Mid-Summer: Time for Contact Info Clean-Up at Ameritrade

As most of you know, everything at Ameritrade is tied to your mailing address, phone number and/or email address.  If everything is current, Ameritrade is just slow and sometimes makes mistakes.  Kinda like us.  If these items are not current, it is nearly impossible to get anything done there, especially if it’s an urgent request.   These Ameritrade requirements are for our security as account holders, so this is all good!

We took a quick look at our own family accounts and realized that some members of our family (not to name names, Mom and Dad) have been woefully negligent in updating these items.  So, while we are cleaning up our own family info, we want to work with you on yours over the next few months.  We realize that many of you have moved recently due to record low interest rates,  have changed your email addresses or gotten rid of your home phones.

So how are we going to do this?

We have a CRM (customer relationship management) system which allows us to keep track of all of this client information – and we think it’s mostly accurate because your birthday cards don’t usually come back to us, but our system doesn’t update Ameritrade (again for security reasons).  So, expect that this process will be a little manual.  We will tell you what Ameritrade is showing and what our system has.  If you tell us that any of this is wrong, we will send you any appropriate paperwork to change it at Ameritrade.  Some info can also be updated via Advisor. Client. 

HINT:  We are now frequently using DocuSign for online form approval, when it is available, and you are comfortable using it.  This process requires you to answer obscure security questions (what color was your car in 2005?) or uses double factor authentication via text to the cell phone number on record at Ameritrade.  If you do not have a cell phone number on file at Ameritrade, this is a good time to add it, even if you don’t plan to text.  They can then call you to give you the code. 

Just think of this as summer cleaning….