Tried to Open a Fidelityy Account for GA Model Club
Just spent almost two months trying to transfer the GA Model Club from Folio to Fidelity. I have been a satisfied customer with Fidelity for more than 35 years but have never been treated like this. The lawyers and the 'back office" would not accept our Partnership Agreement. Send me a private link to Tlreno@aol.com and I will send you a copy of the 5 page letter I sent to Fidelity, ATTN: Client Services with cc. Kamie at BI.
Ye ole bud,....Larry
Larry Reno
Larry Reno
Fidelity did not want our business either. I have retirement and retail accounts there but the investment club is at TDAmeritrade.
s
On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 5:23 PM, Larry Reno via bivio.com <user*17642900001@bivio.com> wrote:
Just spent almost two months trying to transfer the GA Model Club from Folio to Fidelity. I have been a satisfied customer with Fidelity for more than 35 years but have never been treated like this. The lawyers and the 'back office" would not accept our Partnership Agreement. Send me a private link to Tlreno@aol.com and I will send you a copy of the 5 page letter I sent to Fidelity, ATTN: Client Services with cc. Kamie at BI.
Ye ole bud,....Larry
Larry Reno
In all fairness, they know how they make money and investment clubs are not it. Fidelity is known across the industry for a their way or highway approach. They make every attempt to keep customers that work in their model, but they have no problem losing a customer if they don't fit. As part of my job, I am the plan administrator for the company 401k. While $94m may seem like a substantial account to keep happy, we have to fit the same model as other clients.
Remember what Michael told Tom in The Godfather; it's not personal, it's only business.
Mark Eckman
From: Larry Reno via bivio.com
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2018 4:24 PM
To: club_cafe@bivio.com
Subject: [club_cafe] Tried to Open a Fidelityy Account for GA Model Club
Just spent almost two months trying to transfer the GA Model Club from Folio to Fidelity. I have been a satisfied customer with Fidelity for more than 35 years but have never been treated like this. The lawyers and the 'back office" would not accept our Partnership Agreement. Send me a private link to Tlreno@aol.com and I will send you a copy of the 5 page letter I sent to Fidelity, ATTN: Client Services with cc. Kamie at BI.
Ye ole bud,....Larry
Larry Reno
Other people have complained Fidelity is nearly impossible to work with, regarding investment clubs. We have had Fidelity as broker for a couple of investment clubs and did not notice any problems. Not everybody is unhappy with Fidelity.
Mark Johnson, XYZ Club
On Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 5:50 PM, Mark Eckman via bivio.com <user*24054700001@bivio.com> wrote:
In all fairness, they know how they make money and investment clubs are not it. Fidelity is known across the industry for a their way or highway approach. They make every attempt to keep customers that work in their model, but they have no problem losing a customer if they don't fit. As part of my job, I am the plan administrator for the company 401k. While $94m may seem like a substantial account to keep happy, we have to fit the same model as other clients.
Remember what Michael told Tom in The Godfather; it's not personal, it's only business.
Mark Eckman
From: Larry Reno via bivio.com
Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2018 4:24 PM
To: club_cafe@bivio.com
Subject: [club_cafe] Tried to Open a Fidelityy Account for GA Model Club
Just spent almost two months trying to transfer the GA Model Club from Folio to Fidelity. I have been a satisfied customer with Fidelity for more than 35 years but have never been treated like this. The lawyers and the 'back office" would not accept our Partnership Agreement. Send me a private link to Tlreno@aol.com and I will send you a copy of the 5 page letter I sent to Fidelity, ATTN: Client Services with cc. Kamie at BI.
Ye ole bud,....Larry
Larry Reno
Our investment club will be thirty years old in March. We
have had Fidelity for a number of years and I understand
clubs' frustrations with fidelity. When there is a change
club officers, Fidelity wants your club to send in your
partnership agreement and signature of all members. We have
over forty members, some living in other cities and states.
This causes great difficulty.
We wanted to add another officer other than the president to
be able to sign checks so that if the president was
unavailable or dies while in office, club business could
continue without significant interruption. It could be
weeks before the club could get all the requirements for
Fidelity in order for us to be functional again.
have had Fidelity for a number of years and I understand
clubs' frustrations with fidelity. When there is a change
club officers, Fidelity wants your club to send in your
partnership agreement and signature of all members. We have
over forty members, some living in other cities and states.
This causes great difficulty.
We wanted to add another officer other than the president to
be able to sign checks so that if the president was
unavailable or dies while in office, club business could
continue without significant interruption. It could be
weeks before the club could get all the requirements for
Fidelity in order for us to be functional again.
Our investment club has used Fidelity for a number of years.
We have found, with growing frustration, that they either
don't know how, or don't want to know how to deal with
investment clubs. In our club, we change officers from time
to time so that we share the opportunities to learn new club
skills.
At the moment, we are about 1.5 years into the attempt to
change who is authorized as treasurer on our account.
Customer service folks on the phone, and in person at the
local office have been invariably courteous and sympathetic.
However, we've never gotten instructions that turned out to
be correct in getting the change made. And the instructions
are different every time.
Do any other clubs use our model of changing officers from
time to time? If so, have you found a brokerage firm that
can handle such changes? I'd love to know what firms we
could consider.
We have found, with growing frustration, that they either
don't know how, or don't want to know how to deal with
investment clubs. In our club, we change officers from time
to time so that we share the opportunities to learn new club
skills.
At the moment, we are about 1.5 years into the attempt to
change who is authorized as treasurer on our account.
Customer service folks on the phone, and in person at the
local office have been invariably courteous and sympathetic.
However, we've never gotten instructions that turned out to
be correct in getting the change made. And the instructions
are different every time.
Do any other clubs use our model of changing officers from
time to time? If so, have you found a brokerage firm that
can handle such changes? I'd love to know what firms we
could consider.
Linda,
Our club has been together for 20 years and during our early days we went
through the same frustrations you're experiencing when changing officers.
We were fortunate that during my time serving as treasurer, I proposed making
the treasurer a permanent office. I've been in the job for 15 years.
We also have an assistant treasurer to share the duties. I think other
clubs have elected to do the same. The other officers are elected for 2
year periods.
Hope this helps.
Dick Lewis
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 8:45 PM
Subject: [club_cafe] Re: Tried to Open a Fidelityy Account for GA
Model Club
Our
investment club has used Fidelity for a number of years.
We have found, with growing frustration, that they either
don't know how, or don't want to know how to deal with
investment clubs. In our club, we change officers from time
to time so that we share the opportunities to learn new club
skills.
At the moment, we are about 1.5 years into the attempt to
change who is authorized as treasurer on our account.
Customer service folks on the phone, and in person at the
local office have been invariably courteous and sympathetic.
However, we've never gotten instructions that turned out to
be correct in getting the change made. And the instructions
are different every time.
Do any other clubs use our model of changing officers from
time to time? If so, have you found a brokerage firm that
can handle such changes? I'd love to know what firms we
could consider.
We have found, with growing frustration, that they either
don't know how, or don't want to know how to deal with
investment clubs. In our club, we change officers from time
to time so that we share the opportunities to learn new club
skills.
At the moment, we are about 1.5 years into the attempt to
change who is authorized as treasurer on our account.
Customer service folks on the phone, and in person at the
local office have been invariably courteous and sympathetic.
However, we've never gotten instructions that turned out to
be correct in getting the change made. And the instructions
are different every time.
Do any other clubs use our model of changing officers from
time to time? If so, have you found a brokerage firm that
can handle such changes? I'd love to know what firms we
could consider.
This is not unique. We've had similar issues with TD Ameritrade. In fairness to these brokers, they are simply overly conservative when it comes to account security. I do agree that they don't have their act together when it comes to what is required for the change. Since founding members of record are still with us, we simply leave them as the officers and don't try to change anymore. I'm ashamed to admit that I simply lie about who is calling when I call for customer support.
On April 11, 2018 at 8:45 PM "Linda TerHaar via bivio.com" wrote:
Our investment club has used Fidelity for a number of years.
We have found, with growing frustration, that they either
don't know how, or don't want to know how to deal with
investment clubs. In our club, we change officers from time
to time so that we share the opportunities to learn new club
skills.
At the moment, we are about 1.5 years into the attempt to
change who is authorized as treasurer on our account.
Customer service folks on the phone, and in person at the
local office have been invariably courteous and sympathetic.
However, we've never gotten instructions that turned out to
be correct in getting the change made. And the instructions
are different every time.
Do any other clubs use our model of changing officers from
time to time? If so, have you found a brokerage firm that
can handle such changes? I'd love to know what firms we
could consider.
TDA had us complete their Entity Authorized Agent Form
Linda
On Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 6:44 PM, Dennis McCarthy via bivio.com <user*34224700001@bivio.com> wrote:
This is not unique. We've had similar issues with TD Ameritrade. In fairness to these brokers, they are simply overly conservative when it comes to account security. I do agree that they don't have their act together when it comes to what is required for the change. Since founding members of record are still with us, we simply leave them as the officers and don't try to change anymore. I'm ashamed to admit that I simply lie about who is calling when I call for customer support.
On April 11, 2018 at 8:45 PM "Linda TerHaar via bivio.com" wrote:
Our investment club has used Fidelity for a number of years.
We have found, with growing frustration, that they either
don't know how, or don't want to know how to deal with
investment clubs. In our club, we change officers from time
to time so that we share the opportunities to learn new club
skills.
At the moment, we are about 1.5 years into the attempt to
change who is authorized as treasurer on our account.
Customer service folks on the phone, and in person at the
local office have been invariably courteous and sympathetic.
However, we've never gotten instructions that turned out to
be correct in getting the change made. And the instructions
are different every time.
Do any other clubs use our model of changing officers from
time to time? If so, have you found a brokerage firm that
can handle such changes? I'd love to know what firms we
could consider.