brochure names the custodians: “We offer the Wrap Fee Program through two custodians, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Solutions (‘Fidelity IWS’) and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (‘Schwab’).” From the Charles Schwab Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors (July 2026), Account Activity Fees: “Full transfer (out) of assets: $50 per account.” No dollar figure for Fidelity IWS appears anywhere in the Citizens Private Wealth brochure.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Citizens Private Wealth’s own exit charge | $0.00 extra: prepaid fees generally refunded pro rata (Form ADV) |
| Full transfer-out at Schwab | $50.00 per account (Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide for independent-advisor clients) |
| Fidelity IWS | Fidelity’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 Citizens Private Wealth charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Citizens Private Wealth’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Citizens Private Wealth, LLC, Form ADV Part 2A Appendix 1 (Wrap Fee Program Brochure, July 6, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1055390
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Citizens Private Wealth, LLC firm summary (CRD 106743): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/106743
- Charles Schwab, “Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors” (July 2026): https://disclosures.schwab.com/SchwabDashboard/61256/REG23060SI.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 23, 2026, drawing on Citizens Private Wealth’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 Citizens Private Wealth 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.