Foster Group

Policy Update 

Last week, you should have received a letter or e-mail from us, letting you know about modifications to a couple of our internal procedures.  The purpose of these changes was first to continue protecting the financial interest of our clients and, second, to comply with regulatory mandates by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  At the risk of over- communicating, we thought it might be helpful to summarize these changes on our blog as well.

Client Verification

This change applies to releasing any type of account information, or making any changes to an existing account.  Prior to taking any action, we will be asking you to verify your identify.  Any of the following pieces of information will satisfy this requirement:   

• The Schwab account number and account registration (the way the account is
   titled)
•  The last four digits of your Social Security number
•  Your date of birth
•  The address of record for the account 

This is a way for us to ensure that the person making the request is actually the account holder.  While this is a common procedure among most financial service providers today, we understand it may be a bit of a hassle.  Remember that it’s designed to protect you against someone fraudulently gaining access to your account. 

Distribution Requests

The second change involves requesting distributions or moving assets from an account.  Legally, these requests can only be made by the account holder himself or herself.  We will, therefore, require that the account holder be on the phone to make the request.  A spouse or other family member will not be able make a request on behalf of another account holder.

In order for a non-account holder to make changes or initiate asset movement from an account where they’re not listed as an account holder, a full Power of Attorney for that account will be required.  It’s important to note that this document must be drafted by the client’s attorney.

Again, we do realize these changes may be an inconvenience for some clients, and we apologize in advance for that.  We are committed to doing all we can to make the implementation and application of these new procedures as seamless, and painless, as possible. 

If you’d like more information, please give us a call and we’ll be glad to talk through this