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. Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. (“VFA”) lets you terminate the advisory agreement without penalty within five business days of signing, and after that any prepaid, unearned fee is promptly refunded, pro rated for the days remaining in the billing period. VFA’s own Schedule of Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees (effective October 1, 2025) states the transfer cost directly, not through a separate custodian document: $110.00 per “Outgoing transfer,” and a separate $95.00 IRA termination fee.
The published numbers
From Voya Financial Advisors, Inc.’s Investor Center Unified Managed Account (IC UMA) Program brochure (Form ADV Part 2A, Appendix 1): “Client may terminate without penalty within five business days of entering into an investment advisory agreement … Upon termination of any account, any prepaid, unearned fees will be promptly refunded. In calculating a client’s reimbursement of fees, VFA will pro rate the reimbursement according to the number of days remaining in the billing period.” VFA’s own Schedule of Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees (Effective October 1, 2025) states: “Outgoing transfer* : $110.00, per outgoing transfer”, and separately “IRA termination fee : $95.00, per Account.” The schedule notes some fees are “a combination of a fee charged by VFA’s clearing firm and your account custodian, Pershing, LLC… and an associated fee by VFA,” but the schedule itself, and the $110/$95 figures, are published directly by Voya Financial Advisors, Inc., the same entity named in the ADV.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| VFA’s own advisory-agreement termination charge | $0.00 extra: prepaid unearned fees refunded pro rata for days remaining (Form ADV) |
| Outgoing transfer | $110.00 per outgoing transfer (VFA’s own Schedule of Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees) |
| IRA termination fee | $95.00 per account (same schedule) |
| 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 Voya Financial Advisors charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Voya Financial Advisors’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Voya Financial Advisors, Inc., “Investor Center Wrap Fee Program Brochure” (Form ADV Part 2A, Appendix 1): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1058134
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Voya Financial Advisors, Inc. firm summary (CRD 2882): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/2882
- Voya Financial Advisors, Inc., “Schedule of Miscellaneous Account and Service Fees” (effective October 1, 2025): https://professionals.voya.com/stellent/public/1021451.pdf
Methodology. This page was built September 18, 2026, drawing on Voya Financial 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.
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