We are considering an "IRA Transfer" fee for customers who close out their IRA and transfer it to another Custodian/Trustee. My question is, can we charge this fee to existing IRA customers and if so, is notification required? Or can we only begin charging the fee on newly opened IRAs after the fee is implemented?

Does your IRA agreement contain language that allows you to charge new fees after giving the customer notice? If so, then you have a good argument for charging all IRA customers. Definitely give them notice, though.

We've always charged an IRA transfer fee but it's always been disclosed on our fee schedule and the TIS disclosure. I think you could institute such a fee but I would give them ample notice. One word of warning, we recently raised our fees and we had one customer complian because he was in his term and complianed he didn't have a chance to move it at the old transfer fee so we waived it for him but other than that we had no issues.

We are talking about starting charging a fee also. How much is everyone charging?

We charge $50.00.

We charge $50.00 for direct transfer, nothing for withdrawal if the customer is "doing the legwork".