Experiences Sharing Spouses Financial Accounts

[sengsational]

Before the age of multi-factor authentication schemes, it was easy to enable both my wife and I to have concurrent, unrestricted abilities on each other's financial accounts. But now there are things that make that harder:

* Using one cell phone number as an SMS second factor

* "Your voice is your password" voice print technology

Before, when trying online access, I could log in as her with user ID password, and complete the email loop (as long as I had the email in the profile configured with one I could get into), or with voice access, I'd just say I was her (they didn't ask about a male sounding voice).

Now, I'm running into more issues, and having to have a realtime exchange of SMS codes or drag my wife down into my office when I'm trying to do some things.

How do you manage this? I haven't tried to add myself to her account as a full access user because I figured I'd be limited. Has that worked for you? Which financial institutions? Was it / is it easy? Any "gotchas"?

 

[Kings over Queens]

Not an issue thus far. My cell is the number for MFA on all our accounts. We don't have any voice technology so that isn't an issue...yet.

I can access my mother in laws accounts too, and simply send her a text "Hey, I'm logging into (account), text me the code when you get it). And wait. I do this for 2 reasons, one, so she doesn't panic thinking someone is hacking her account, and second, so I don't sit there like a dope waiting for the code. lol

Our family is sharing multiple account for stream, amazon, etc, so a simple text "send me the code" has worked so far.

 

[Al18]

FYI SMS can be hacked - so a bad guy can send a send me the code message to your family.

 

[qwerty3656]

At Fidelity, my wife and I have IRAs and also have a joint brokerage account. We each have our own log-in, but when we log in it gives us the option to send the sms to 2 different phone numbers (so I can log into her account and have it send the code to my phone or hers).

 

[JoeWras]

I drag her down to the office. She's never happy about it, because she hates finances, but we manage. This is a once a year thing for her 401k. We have it in set and forget mode for the most part.

 

[Exchme]

My wife and I both did Full Agent Authorization forms for each other at Vanguard (had to use their forms), had them notarized and sent in.

Now we can each get to each other's stuff, except the checking account at the local bank. It's joint, and both phone numbers are entered on their app, but the only option available is to tie it to just one phone. She takes care of the monthly bills and whatnot, so we tie it to her phone, but when I download the statement each month, I have to holler across the house to get her to read me the 2FA.

 

[RetiredHappy]

We provide full authorization on each other's accounts so it is a non-issue.

 

[jebmke]

Right now, she does her own and I do my own. We are in the process of executing Agency Authorizations with Vanguard so that either of us can access any account. Using another person's log in is generally not recommended.

For our joint bank account we each have our own ID to log in. She pays most of the bills and I reconcile/check the account and make sure it is funded. That way we both know what is going on and how to handle things in case one of us can't.

 

[Zona]

We handle this with a shared Google voice number. We set it up so that we both get an email (and a notification on our phone) when the number gets a text. It's nice too because we both see it and can ask "Hey, was that you accessing XYZ bank earlier?".

 

[MTB4me]

This is a problem in our household. It would be so much better if the financial institutions would all support token authentication via something like a Yubikey.

 

[imjustawarrior]

We have all taxable accounts as joint so we can have our own logins. For IRAs and Roths, we have used the brokerages forms to give access to each other. This works really well. This is the way to do it.

My DW has no interest in managing investments. With our setup, I can perform her backdoor Roth each year and access her tax documents.

I don't read user agreements, but I have heard that if you share passwords you may violate the terms and lose fraud protection.

 

[jebmke]

One advantage of having separate log-ins even for a joint account is that in the event that one person accidentally locks there user ID for whatever reason, the other person still has access to the joint account and business can continue to be conducted.

 

[pacergal]

Almost every financial acct/on line bill pay is set up with my email and cell phone for 2FA.
Those that aren't, we have the log in info shared.
And where our IRAs and brokerage accts are, has forms allowing us to share.

 

[CaptTom]

Good discussion. I recently went through all our significant on-line accounts and set up multiple phone numbers and/or e-mail accounts wherever they allowed it. I was surprised that a few only allow one option. That's kinda scary.

A few years back I dropped my phone overboard a long way from home. It really opened my eyes to how screwed we are without our devices!

 

[MarieIG]

For DH's solo accounts that I manage (IRAs / 401(k)), I listed his cell number to receive the security code - and I don't allow the sites to "remember" my laptop. So I usually do the transactions when he's walking around the house, or I call him and ask him to read me the code.

I have always declined to do a voice identification.

 

[disneysteve]

I manage all of our accounts and my mom’s accounts. They’re all set up to my email and my cell phone so this is a non-issue.

 

[kgtest]

I drag her down to the office. She's never happy about it, because she hates finances, but we manage. This is a once a year thing for her 401k. We have it in set and forget mode for the most part.

same. or she texts me the code when it get sent to her randomly

 

[rk911]

Before the age of multi-factor authentication schemes, it was easy to enable both my wife and I to have concurrent, unrestricted abilities on each other's financial accounts. But now there are things that make that harder:

* Using one cell phone number as an SMS second factor

* "Your voice is your password" voice print technology

Before, when trying online access, I could log in as her with user ID password, and complete the email loop (as long as I had the email in the profile configured with one I could get into), or with voice access, I'd just say I was her (they didn't ask about a male sounding voice).

Now, I'm running into more issues, and having to have a realtime exchange of SMS codes or drag my wife down into my office when I'm trying to do some things.

How do you manage this? I haven't tried to add myself to her account as a full access user because I figured I'd be limited. Has that worked for you? Which financial institutions? Was it / is it easy? Any "gotchas"?

My wife has zero technical skills so I do all of the on-line work. A single 2FA phone works fine and since I do all the work her passwords are stored in out PW manager. On the rare occasions we need to speak to a human she sits with me and gives the rep permission to speak with me.

 

[target2019]

We use multiple solutions. 1Password family for all accounts. Security keys on computers where possible. Choice of phones or email where possible. We're always in touch with phone and Telegram throughout the day.

I usually access all of our accounts on the 1st of each month, and we're usually together.

 

[Jerry1]

I drag her down to the office. She's never happy about it, because she hates finances, but we manage. This is a once a year thing for her 401k. We have it in set and forget mode for the most part.

Small house. No dragging required. We just yell to the other person - DID YOU GET A TEXT? CAN I HAVE THE CODE!? Code gets yelled back and we’re on our way.

We have our accounts set up at Fidelity so we can both see each others accounts, we just can’t see a statement or make transactions. I have to log in as her or vis versa when we need to do certain things.

 

[youbet]

I have FPOA on DW’s accounts so they show up, along with my accounts, when I sign into our joint account. I have full privileges.

 

[audreyh1]

Small house. No dragging required. We just yell to the other person - DID YOU GET A TEXT? CAN I HAVE THE CODE!? Code gets yelled back and we’re on our way.

We have our accounts set up at Fidelity so we can both see each others accounts, we just can’t see a statement or make transactions. I have to log in as her or vis versa when we need to do certain things.

At Fidelity we each signed up as the other’s authorized actor or whatever it’s called. We get a consolidated statement so we see everything except each other’s HSA statements which Fidelity says can’t be included even though the IRAs are. I can make trades in DH’s account and vice versa.

 

[Dtail]

We provide full authorization on each other's accounts so it is a non-issue.

Same here.

 

[DrRoy]

We have occasionally had to pass verification codes to each other.

 

[chemEguy]

I have generally run point on investing and she handles the bill payments.

I have her accounts set to use my cellphone number (which is on her cellular plan) and for others I form save where I can. Otherwise I ask her to give me the code when she gets the text, not a big deal.