My advisor just left the firm. What now?

The letter is two paragraphs. Your advisor is no longer with the firm, your accounts have been assigned to someone whose name you do not recognize, and there is nothing you need to do. Or it was a voicemail from that person, friendly and a little rehearsed, asking for a time to introduce themselves. Either way, a relationship you may have had for a decade was ended by someone else, and the first instinct is to feel that a decision is being demanded of you. It is not, yet. This page explains what happened, what your three real choices are, and how to use the next thirty days so that whichever one you make is yours.

Graphic to come The letter, and the three doors it does not mention An editorial illustration: a single folded letter on a desk, seen from above, its text abstracted to grey lines with one line in sage where a name has been changed. Beside it, three faint doorways drawn in outline. Ink and sage on paper, no logos and no legible firm name.

What actually happened

At a large firm the accounts belong to the firm. The advisor was an employee, and the households they served are, in the firm’s view and typically in the advisor’s own agreement, the firm’s book. When the advisor leaves, a branch manager redistributes that book, often by household size and by who has capacity, sometimes within a day. The letter is what that process produces. Nothing about your accounts changed when it was sent: same custodian, same positions, same fee schedule unless you are told otherwise.

Whether your old advisor can contact you depends on paper you have not seen. Employment agreements at large firms often carry non-solicitation clauses, and while some firms belong to an industry agreement that lets an advisor moving between member firms take a basic list of client names and contact details, others have left it and enforce their restrictions, occasionally in court. So silence from an advisor you liked is frequently a legal constraint rather than a judgment about you, and an advisor who cannot call you is often permitted to answer if you reach out first.

Where they went matters too. The usual destinations are three: another large firm, often with a recruiting package that is typically tied to the assets that come along; an independent firm, joined or founded; or out of the industry altogether. An advisor who chose the second path was often solving the same problem you are now facing: they wanted to own the relationship, to be the person who answers, and to work somewhere a book cannot be reassigned. That is a reason to listen to them. It is not, by itself, a reason to sign.

Graphic to come Who owns the relationship, at each kind of firm A diagram in two panels. Left, a large building drawn in ink holds a ledger labelled ‘the book’; an advisor figure walks out the door with nothing in hand, and a dotted line runs from the ledger to a second advisor figure still inside. Right, a small house with the adviser drawn into the roofline, the ledger in the client figure’s own hands, and a separate custodian building joined to the client by a thin line. Ink and sage on paper, no logos.

What the letter says, and what it leaves out

It says that your advisor has left, that your accounts have been assigned to a named person, that there is nothing you need to do, and that you should call with questions. It typically does not say why the advisor left, where they went, whether they are permitted to contact you, how the reassigned advisor was chosen, how many other households landed on that person’s desk the same week, or whether your fee schedule or service tier changes. It also does not set a deadline, and that absence is the most useful line in it. Your accounts are not frozen, nothing has to be signed, and the letter does not claim otherwise.

Stay, follow, or choose fresh?

There are three real options, and each is the right answer for someone.

Stay with the firm and the reassigned advisor. This is the right call when the firm’s structure was working for you, the reasons you were there still hold (banking under one roof, a lending line, a brand you find reassuring), and the new advisor answers the questions below well. It costs nothing in paperwork. The one risk is accepting an assignment instead of making a choice, which asking the questions fixes.

Follow the advisor to wherever they went. This is the right call when the person was the reason you stayed, their new firm has a structure you would have chosen on its own merits, and the move is clean. Following is a full account transfer, so the switching guide applies in every detail, and the checks below come first.

Choose fresh. No relationship is holding you anywhere at this moment, so you can interview the reassigned advisor, the departed advisor and anyone else against the same eight questions and the same public documents. Plenty of people who do this end up staying or following anyway. The difference is that they chose it.

The path below shows which of the three you are leaning toward, and what would have to be true for it to hold.

How to evaluate the reassigned advisor

The introductory call is the moment to ask the same eight questions the comparison page puts to any firm, in the version that fits this situation. A good advisor is glad to be asked. One addition: a reassigned household is sometimes moved to a different service tier, and a new advisor may propose moving you onto their own models. A proposal to redo the portfolio in the first meeting deserves a why before it gets a yes.

What to check before following

Loyalty to a person is a fine reason to consider a move and a poor reason to sign one. Before you follow, five things are worth an hour, and your advisor should be glad to walk through all of them.

• Where they went, exactly. The legal name of the new firm and whether it is a broker-dealer, an investment adviser, or both, which decides the standard of conduct on each account.
• Fee-only or fee-based. A fee-only firm’s only revenue is what its clients pay it. A fee-based firm charges fees and may also earn commissions or product revenue. The answer is written in the next item.
• The new firm’s relationship summary. Every broker-dealer and SEC-registered adviser must give you a Form CRS; advisers also file a Form ADV Part 2 brochure. Read the conflicts section next to the one from the firm you are leaving.
• What would move in kind and what would not. Proprietary funds usually cannot be held elsewhere and would be sold; an annuity stays with the insurer. Ask for the sorted list, position by position, before anything is signed.
• Any securities-based line. A lending line is a loan pledged against the account, which cannot leave with a balance outstanding. It is repaid or refinanced first, and that needs a plan of its own.

One more question is fair to ask out loud: whether the advisor is receiving a transition payment tied to the assets that follow them. At another large firm the answer is often yes. It does not disqualify the advisor. It is context for the enthusiasm.

The timing pressure that is not real, and the one that is

The pressure most people feel in the first month is manufactured. Your accounts are still managed: the firm remains responsible for them, the reassigned advisor is licensed to act on them, dividends and interest keep paying, and the statements keep arriving. Nobody at the firm can require you to sign a new agreement because your advisor left, and your old advisor’s new firm cannot start a transfer without your signature. A voicemail suggesting you get this done before quarter end is a sales cadence, not a rule.

The first is a securities-based lending line: it has a collateral test and a servicing contact, and a collateral call lands on someone’s desk whether or not anyone has been introduced to you. The second is an open Rule 10b5-1 plan. It trades on its own schedule regardless, but if your departed advisor’s team was administering it, confirm who monitors the executions and who you would call about a modification, since changes are subject to the cooling-off periods in place since the 2022 amendments, ninety days for directors and officers. The third is anything pending: a limit order, a scheduled distribution, a tax-loss sale planned for December. Each needs a named person in the first week. None needs you to decide where your accounts live.

The first thirty days

The month, in the order it usually unfolds. The rail fills as you read.

1. Day 0

   The letter arrives

   Read it for what it says and note the reassigned advisor’s name and the date. Log in and confirm your positions are where they were. Write down the three items that need an owner, if you have any of them.

2. Days 1 to 5

   The reassigned advisor calls

   Take the call; it is an introduction, not a negotiation. Ask who now owns the lending line, the plan and anything pending. Ask for the relationship summary if you do not have a current one. Decline, politely, to review a new portfolio proposal on this call.

3. Days 3 to 14

   The departed advisor may call, or may not

   If they do, ask where they went, what kind of firm it is, and whether they are permitted to discuss it. If they do not and you want to know, a message to a personal address is usually something they are allowed to answer. Silence is information about their agreement, not about you.

4. Week 2

   Decide who you are interviewing

   Usually two or three: the reassigned advisor, the departed advisor at their new firm, and, if you want the comparison, an independent firm you found yourself. Send each the same eight questions ahead of the meeting.

5. Week 3

   Read the relationship summaries side by side

   They are written in a fixed format for exactly this purpose. Conflicts first, then fees, then standard of conduct. Anyone asking you to move should also have handed you the sorted list of what transfers and what sells.

6. Around day 30

   Decide, or decide that you have not yet

   If you stay, tell the new advisor what you expect and when you expect to hear from them. If you follow or choose fresh, the transfer itself takes about two weeks. If you are not ready, say so; the accounts keep working while you think.

The principle to carry

A reassignment is a decision someone else made about your accounts. The next one is yours, and there is no clock on it beyond the few items that need an owner. Hold the reassigned advisor, the departed advisor and anyone new to the same eight questions and the same relationship summary. When the answers are good, staying put is as sound an outcome as any of the others; the point is that it was chosen.

Aspirean is an independent, fee-only, fiduciary wealth management firm with offices in Marin County, St. Joseph and Chesterton. If a letter like this one has arrived, we would rather read it with you than have you decide from it alone.

This piece is general education, not individual advice.