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. MML Investors Services, LLC (“MMLIS”), the broker-dealer/RIA that operates MassMutual’s advisory programs, states the transfer figure directly in its own Form ADV rather than pointing to a separate custodian: $50.00 for a brokerage account “transferred to a different firm,” or $125.00 for a retirement account. Ending the advisory program itself costs nothing extra beyond that: any prepaid fee is refunded pro rata for the days remaining after termination.
More on this firm: MassMutual Review, Is MassMutual a Fiduciary? What Its Own Form CRS Says and MassMutual Minimum Investment.
The published numbers
From MML Investors Services, LLC’s own Form ADV Part 2A (PortfolioSolutions Wrap Fee Program brochure and the AdvisorSelect brochure, both stating this identically): “If an Account is terminated, MMLIS will refund to clients a pro rata portion of any pre-paid, but unearned Client Fee for the current month. The amount refunded to clients will be based on the number of days remaining in the month after the date of termination.” The same brochures list the actual transfer charge, named directly rather than deferred to a custodian: “Client Accounts are subject to the following brokerage account termination fees (the ‘Termination Fees’): Retirement Accounts, $125; All Other Accounts (if transferred to a different firm), $50.”
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| MMLIS’s own advisory-program termination charge | $0.00 extra: unearned Client Fee refunded pro rata for days remaining (Form ADV) |
| Brokerage account transferred to a different firm | $50.00 per account (MMLIS’s own named Termination Fee, stated directly in Form ADV) |
| Retirement account (IRA) termination | $125.00 per account (same schedule) |
| ACATS validation + completion window | 1 business day to validate, 3 business days to complete (FINRA Rule 11870) |
Compare your next step
Just comparing fees? Keep reading the fee guide.Optional next step
Explore an adviser match
Compare the services and the full fee before deciding whether to hire anyone.
- No fee to request a match
- No obligation to hire
Expect questions about your situation, your name, email and phone, and phone verification by text. A match is not guaranteed.
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.
Opens here. Nothing loads and nothing reaches Kapitalwise until you press the button.
How our partner relationships workCompare an adviser match before you decide
Ask about the full fee, what it covers and how the adviser is paid. A match is an introduction, not a recommendation from Clear Money Guide.
- Free matching service
- No obligation to hire
The matching service is run by WiserAdvisor, an independent advisor-matching company. It opens on their site, asks for your ZIP code and a few questions, and matches you with 2 to 3 vetted advisors. It is free to you. WiserAdvisor states the service is built for portfolios of $250,000 and above. By submitting, you consent to emails, phone calls and text messages from WiserAdvisor and up to three advisors, so expect to be contacted. Advisers pay for the introduction. Clear Money Guide is paid when you complete the form, whether or not you ever hire anyone. There is no obligation to hire anyone.
Continue to WiserAdvisorOpens on WiserAdvisor’s site in a new tab.
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 MassMutual charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from MassMutual’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- MML Investors Services, LLC, “PortfolioSolutions Wrap Fee Program” (Form ADV Part 2A, Appendix 1): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1051357
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, MML Investors Services, LLC firm summary (CRD 10409): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/10409
Methodology. This page was built September 18, 2026, drawing on MassMutual’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.
Seven more exits, from independent RIAs to bank- and insurance-affiliated wealth arms: Univest Wealth Management (Girard), United Wealth Management, Old Second Wealth Management, Amerant Investments, GuideStone Advisors, Horace Mann Investors, and W&S Brokerage Services.
Leaving a different firm? See the exit guides for all 189 firms, with the four steps every exit shares.