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. Johnson Investment Counsel, Inc.’s Form ADV Part 2A states you may terminate the portfolio-management agreement “upon written notice,” and you “will incur advisory fees only in proportion to the number of days for which you were a client”: pro-rata billing, no separate exit fee. JIC’s own brochure names its custodian directly: “A majority of our clients use Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.… as the qualified custodian.” Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide lists $50.00 per account for a full outgoing transfer. A smaller number of JIC accounts sit with Johnson Trust Company (a JIC affiliate) alongside US Bank, but no public transfer-out fee schedule for that specific arrangement could be confirmed, an honest gap.
The published numbers
From Johnson Investment Counsel, Inc.’s own Form ADV Part 2A (April 9, 2026), Item 5: “You may terminate the portfolio management agreement upon written notice to our firm. You will incur a charge for services rendered prior to the termination… in proportion to the number of days for which you were a client.” The same brochure names its custodian (Item 12): “A majority of our clients use Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., a FINRA-registered broker-dealer, member SIPC, as the qualified custodian.” From the Charles Schwab Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors (July 2026): “Full transfer (out) of assets: $50 per account.” Item 15 also discloses that some accounts sit with the JIC affiliate Johnson Trust Company alongside US Bank, where “US Bank [collects] a $14 transaction fee” on trades, a per-transaction charge unrelated to account transfer, so no comparable exit figure is confirmed for that smaller arrangement.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Johnson Investment Counsel’s own exit charge | $0.00 extra: pro-rata billing through the termination date (Form ADV); no separate exit fee stated |
| Full transfer-out at Schwab (majority custodian) | $50.00 per account (Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide) |
| Johnson Trust Company / US Bank custody arrangement | Honest gap: no confirmed public transfer-out figure for this smaller, affiliate-linked arrangement |
| ACATS validation and completion window | 1 day to validate, 3 days to complete under FINRA Rule 11870 (measured in business days) |
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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 Johnson Investment Counsel charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Johnson Investment Counsel’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Johnson Investment Counsel, Inc., “Form ADV Part 2A” (April 9, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1040849
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Johnson Investment Counsel, Inc. firm summary (CRD 117054): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/117054
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Johnson Investment Counsel, Inc. Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_117054.pdf
- 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 28, 2026, drawing on Johnson Investment Counsel’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 Johnson Investment Counsel review.
Before you decide to leave Johnson Investment Counsel, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
What does it take to open an account? See Johnson Investment Counsel’s minimum investment, straight from its own Form ADV Part 2A brochure.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.