Fidelity as one stop shop for life?

[COcheesehead]

Review some of the "horror" stories on the Fidelity Reddit about accounts getting locked because of security reasons and it being months before a resolution, without Fidelity giving the customer any info, other than the account is locked. Not saying this is unique to Fidelity. Saying this is one reason to have accounts spread out over multiple financial firms.

If you look into these stories, there’s way more to it. Most involve something done by the account holder, not some random event.

 

[COcheesehead]

Do you have a link to those details? I only ever heard speculation why Fidelity responded so aggressively. Not that it impacted me, just curious.

It was widely reported. People were depositing fraudulent checks and making immediate withdrawals so many financial institutions not just Fidelity put long holds on funds.

 

[Dtail]

I show no rep name or account designation though I had both at one time.

Same here with Fidelity for free too.

 

[audreyh1]

Do you have a link to those details? I only ever heard speculation why Fidelity responded so aggressively. Not that it impacted me, just curious.

Let me see if I can find the thread here from 2 years ago that discussed it and had several links.

 

[junkanoo]

It's still there. Make sure you have "all accounts" on the left selected when you first log in. On the upper right hand is "contact your team". Click on it and a pull down will appear that says "Private Client Group" and a phone number.

I tend to ignore it because I've never used them nor ever plan to.

Years ago, clicking on it wasn't needed and it also noted the name of the person assigned to me.

Cheers.

Agreed. Now, you need to click on it and it will say either Private Client Group or some level of Fidelity Wealth Management (AFAIK). My primary and backup are listed with contact info (and their photos) plus an investment group I'm testing out. My primary contact says the best way to reach him is texting him on his personal cell. He is very prompt, which I appreciate the few times I've needed him.

 

[RetiredHappy]

We have everything at Fidelity. $3.2 million. We've never got or have been offered any of that.

... I think you need to have at least $10M for self-directed or $2M assets under management to get the additional service offerings.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Ours list as "Private Client Group" with our FA (VP of branch and also a CFP) as the main, and another name under her team, who is also a FA.

 

[MRG]

If you look into these stories, there’s way more to it. Most involve something done by the account holder, not some random event.

Indeed. Its not just Fidelity. Any provider vets you. It's the only information I recall fund companies sharing via a known offender list.

 

[audreyh1]

Do you have a link to those details? I only ever heard speculation why Fidelity responded so aggressively. Not that it impacted me, just curious.

OK here are a couple of threads:

Fidelity locking down tons of CMA accounts due to possible fraud

This seems to have been happening since they were down a week or so ago. People are complaining that their accounts are being locked or the funds will not be available until October and of course they're not happy. It's so bad that Fidelity has created a thread to try and contain all the...

www.early-retirement.org

Software Glitch and Check Fraud at Chase

 

[dobig]

Ours list as "Private Client Group" with our FA (VP of branch and also a CFP) as the main, and another name under her team, who is also a FA.

I finallly found it. We're the generic 'Private Wealth Management' so I guess we're kicking it in the hood.

 

[dobig]

It was widely reported. People were depositing fraudulent checks and making immediate withdrawals so many financial institutions not just Fidelity put long holds on funds.

It was a bunch of young people making Tik Tok videos with big smiles on their faces thinking they were screwing the system by making fake deposits.

Of course being the rocket scientists they were they posted it online to make law enforcement's job easier.

 

[big-papa]

I finallly found it. We're the generic 'Private Wealth Management' so I guess we're kicking it in the hood.

There you go. Now we still have somebody locally assigned to us even though it after I log in (though they used to). They try and contact us at least once a year to set up a meeting. No thanks. I ignore the emails and never answer the phone anyway. They usually try for about 2 weeks then give up.. I think I'm on the 5th or 6th person assigned since I first hit the threshold.

Cheers.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I finallly found it. We're the generic 'Private Wealth Management' so I guess we're kicking it in the hood.

Do you have your funds managed by Fidelity, i.e. paid management fees?

 

[COcheesehead]

I poked all over the Fidelity site and I found my advisor with a picture even, a direct line phone number and my account designation as Active Trader VIP - whatever that is. It’s no longer displayed in the upper right, but buried.
I think I can remember at least 3-4 designations in my time at Fidelity.

 

[Dtail]

I poked all over the Fidelity site and I found my advisor with a picture even, a direct line phone number and my account designation as Active Trader VIP - whatever that is. It’s no longer displayed in the upper right, but buried.
I think I can remember at least 3-4 designations in my time at Fidelity.

Perhaps a qualification for Turbo Tax.

 

[COcheesehead]

Perhaps a qualification for Turbo Tax.

I have gotten it for free for many years so you might be onto something.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

I finallly found it. We're the generic 'Private Wealth Management' so I guess we're kicking it in the hood.

"I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member"

 

[jazz4cash]

It was widely reported. People were depositing fraudulent checks and making immediate withdrawals so many financial institutions not just Fidelity put long holds on funds.

There's more to it but I have not heard details. Chase had a software glitch that allowed the immediate withdrawals. Not sure how that caused Fidelity to react harshly. They put long holds on ACH deposits.

 

[audreyh1]

There's more to it but I have not heard details. Chase had a software glitch that allowed the immediate withdrawals. Not sure how that caused Fidelity to react harshly. They put long holds on ACH deposits.

They did not put long holds on ACH transfers pulled in at that time. That was the problem. They allowed immediate access to the funds before finding the ACH transfer reversed.

 

[COcheesehead]

There's more to it but I have not heard details. Chase had a software glitch that allowed the immediate withdrawals. Not sure how that caused Fidelity to react harshly. They put long holds on ACH deposits.

Most, if not all, of the folks on here are likely to not have to worry about having their account shut down randomly as long as they are not attempting nefarious stuff.

 

[audreyh1]

Most, if not all, of the folks on here are likely to not have to worry about having their account shut down randomly as long as they are not attempting nefarious stuff.

About that time one of the finance bloggers wrote that the way to avoid the problem was to push transfers of funds into your CMA account rather than pulling. This avoided the scenario whereby a transfer could be reversed. I think Fidelity got through this, figured things out even if they were heavy handed for a while. They were blindsided by the sudden high volume of (often new) customers trying this kiting fraud.

 

[COcheesehead]

All the first hand stories I read on other forums of folks getting their accounts frozen involved the deposit/withdrawal issues. Whether they were nefariously intended are not. Back in the day there used to be requirements for “aging” cash. I guess that got relaxed over time and now it’s back.

 

[Lewis Clark]

All the first hand stories I read on other forums of folks getting their accounts frozen involved the deposit/withdrawal issues. Whether they were nefariously intended are not. Back in the day there used to be requirements for “aging” cash. I guess that got relaxed over time and now it’s back.

In my own situation, some of my accounts (and some accounts in which my wife was a joint owner) were frozen temporarily because someone at the Social Security Administration (SSA) made a mistake and reported to the financial world in early 2022 that I had died. I wrote about it in this thread.

I died, but I am better now

Last weekend I tried to renew a prescription at my online pharmacy, only to discover that I no longer had pharmacy coverage with my health insurance. When I called the insurance company (Tricare) I was told I no longer had any health insurance coverage at all. I am retired military, so I...

www.early-retirement.org

This kind of error does not happen often but it does happen on occasion. A few months before my situation began, there was a story in the NY Times about this same error happening to an elderly woman living almost entirely on her social security income. A contact at the SSA later told me it happens more than most people realize. While SSA is good at telling the world about the newly and dearly departed, they made zero effort to tell the world when they made mistakes like this, leaving all of the recovery work on the shoulders of their victims. Hopefully this policy has changed since then.

Even after I contacted the customer service folks at all of my financial institutions to explain the situation, and even after being assured the situation was fixed at their financial institution, problems persisted at some financial institutions for several months.

This experience, more than concerns about hack attacks, bank failures and other issues, is why I will never put all of my financial assets into a single financial institution. I will always keep at least a couple of years' worth of expenses at another financial institution. The peace of mind is worth far more to me than any benefits I might be missing if I followed the all-eggs-in-one-basket approach.

 

[RetiredHappy]

This experience, more than concerns about hack attacks, bank failures and other issues, is why I will never put all of my financial assets into a single financial institution. I will always keep at least a couple of years' worth of expenses at another financial institution. The peace of mind is worth far more to me than any benefits I might be missing if I followed the all-eggs-in-one-basket approach.

Based in what you wrote, even when you have two financial institutions where you have your money, they would both be frozen too.

 

[COcheesehead]

In my own situation, some of my accounts (and some accounts in which my wife was a joint owner) were frozen temporarily because someone at the Social Security Administration (SSA) made a mistake and reported to the financial world in early 2022 that I had died. I wrote about it in this thread.

I died, but I am better now

Last weekend I tried to renew a prescription at my online pharmacy, only to discover that I no longer had pharmacy coverage with my health insurance. When I called the insurance company (Tricare) I was told I no longer had any health insurance coverage at all. I am retired military, so I...

www.early-retirement.org

This kind of error does not happen often but it does happen on occasion. A few months before my situation began, there was a story in the NY Times about this same error happening to an elderly woman living almost entirely on her social security income. A contact at the SSA later told me it happens more than most people realize. While SSA is good at telling the world about the newly and dearly departed, they made zero effort to tell the world when they made mistakes like this, leaving all of the recovery work on the shoulders of their victims. Hopefully this policy has changed since then.

Even after I contacted the customer service folks at all of my financial institutions to explain the situation, and even after being assured the situation was fixed at their financial institution, problems persisted at some financial institutions for several months.

This experience, more than concerns about hack attacks, bank failures and other issues, is why I will never put all of my financial assets into a single financial institution. I will always keep at least a couple of years' worth of expenses at another financial institution. The peace of mind is worth far more to me than any benefits I might be missing if I followed the all-eggs-in-one-basket approach.

But if you were on the deceased list, would that not affect all your accounts? So multiple accounts would not have solved the issue.