ACATS

ACATS, the Automated Customer Account Transfer Service, is operated by the National Securities Clearing Corporation (a DTCC subsidiary) and is the standard rails for moving a brokerage account between firms. The receiving firm initiates the transfer, the delivering firm validates it, and eligible assets move on a defined settlement cycle — standardly six business days from initiation.

Most advisor-transition repapering ends in an ACATS transfer: once the new-account paperwork is In Good Order, the account is moved through ACATS to the new custodian. When something on the transfer is wrong, the account goes NIGO and the ACATS clock resets — which is why front-loading clean, validated paperwork matters so much to transition timelines.

Not every position is ACATS-eligible; proprietary funds and certain products may need to be liquidated or transferred separately, which is one of the things a transition workflow has to plan for account by account.