Fidelity sending out e-mail about adding Trusted Contact Person to your Fidelity accounts

03/13/2019
Fidelity sending out e-mail about adding Trusted Contact Person to your Fidelity accounts

Fidelity recently sent out e-mails to our clients about the option to add a 'Trusted Contact Person' (TCP) to your Fidelity accounts.  New regulations became effective on February 5, 2018 requiring financial services firms like Fidelity to offer clients the option of naming a TCP on their accounts.  This TCP is someone you authorize Fidelity to contact if Fidelity is unable to get in touch with you or if Fidelity detects signs of potential diminished capacity, financial exploitation, abuse, or endangerment.  A TCP will NOT have access to your accounts. 

You are NOT required to have a TCP on your accounts.  Fidelity is only required to make this option available to you.  And while the regulations went into effect on February 5, 2018, Fidelity is just now sending out this e-mail inviting clients to establish a TCP if you wish to do so.

These e-mails have recently been sent out by Fidelity.  Some clients have received them and asked us if these e-mails are authentic e-mails or whether they're hoaxes.  We wanted to let you know that these e-mails are legitimate and explain why Fidelity is sending them to you.

We also wanted to remind you that we have a similar 'Trusted Contact Person' section in our advisor agreement with you where we ask you to list a trusted contact for us to speak with if we ever noticed the same signs of potential risks that Fidelity mentions above.

If you have any questions about this, please let us know.  Thank you again for having us be your financial advisor.