My friends who gave me this information showed me their complete runs
for 2006.  We have been friends for many years and they have no
reason to mislead me.  I was suprised that they were doing as well
as they were.

Whomit:

The ACAT fee out of Smith Barney is now $90 bucks per account?  Damn.

Aren't most firms $50?

Question for all?  When going indy, did you pay for your top client ACAT fees?  Or was it even an issue?

TIA

I paid, and will pay all of the transfer fees for 1 year.  I use this obviously for my old clients, but also for my new ones.  I’m guessing I’ve paid out 10-15k in acat fees since Feb.

I paid to transfer clients…at least those I wanted…

Submit the number of accounts you want to transfer and use that in negotiating your transition package. Most b/ds will pay for it.

I paid ACAT fees when I opened up & for 3 months for my old clients.  Since then (7 years) I don’t pay ACAT fees.  I just tell them we can move their account(s) without charge, but that their existing firm may have a charge (if I know what it is, I always tell them) to close their account.  Why create overhead expense when you don’t need to?

I use it to squelch any resistance to the move. You won’t believe how many people I’ve met with who would not move from a bad situation because of a 50-100$ fee. Because I’ve moved to Indy, I felt the need to cover the costs of their move.  I left, they really didn’t have to…and I didn’t want them to incur a fee because of it. I may be wrong…but I believe its the cost of doing business and I should make the fee up in the long term.