Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 18, 2026. Quick answer: you open an account at the receiving firm and sign the transfer form there; the new firm pulls the accounts through ACATS and you never have to call Mariner. Mariner, LLC d/b/a Mariner Wealth Advisors itself charges nothing extra to end the relationship: its own Form ADV requires only a written termination notice, with any prepaid fee prorated through the termination date and the remaining balance charged or refunded. The real transfer cost comes from MSEC, LLC, Mariner’s own wholly-owned FINRA broker-dealer affiliate: its published fee schedule lists an Outgoing Account Transfer (ACAT) fee of $50.00 per event, and a separate $125.00 Retirement Account Termination Fee for closing an IRA.
The published numbers
From Mariner, LLC’s Form ADV Part 2A (March 30, 2023): “The Agreement between us and a client will continue in effect until terminated by either party pursuant to the terms of the Agreement. Our annual fee(s) shall be prorated through the date of termination and any remaining balance shall be charged or refunded to the client, as appropriate, in a timely manner.” That covers the advisory fee itself: nothing extra to end the relationship. The actual transfer cost is published separately, by MSEC, LLC, the FINRA-registered broker-dealer Mariner uses to clear and hold client brokerage assets (confirmed via a live SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure search this session: MSEC, LLC’s own listed “other names” include “MARINER,” “MARINER WEALTH ADVISORS” and “MARINER WEALTH,” and its registered office is the same Overland Park, Kansas address as Mariner’s own headquarters). MSEC’s Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees schedule states: “Outgoing Account Transfer (ACAT) $50 Per Event”, and separately “Retirement Account Termination Fee $125 Per account”, and “Legal Transfer $150 Per Event” (for a manual, non-ACATS security re-registration rather than a standard account transfer).
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Mariner’s own advisory-agreement termination charge | $0.00 extra: fees prorated through the termination date and refunded (Form ADV) |
| Outgoing Account Transfer (ACAT) | $50.00 per event (MSEC, LLC, Mariner’s own wholly-owned broker-dealer, fee schedule) |
| Retirement Account Termination Fee (IRA) | $125.00 per account (same MSEC schedule) |
| Legal Transfer (manual, non-ACATS re-registration) | $150.00 per event (same MSEC schedule) |
| ACATS validation + completion window | 1 business day to validate, 3 business days to complete (FINRA Rule 11870) |
Compare your next step
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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 Mariner Wealth Advisors charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Mariner Wealth Advisors’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Mariner, LLC, “Form ADV Part 2A” (March 30, 2023): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/140195
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Mariner, LLC firm summary (CRD 140195): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/140195
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, MSEC, LLC firm search result (CRD/BD 154327): https://api.adviserinfo.sec.gov/search/firm?query=MSEC
- MSEC, LLC, “Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees”: https://www.marinerwealthadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/MSEC-Fee-Disclosure.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 18, 2026, drawing on Mariner Wealth Advisors’s own Form ADV/fee schedule plus any named affiliate’s own published fee schedule, with sources linked inline; any figure we could not independently confirm this session on a firm-owned or affiliate-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.
What does leaving cost elsewhere? Compare the published exit fee at 115 advisory firms and brokerages, each taken from that firm’s own schedule or its custodian’s.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.