Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
rickey josey on
I received these questions today on club cafe, the answers to some are posted after our club just went through this transition.
Thanks to Laurie Manning/ Treasurer for First Coast Financiers. Hope this helps.
Rick Josey.
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
From: lmanning@webprogrammers.com Date: January 16, 2024 at 6:22:16 PM EST To: rickey josey <rjoseykjosey@att.net> Subject:RE: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
Answers below in RED
From: rickey josey <rjoseykjosey@att.net> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 4:08 PM To: Laurie Manning <lmanning@webprogrammers.com> Subject: Fwd: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
Hi Laurie,
I apologize up front,I know your busy today but I received this email from club-cafe today and wanted to ask if you had time to answer the questions and I would forward your answers to club-cafe (bivio).
Our club transitioned from TDA to Schwab at the end of May. For a number of reasons, we're not happy w/Schwab, so are considering moving the acct to Fidelity. I have a few questions for those who already use Fidelity:
1. Reports: Can we generate the following kinds of reports: Buy/Sell Watch Lists End of year reports for: Dividends Interest Expenses Trade confirmations Deposits
We can get this info by going through 12 Mo stmts, but can we produce a single, line item report for a full year?
Would like to know this myself. I ran some filters on the reports to get some of this, but didn't find anything nicely summarized by type like we had with TDA.
2. If a member wishes to take a partial withdrawal in stock, but does not have a personal Fidelity acct, can they transfer their stock to another brokerage? (I know they could open a personal Fidelity acct, but some members prefer not to do that.)
There is a form to transfer stock to another brokerage account but it is labeled as a "Gift". I was told we could put in the explanation that is was not a gift but a withdrawal of investments, but Patsy warned that any explanation we put on might not "fly" with the IRS and if we tried that all members should keep a copy of the withdrawal with their personal papers in case their personal IRS filings were questioned about this disbursement from the partnership.
Having just gone through this for 3 withdrawing members who did not have Fidelity brokerage accounts, I can confirm that it is not difficult to have an account set up, the transfers are relatively painless for both cash and asset transfers (similar to 3rd-party DTC forms you have to deal with for other brokerages), and the recipient can easily transfer funds to another brokerage with the same account name and then close the Fidelity account (or keep it with zero balance for future withdrawals or transfers from the partnership account).
3. Does Fidelity allow for a checking account linked to the brokerage acct - a checking acct that allows for both deposits, and withdrawals?
Yes. Deposits are made to the "core position" which is basically a money market account which manages the money for your buy/sells. Checks are made to "Fidelity Investments" and deposited to the club's account number. There is a form to request Checkwriting against this core position which the authorized people for the account fill out their information and the entire partnership signs approving this authorization. Once check-writing is setup, a physical checkbook is send to the primary authorized person. The partnership can also request a transfer of funds from its core position to that of another Fidelity account.
I called Fidelity, and spoke to 3 different departments to gather info, but couldn't get real-life solid answers re: report types available, and stock withdrawal transfers. I thought it would be wise to ask other clubs what their real-life experience has been with them.
Call their 800 customer service number and request a specialist for Investment club accounts - they are different than other types of partnerships or individual accounts.
Thank you for any input you can provide. Lynda Feit, Treasurer TERIC Investment Club
I received these questions today on club cafe, the answers to some are posted after our club just went through this transition.
Thanks to Laurie Manning/ Treasurer for First Coast Financiers. Hope this helps.
Rick Josey.
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
From:lmanning@webprogrammers.com Date: January 16, 2024 at 6:22:16 PM EST To: rickey josey <rjoseykjosey@att.net> Subject:RE: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
Answers below in RED
From: rickey josey <rjoseykjosey@att.net> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 4:08 PM To: Laurie Manning <lmanning@webprogrammers.com> Subject: Fwd: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
Hi Laurie,
I apologize up front,I know your busy today but I received this email from club-cafe today and wanted to ask if you had time to answer the questions and I would forward your answers to club-cafe (bivio).
Our club transitioned from TDA to Schwab at the end of May. For a number of reasons, we're not happy w/Schwab, so are considering moving the acct to Fidelity. I have a few questions for those who already use Fidelity:
1. Reports: Can we generate the following kinds of reports: Buy/Sell Watch Lists End of year reports for: Dividends Interest Expenses Trade confirmations Deposits
We can get this info by going through 12 Mo stmts, but can we produce a single, line item report for a full year?
Would like to know this myself. I ran some filters on the reports to get some of this, but didn't find anything nicely summarized by type like we had with TDA.
2. If a member wishes to take a partial withdrawal in stock, but does not have a personal Fidelity acct, can they transfer their stock to another brokerage? (I know they could open a personal Fidelity acct, but some members prefer not to do that.)
There is a form to transfer stock to another brokerage account but it is labeled as a "Gift". I was told we could put in the explanation that is was not a gift but a withdrawal of investments, but Patsy warned that any explanation we put on might not "fly" with the IRS and if we tried that all members should keep a copy of the withdrawal with their personal papers in case their personal IRS filings were questioned about this disbursement from the partnership.
Having just gone through this for 3 withdrawing members who did not have Fidelity brokerage accounts, I can confirm that it is not difficult to have an account set up, the transfers are relatively painless for both cash and asset transfers (similar to 3rd-party DTC forms you have to deal with for other brokerages), and the recipient can easily transfer funds to another brokerage with the same account name and then close the Fidelity account (or keep it with zero balance for future withdrawals or transfers from the partnership account).
3. Does Fidelity allow for a checking account linked to the brokerage acct - a checking acct that allows for both deposits, and withdrawals?
Yes. Deposits are made to the "core position" which is basically a money market account which manages the money for your buy/sells. Checks are made to "Fidelity Investments" and deposited to the club's account number. There is a form to request Checkwriting against this core position which the authorized people for the account fill out their information and the entire partnership signs approving this authorization. Once check-writing is setup, a physical checkbook is send to the primary authorized person. The partnership can also request a transfer of funds from its core position to that of another Fidelity account.
I called Fidelity, and spoke to 3 different departments to gather info, but couldn't get real-life solid answers re: report types available, and stock withdrawal transfers. I thought it would be wise to ask other clubs what their real-life experience has been with them.
Call their 800 customer service number and request a specialist for Investment club accounts - they are different than other types of partnerships or individual accounts.
Thank you for any input you can provide. Lynda Feit, Treasurer TERIC Investment Club
mjboyd on
Adding in info we shared a while back on our Fidelity experiences. All mostly positive with Fidelity for now 7 years.
====================
Background - Fidelity investment club user for 6+ years and generally good for our club. But we've never gotten ACH payments to work with them. We collect paper checks and deposit via the mobile app by a club officer with authorized user privileges on the Fidelity account.
To deposit via ACH to Fidelity, they require you to be authorized and electronically link your accounts - either other Fidelity accounts or external bank accounts as you noted. Authorized users on a Fidelity account generally have full trade and cash management privileges (whatever your club has authorized). They can move money in or out. All transactions send notifications to authorized users. Fidelity considers non-authorized users as Inquiry Only members who can see all transactions, balances and statements, but cannot execute transactions, including deposits and withdrawals. Our account is setup with officers as Authorized Users and the remaining members as Inquiry Only users.
Fidelity does say they will accept deposits from Bill Pay from other banks. We found that many banks did not send it electronically, but via a paper check. Fidelity also will accept deposits by mail directly from members. We found both methods resulted in delays/uncertainty on when funds would hit our account to execute investment transactions. This ranged from 2-14 days for us. We last tried this in 2021.
Using the mobile deposit option, we found funds are typically available within a business day in our Fidelity account.
Pro tip for getting good advice from them: Ask to open a support case (they will provide a case number) and ask for escalation to their backoffice team that deals with partnerships and investment clubs. Provide some convenient times to have a call. The people that know the details of their policies and processes are there, just not on the front line call centers. If you have a local Fidelity advisor for your personal accounts, leverage them to escalate for you - it does speed up the process.
=================
- Michael Boyd, Salt Pond Investments
From: club_cafe@bivio.com <club_cafe@bivio.com> On Behalf Of Lynda Feit via bivio.com Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2024 10:16 AM To: club_cafe@bivio.com Subject: Re: [club_cafe] Fwd: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
I received these questions today on club cafe, the answers to some are posted after our club just went through this transition.
Thanks to Laurie Manning/ Treasurer for First Coast Financiers. Hope this helps.
Rick Josey.
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
From:lmanning@webprogrammers.com Date: January 16, 2024 at 6:22:16 PM EST To: rickey josey <rjoseykjosey@att.net> Subject:RE: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
Answers below in RED
From: rickey josey <rjoseykjosey@att.net> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 4:08 PM To: Laurie Manning <lmanning@webprogrammers.com> Subject: Fwd: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
Hi Laurie,
I apologize up front,I know your busy today but I received this email from club-cafe today and wanted to ask if you had time to answer the questions and I would forward your answers to club-cafe (bivio).
Our club transitioned from TDA to Schwab at the end of May. For a number of reasons, we're not happy w/Schwab, so are considering moving the acct to Fidelity. I have a few questions for those who already use Fidelity:
1. Reports: Can we generate the following kinds of reports: Buy/Sell Watch Lists End of year reports for: Dividends Interest Expenses Trade confirmations Deposits
We can get this info by going through 12 Mo stmts, but can we produce a single, line item report for a full year?
Would like to know this myself. I ran some filters on the reports to get some of this, but didn't find anything nicely summarized by type like we had with TDA.
2. If a member wishes to take a partial withdrawal in stock, but does not have a personal Fidelity acct, can they transfer their stock to another brokerage? (I know they could open a personal Fidelity acct, but some members prefer not to do that.)
There is a form to transfer stock to another brokerage account but it is labeled as a "Gift". I was told we could put in the explanation that is was not a gift but a withdrawal of investments, but Patsy warned that any explanation we put on might not "fly" with the IRS and if we tried that all members should keep a copy of the withdrawal with their personal papers in case their personal IRS filings were questioned about this disbursement from the partnership.
Having just gone through this for 3 withdrawing members who did not have Fidelity brokerage accounts, I can confirm that it is not difficult to have an account set up, the transfers are relatively painless for both cash and asset transfers (similar to 3rd-party DTC forms you have to deal with for other brokerages), and the recipient can easily transfer funds to another brokerage with the same account name and then close the Fidelity account (or keep it with zero balance for future withdrawals or transfers from the partnership account).
3. Does Fidelity allow for a checking account linked to the brokerage acct - a checking acct that allows for both deposits, and withdrawals?
Yes. Deposits are made to the "core position" which is basically a money market account which manages the money for your buy/sells. Checks are made to "Fidelity Investments" and deposited to the club's account number. There is a form to request Checkwriting against this core position which the authorized people for the account fill out their information and the entire partnership signs approving this authorization. Once check-writing is setup, a physical checkbook is send to the primary authorized person. The partnership can also request a transfer of funds from its core position to that of another Fidelity account.
I called Fidelity, and spoke to 3 different departments to gather info, but couldn't get real-life solid answers re: report types available, and stock withdrawal transfers. I thought it would be wise to ask other clubs what their real-life experience has been with them.
Call their 800 customer service number and request a specialist for Investment club accounts - they are different than other types of partnerships or individual accounts.
Thank you for any input you can provide. Lynda Feit, Treasurer TERIC Investment Club
Lynda Feit on
Thank you Michael, that's very good info to get.
It took us 4 months to get the ACH deposits straightened-out with Schwab, requiring multiple calls by me to them every week on this issue. That part of the process is now working. So it's good upfront info to know that we will basically be taking a step backwards on this particular issue if we move to Fidelity, as we only allow full access to the account by officers of our Club.
I also appreciate the info about how to get to the backoffice people! I spoke to 3 different Fidelity people yesterday, and was told flat-out that there is no such department for Investment Clubs! Sigh. I will now employ the 'secret' method you've shared.
Are you able to run the kinds of reports that I mentioned in my original message? In my personal Fidelity acct, I cannot find any report capability except the standard 'account analysis,' which isn't something the Club would need. I'm thinking that if it's an Investment Club account, there must be some additional reporting capability, but no one at Fidelity knew what the difference might be in an Investment Club acct.
Adding in info we shared a while back on our Fidelity experiences. All mostly positive with Fidelity for now 7 years.
====================
Background - Fidelity investment club user for 6+ years and generally good for our club. But we've never gotten ACH payments to work with them. We collect paper checks and deposit via the mobile app by a club officer with authorized user privileges on the Fidelity account.
To deposit via ACH to Fidelity, they require you to be authorized and electronically link your accounts - either other Fidelity accounts or external bank accounts as you noted. Authorized users on a Fidelity account generally have full trade and cash management privileges (whatever your club has authorized). They can move money in or out. All transactions send notifications to authorized users. Fidelity considers non-authorized users as Inquiry Only members who can see all transactions, balances and statements, but cannot execute transactions, including deposits and withdrawals. Our account is setup with officers as Authorized Users and the remaining members as Inquiry Only users.
Fidelity does say they will accept deposits from Bill Pay from other banks. We found that many banks did not send it electronically, but via a paper check. Fidelity also will accept deposits by mail directly from members. We found both methods resulted in delays/uncertainty on when funds would hit our account to execute investment transactions. This ranged from 2-14 days for us. We last tried this in 2021.
Using the mobile deposit option, we found funds are typically available within a business day in our Fidelity account.
Pro tip for getting good advice from them: Ask to open a support case (they will provide a case number) and ask for escalation to their backoffice team that deals with partnerships and investment clubs. Provide some convenient times to have a call. The people that know the details of their policies and processes are there, just not on the front line call centers. If you have a local Fidelity advisor for your personal accounts, leverage them to escalate for you - it does speed up the process.
I received these questions today on club cafe, the answers to some are posted after our club just went through this transition.
Thanks to Laurie Manning/ Treasurer for First Coast Financiers. Hope this helps.
Rick Josey.
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
From:lmanning@webprogrammers.com Date: January 16, 2024 at 6:22:16 PM EST To: rickey josey <rjoseykjosey@att.net> Subject:RE: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
Answers below in RED
From: rickey josey <rjoseykjosey@att.net> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 4:08 PM To: Laurie Manning <lmanning@webprogrammers.com> Subject: Fwd: [club_cafe] Questions for Clubs using Fidelity as their Broker
Hi Laurie,
I apologize up front,I know your busy today but I received this email from club-cafe today and wanted to ask if you had time to answer the questions and I would forward your answers to club-cafe (bivio).
Our club transitioned from TDA to Schwab at the end of May. For a number of reasons, we're not happy w/Schwab, so are considering moving the acct to Fidelity. I have a few questions for those who already use Fidelity:
1. Reports: Can we generate the following kinds of reports: Buy/Sell Watch Lists End of year reports for: Dividends Interest Expenses Trade confirmations Deposits
We can get this info by going through 12 Mo stmts, but can we produce a single, line item report for a full year?
Would like to know this myself. I ran some filters on the reports to get some of this, but didn't find anything nicely summarized by type like we had with TDA.
2. If a member wishes to take a partial withdrawal in stock, but does not have a personal Fidelity acct, can they transfer their stock to another brokerage? (I know they could open a personal Fidelity acct, but some members prefer not to do that.)
There is a form to transfer stock to another brokerage account but it is labeled as a "Gift". I was told we could put in the explanation that is was not a gift but a withdrawal of investments, but Patsy warned that any explanation we put on might not "fly" with the IRS and if we tried that all members should keep a copy of the withdrawal with their personal papers in case their personal IRS filings were questioned about this disbursement from the partnership.
Having just gone through this for 3 withdrawing members who did not have Fidelity brokerage accounts, I can confirm that it is not difficult to have an account set up, the transfers are relatively painless for both cash and asset transfers (similar to 3rd-party DTC forms you have to deal with for other brokerages), and the recipient can easily transfer funds to another brokerage with the same account name and then close the Fidelity account (or keep it with zero balance for future withdrawals or transfers from the partnership account).
3. Does Fidelity allow for a checking account linked to the brokerage acct - a checking acct that allows for both deposits, and withdrawals?
Yes. Deposits are made to the "core position" which is basically a money market account which manages the money for your buy/sells. Checks are made to "Fidelity Investments" and deposited to the club's account number. There is a form to request Checkwriting against this core position which the authorized people for the account fill out their information and the entire partnership signs approving this authorization. Once check-writing is setup, a physical checkbook is send to the primary authorized person. The partnership can also request a transfer of funds from its core position to that of another Fidelity account.
I called Fidelity, and spoke to 3 different departments to gather info, but couldn't get real-life solid answers re: report types available, and stock withdrawal transfers. I thought it would be wise to ask other clubs what their real-life experience has been with them.
Call their 800 customer service number and request a specialist for Investment club accounts - they are different than other types of partnerships or individual accounts.
Thank you for any input you can provide. Lynda Feit, Treasurer TERIC Investment Club