The Ultimate Advisor Transition Checklist

Everything you settle before anyone signs anything. Get the plan on paper while the move is still confidential.

• Confirm your target launch date and work backward into a week-by-week timeline.
• Inventory the book you intend to move: households, accounts, account types, and approximate AUM.
• Decide your destination model — RIA, hybrid, or a new broker-dealer — and confirm the custodian(s).
• Line up legal counsel experienced in advisor transitions to review your current agreements.
• Review your existing employment, non-solicit, and non-compete obligations with that counsel.
• Choose the tech stack: CRM, portfolio accounting, e-signature, and document handling.
• Assign an internal owner for each workstream (ops, compliance, client comms, technology).
• Budget for the transition: setup costs, dual-running costs, and lost-productivity time.

The mechanics of leaving cleanly. Sequence resignation, protocol steps, and the client-data list with counsel.

• With counsel, determine whether both your current and future firms are Broker Protocol members.
• Prepare the client information you are permitted to take, in the form your counsel approves.
• Draft your resignation letter and confirm the exact timing with counsel.
• Plan resignation for a time that gives you a clean, well-documented departure.
• Keep only the permitted contact fields; do not remove account numbers or firm records.
• Document every step you take, with timestamps, in case questions arise later.
• Prepare for a same-day cutoff of firm systems, email, and building access.

What clients hear, when, and from whom. The first 48 hours of outreach decide how much of the book follows you.

• Draft an announcement that explains the move simply and reassures clients their assets are safe.
• Segment clients by AUM, complexity, and relationship depth to prioritize outreach order.
• Prepare call scripts and email templates for each segment.
• Schedule personal calls to your top households on day one.
• Have the transfer paperwork ready to send the moment a client says yes.
• Prepare answers to the predictable questions: fees, custodian, statements, and login changes.
• Set up a simple way to track who has been contacted and who has signed.
• Plan a follow-up cadence for clients who do not respond to the first outreach.

Turning "yes" into transferred assets. This is where NIGO rework quietly eats the timeline if the paperwork is not clean.

• Map every source account to its destination account type before you generate paperwork.
• Pre-fill new-account and transfer forms from your client data to reduce manual entry errors.
• Use e-signature so clients can complete paperwork without printing or scanning.
• Batch signatures by household so a client signs everything in one sitting.
• Double-check registrations, beneficiaries, and titling against the source account exactly.
• Submit ACATS transfers and track each one through to settlement.
• Build a NIGO (not-in-good-order) triage process so rejected transfers are fixed fast.
• Watch for non-transferable or proprietary positions that need a plan of their own.

Each custodian has its own forms, queues, and quirks. Confirm the specifics early so nothing stalls in processing.

• Confirm each custodian's account-opening requirements and supported account types.
• Get the current form versions directly from the custodian — old forms cause rejections.
• Understand each custodian's processing timeline and queue behavior during busy periods.
• Set up advisor access, portals, and any required data feeds before go-live.
• Confirm how in-kind versus liquidated transfers are handled for each position type.
• Establish a named contact at each custodian for escalating stuck transfers.
• Verify fee schedules, account minimums, and any transfer-fee reimbursements.

Getting clean client and account data into your new systems, once, correctly — so the CRM is trustworthy from day one.

• Export or reconstruct client contact data into a single, structured source.
• Standardize the data: consistent names, households, phone formats, and email fields.
• Import contacts and households into the new CRM and spot-check a sample.
• Load account data into portfolio accounting and reconcile balances after transfers settle.
• Recreate meeting notes, tasks, and workflows that clients and staff rely on.
• De-duplicate records so one client is not split across multiple entries.
• Set retention and backup policies for the migrated data.

The launch window. Move fast, stay reachable, and log everything — momentum here compounds across the whole book.

• Send your client announcement on the agreed schedule.
• Start top-household calls immediately and send paperwork within the same conversation.
• Staff a rapid-response channel for client questions during the first three days.
• Track signed paperwork, submitted transfers, and open items on a single dashboard.
• Escalate any NIGO rejections the same day they appear.
• Keep a running log of issues and how each was resolved.
• Check in daily with each workstream owner to clear blockers.

Closing out the move and turning it into a repeatable playbook for the next transition or acquisition.

• Confirm every intended account has transferred and settled.
• Follow up with clients who have not yet signed or responded.
• Reconcile final balances and resolve any positions that did not transfer in kind.
• Send a "welcome / thank you" touch to clients who moved with you.
• Debrief the team on what worked and what slowed things down.
• Document the process into a repeatable playbook for the next transition.
• Archive transition records per your compliance and retention policy.