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. Wescott Financial Advisory Group, LLC’s Form ADV Part 2A states plainly that any “outgoing account transfer or termination fee… is not charged or retained by Wescott”: it is entirely a custodian charge. Wescott names four preferred custodians: National Financial Services LLC, Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC (together defined as “Fidelity”), Schwab Advisor Services, and National Advisors Trust Company. If you are custodied at Schwab, budget $50.00 per account for a full outgoing transfer, per Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide. Fidelity/NFS and National Advisors Trust are honest gaps: neither publishes a comparable transfer-out figure this session could confirm.
The published numbers
From Wescott Financial Advisory Group, LLC’s own Form ADV Part 2A (March 30, 2026), “Additions, Withdrawals & Terminations”: “If a Client elects to transfer an account to another advisory firm, the custodian may impose an outgoing account transfer or termination fee, which is not charged or retained by Wescott.” The same brochure names its preferred custodians (Item 12): “Wescott recommends that Clients… utilize National Financial Services LLC, Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC (together with all affiliates, “Fidelity”), Schwab Advisor Services, a division of Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. (“Schwab”), or National Advisors Trust Company (“NAT”).” From the Charles Schwab Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors (July 2026): “Full transfer (out) of assets: $50 per account.” Fidelity’s own Brokerage Commission and Fee Schedule contains no comparable line item, and no public NAT fee schedule could be located; both left as honest gaps.
| What | Figure |
|---|---|
| Wescott’s own exit charge | $0.00: Wescott states any transfer/termination fee “is not charged or retained by Wescott” (Form ADV) |
| Full transfer-out at Schwab | $50.00 per account (Schwab’s own July 2026 pricing guide) |
| Fidelity/NFS and National Advisors Trust | Honest gaps: no comparable figure confirmed for either |
| ACATS validation and completion window | 1 day to validate, 3 days to complete under FINRA Rule 11870 (measured in business days) |
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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 Wescott Financial Advisory Group charges before you decide whether to leave? See the dollar breakdown from Wescott Financial Advisory Group’s own fee disclosure.
Sources
- Wescott Financial Advisory Group, LLC, “Form ADV Part 2A” (March 30, 2026): https://files.adviserinfo.sec.gov/IAPD/Content/Common/crd_iapd_Brochure.aspx?BRCHR_VRSN_ID=1032861
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Wescott Financial Advisory Group, LLC firm summary (CRD 105989): https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/105989
- SEC Investment Adviser Public Disclosure, Wescott Financial Advisory Group, LLC Form CRS: https://reports.adviserinfo.sec.gov/crs/crs_105989.pdf
- Charles Schwab, “Pricing Guide for Clients of Independent Investment Advisors” (July 2026): https://disclosures.schwab.com/SchwabDashboard/61256/REG23060SI.pdf
- 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 Wescott Financial Advisory Group’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 Wescott Financial Advisory Group review.
Before you decide to leave Wescott Financial Advisory Group, check whether it owes you a fiduciary duty in the first place.
What does it take to open an account? See Wescott Financial Advisory Group’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.