Guides › Switching Financial Advisors
Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: you open the account at the receiving firm and sign the transfer form there; the new firm pulls the account through ACATS. WellsTrade prices an outgoing account transfer at $49.95 per transfer, and the same page notes it will show on your statement under the word termination. There is no advisory agreement to end, because the client agreement describes a self-directed brokerage account. The clause worth reading before you start runs one way: you must give written notice to close, while Wells Fargo reserves the right to close the account without giving you any. This page states only what Wells Fargo itself publishes.
The published numbers
Every figure below was read off the WellsTrade commissions and fees page on wellsfargoadvisors.com and out of the WellsTrade Client Agreement, form 589852 (Rev 61 – 06/26), both retrieved from wellsfargoadvisors.com on September 3, 2026. The fee page prints no revision number of its own, so we date it by the day it was read rather than claiming an effective date it does not state.
| What WellsTrade charges | Amount | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Outgoing Account Transfer | $49.95 | Per transfer |
| IRA Termination Fee | $49.95 | Per termination |
The transfer fee is the exit fee, and it arrives wearing a different name. The fee page’s own footnote reads: “Outgoing account transfer fees will display as “Termination Fee” on client statement.” That is the same wording the full-service Wells Fargo Advisors schedule uses, and it is the reason a client who transferred an account can see a termination charge and reasonably wonder what they terminated.
The IRA termination row is waived in more cases than most. Its footnote reads: “Termination Fee applies to full distribution of Traditional, Roth, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs; fee is waived for clients over age 70 ½ or accounts terminated due to death or disability.” It then adds a waiver most schedules do not carry: “Full IRA Distributions, when completed using Access Online IRA Distribution function, will have the IRA Termination Fee waived.” That last sentence is a genuine, checkable saving for anyone closing an IRA by taking the whole balance out, though it describes a distribution rather than a transfer, and a distribution has tax consequences a transfer does not. Why that distinction matters.
If the account is an IRA, the fees come out of the account itself. The client agreement is explicit: “In the event that the IRA or ERISA Account is terminated or transferred, a termination and/or transfer fee and any outstanding annual fees (including the current year’s annual fee) shall be due and payable by you on the date of the termination or transfer.” It also reserves the mechanism: “The Custodian may liquidate assets held in the same IRA or ERISA Account to make withdrawals, distributions, transfers or pay fees, expenses, liabilities, charges or taxes assessed against the IRA or ERISA account.” So the practical instruction is to leave enough cash in the account to cover the exit rather than transferring the balance down to nothing, because otherwise the custodian decides which position gets sold to pay the fee.
The closing clause is asymmetric, and it is worth reading before you rely on a phone call. Section 39 of the agreement reads: “You may close your Account at any time by providing written notice to us.” It continues: “This Agreement shall remain in effect with respect to the Account you are closing until we receive and accept your written notice of termination, after which time you will not be bound for additional transactions made for the Account. However, you will remain responsible for all prior transactions and for all transaction costs, including commissions and related costs.” And then, in the same section: “We have the right to close your Account at any time without prior notice to you.” Written notice is what starts your side of it. There is no advisory contract underneath any of this: the agreement opens by stating that it “will control the online self-directed brokerage account you are opening with Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC”, so there is no notice period, no adviser to release and no advisory fee to have refunded. If you work with a Wells Fargo financial advisor rather than trading your own account, the Wells Fargo Advisors page carries the larger numbers that apply to you.
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What may not move as it is
ACATS moves what the receiving firm is willing and able to hold. Everything else has to be sold or delivered out separately, and in a taxable account a forced sale is a realised gain in the year you switch. The question to ask the receiving firm is literal: “Can you hold every position on this statement?” For a self-directed account the usual answers are fractional shares, which most firms cannot transfer and will liquidate, proprietary money market positions, and anything held in certificate form. Ask about each by name before you sign, and check whether an open options position or a margin balance has to be closed first. The categories that commonly do not transfer.
The sequence
1. Pull a current statement for every account, showing the exact registration, the account numbers and the complete holdings list. The receiving firm works from that, not from memory. 2. Ask the receiving firm what it cannot hold. The question is literally “Can you hold every position on this statement?”, and anything they cannot hold has to be sold or delivered out, which in a taxable account 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 the instruction or take exception to it, and three business days after validation to complete the transfer. 4. Send a dated termination letter for the record, and the generator writes it, then 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 WellsTrade 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. Budget $49.95 per transfer, and leave the cash to pay it in the account rather than sweeping the balance out first. Whether the exit charge 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, and what switching costs across firms. To put the exit charge next to the fee you would stop paying, the switching advisors cost calculator returns the break-even in months.