To cancel a Fidelity Go account, bring the balance to zero by liquidating your holdings and transferring the cash out, then request closure through Fidelity’s Virtual Assistant on Fidelity.com or by calling 800-343-3548. The full process usually takes one to two weeks, depending on how fast your funds settle and move. Before you start, know that if your real goal is to stop paying for managed investing, there’s a shorter path that doesn’t involve closing anything.
Switch to a Self-Directed Account First, If That’s What You Actually Want
Many people looking to cancel Fidelity Go want out of the robo-advisor, not out of Fidelity. If that’s you, you can convert the account into a standard self-directed brokerage or IRA at Fidelity rather than closing it. This matters most for retirement accounts: moving a Roth IRA to a Roth IRA (or traditional to traditional) at the same firm isn’t a taxable event, and on a taxable account you avoid triggering the capital gains that a full closure would.
Open a new self-directed account of the same type on Fidelity’s website, then call 800-343-3548 and say “Fidelity Go” at the prompt to reach the right team. They handle the transfer, including liquidating the proprietary Fidelity Flex funds that can’t move over in-kind. Expect about ten business days. There’s no fee for the switch, and the 0.35% annual advisory fee (which applies to balances of $25,000 or more) stops immediately.
Decide Where Your Money Will Go
Before you request a withdrawal, pick a destination. The options are an electronic transfer to a linked bank account, a transfer to another Fidelity account, or an outbound transfer to a different brokerage. If your bank isn’t already linked and verified with Fidelity, set that up first. Verification can be instant, but when Fidelity can’t confirm ownership automatically, it takes seven to ten days.
Check Whether Your Account Is an IRA
This is the single biggest factor most people overlook. A taxable Fidelity Go account closes by selling holdings and moving cash. An IRA (traditional, Roth, rollover, or SEP) is different: cashing out and withdrawing the money counts as a distribution, which triggers income taxes and, if you’re under 59½, a 10% early withdrawal penalty on top.
For traditional and rollover IRAs, the full withdrawal is taxable as ordinary income plus the 10% penalty. For Roth IRAs, your original contributions come out tax- and penalty-free, but early withdrawals of earnings face both taxes and the penalty unless the account is at least five years old and you meet a qualifying exception. SIMPLE IRAs carry a steeper 25% penalty if the withdrawal happens within two years of your first contribution.
You can avoid the penalty by rolling the funds into another qualified retirement account instead of taking cash. If you’re leaving Fidelity entirely with an IRA, have the receiving institution initiate the transfer so the money moves directly without passing through your hands. That keeps the move tax-free.
Taxes on Selling Your Holdings
Fidelity Go portfolios are built from proprietary Fidelity Flex mutual funds. These generally can’t be transferred in-kind to another brokerage, so closing the account forces a sale. In a taxable account, that sale is a taxable event.
You’ll owe capital gains tax on any profit. Holdings owned for more than a year qualify for the lower long-term rates; anything held for a year or less is taxed at your ordinary income rate. If your positions lost value, those losses can offset other capital gains on your return or reduce ordinary income by up to $3,000 per year.
Trades follow the standard T+1 settlement cycle, so cash is available one business day after execution. Fidelity Go sells your funds automatically when you request a full withdrawal; you don’t need to sell each one by hand. The full liquidation and withdrawal can take up to ten business days.
The Closure Steps
Closure happens after your balance reaches zero. The sequence:
- Request a full withdrawal from your Fidelity Go account. The system sells your holdings, waits for settlement, and sends the cash to your chosen destination. For an IRA, you’ll specify whether this is a rollover or a distribution, since the tax treatment is completely different.
- Wait for settlement. Don’t try to close while anything is still pending; the request will stall. Your balance has to read zero.
- Log into Fidelity.com and use the Virtual Assistant to request account closure. It verifies the account is empty and walks you through final confirmation.
- If the Virtual Assistant can’t finish the closure, or you’d rather talk to a person, call 800-343-3548. The Fidelity Go team answers Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
- Get a confirmation number and save it somewhere outside of Fidelity, because your account access will eventually go away.
Fees for Closing
Fidelity charges nothing to close an account, and the ACATS fee for transferring assets to an external brokerage is also $0. The only charge you’ll see is a prorated advisory fee for the portion of the quarterly billing period before you closed. Balances under $25,000 weren’t paying an advisory fee in the first place; at $25,000 or above, the 0.35% annual rate is billed quarterly, so the final charge is a fraction of that.
What Happens After the Account Is Closed
Closing doesn’t lock you out of Fidelity.com right away. You can still log in and pull tax forms for closed accounts going back seven years. For older statements, call customer service.
Fidelity generates a final statement at the end of the month the account closed, showing a zero balance. Download it. It’s the cleanest proof the account was fully closed and nothing was left behind.
If you sold investments during the year of closure, Fidelity sends a consolidated 1099 the following year, combining Form 1099-B (sale proceeds and capital gains or losses), 1099-DIV (dividends), and 1099-INT (interest). The IRS deadline for brokers is February 15, though Fidelity can file for an extension that pushes delivery into mid-March. You’ll need these forms for Schedule D.
One thing that catches people off guard: small amounts of trailing dividends or residual interest sometimes land in the account after you’ve withdrawn everything. Fidelity typically sweeps these to your linked bank account or mails a check, but check back for a few weeks after closure so nothing gets stranded.