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. Pure Financial Advisors, LLC’s Form ADV Part 2A states either party “can terminate the client agreement at any time… upon receipt of written notice,” with “any prepaid, unearned fees… promptly refunded.” PURE names FIVE possible custodians in its brochure, with no single default: Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., National Financial Services LLC (“Fidelity”), Axos Clearing, LLC, TradePMR, Inc., and TIAA Advisors. If you are custodied at Schwab, budget $50.00 per account. At TradePMR, its own published fee schedule lists a $95.00 Full ACAT Transfer Out fee. At Axos Clearing, its own Standard Fee Schedule lists $150.00 for a Full Termination/Transfer Out. Fidelity/NFS and TIAA Advisors are honest gaps: neither publishes a comparable figure this session could confirm.
The published numbers
From Pure Financial Advisors, LLC’s own Form ADV Part 2A (February 12, 2026), General Information section: “Either party can terminate the client agreement at any time, for any reason, upon receipt of written notice… any prepaid, unearned fees will be promptly refunded.” The same brochure names all five custodians it uses (Item 12): “PURE participates in the institutional advisor program of qualified custodians; Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.… National Financial Services LLC (“Fidelity”), Axos Clearing, LLC, TradePMR, Inc. and TIAA Advisors.” From the Charles Schwab Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors (July 2026): “Full transfer (out) of assets: $50 per account.” From TradePMR’s own Maximum Commission and Fee Schedule and Pricing Guide (rates effective July 1, 2026): “Processing Full ACAT Transfer Out $95.00.” From Axos Advisor Services’ own Standard Fee Schedule for Clients of Registered Investment Advisors (August 2025): “Full Termination/Transfer Out Fee $150 assessed per account closure.” Fidelity’s own Brokerage Commission and Fee Schedule contains no comparable line item, and no public TIAA Advisors fee schedule could be retrieved this session; both left as honest gaps.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Pure Financial Advisors’ own exit charge | $0.00 extra: pro-rated refund of any prepaid fee (Form ADV) |
| Full transfer-out at Schwab | $50.00 per account (Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide) |
| Full ACAT transfer-out at TradePMR | $95.00 per account (TradePMR’s own fee schedule) |
| Full termination/transfer-out at Axos Clearing | $150.00 per account closure (Axos Advisor Services’ own fee schedule) |
| Fidelity/NFS and TIAA Advisors | Honest gaps: no comparable figure confirmed for either |
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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 Pure Financial Advisors charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Pure Financial Advisors’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Pure Financial Advisors, LLC, “Form ADV Part 2A” (February 12, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1008644
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Pure Financial Advisors, LLC firm summary (CRD 144316): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/144316
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Pure Financial Advisors, LLC Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_144316.pdf
- Charles Schwab, “Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors” (July 2026): https://disclosures.schwab.com/SchwabDashboard/61256/REG23060SI.pdf
- TradePMR, Inc., “Maximum Commission and Fee Schedule and Pricing Guide”: https://www.tradepmr.com/hubfs/TPMR_Maximum_Commission_and_Fee_Schedule_Pricing_Guide_(FINAL%208.24.22)-1.pdf
- Axos Advisor Services, “Standard Fee Schedule for Clients of Registered Investment Advisors”: https://www.axos.com/documents/standard-fee-schedule
- Fidelity, “Brokerage Commission and Fee Schedule”: https://www.fidelity.com/bin-public/060_www_fidelity_com/documents/Brokerage_Commissions_Fee_Schedule.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 28, 2026, drawing on Pure Financial Advisors’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 Pure Financial Advisors review.
Before you decide to leave Pure Financial Advisors, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
What does it take to open an account? See Pure Financial Advisors’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.