Is your mother savvy enough that she would think to add account beneficiaries were you to predecease her? Or could you rely on your husband or a sibling to remind her?
For financial info, etc. yes, you have to give out SS.
Sorry. I hate giving it out but there are times you have no choice. The FA is right. You should have a back up.
4 Likes
@deb922 Make sure your children have a freeze on their credit reports with the three agencies, and if they want to take another step, request an IRS PIN.
I am not suggesting that providing the SSN to the brokerage firm will cause any issues; just mentioning this as good financial housekeeping, if you will.
3 Likes
Your response prompted me to check my beneficiaries with two brokerage firms. Neither required my children’s SSNs, although it is optional and encouraged. Schwab allows adding contact info (address, phone, email). Apparently I had not selected per stirpes for one firm, but now have for both.
5 Likes
I have my credit frozen yet my mom was able to add me as an authorized user on her credit card. I checked after this happened. It is indeed frozen on all of the credit reporting sites.
I am not happy. I misunderstood when my mom told me she wanted me to help her with her finances. My fault but I never should have been added, I think. Mom told me that being an authorized user has no bearing on my credit. Except that my score went down when I was added, and I can see the balance when I check my credit score.
I also have an IRS pin, both of my kids have accountants do their taxes, I can ask
1 Like
I do not know enough about the finer points of being an AU on someone’s card.
I added each of my children to my oldest card when each was 17, and I know that my credit history appears on their credit reports. I assume that means balance and utilization info also.
You could ask your mother to remove you as an authorized user. Is she carrying a high balance on this card as a percentage of the card’s credit limit? I notice drops in my credit score when I charge a large amount on one account. All cards are paid off automatically on the due date via auto pay, but if I have say an $8K balance on a card, my score will drop–even though I have paid the full balance on that account every month for a decade.
I cannot remember if I had to provide my children’s SSN when adding as an authorized user. I should probably remove them at this point, although my 30 year credit history probably helps their credit scores!
1 Like
It’s ok. She pays off her card every month so that’s good. Doesn’t charge much either.
I put almost everything on my card, including my ridiculous health insurance premiums so my balances are pretty high.
Maybe I’ll effect her credit score!
3 Likes
When I applied for an airline Visa recently, the bank asked me if I wanted to add an authorized user or co-applicant. I did not have to provide my husband’s SSN in the former case. He was issued a card he can use but I’m fully responsible for what he does with said card.
4 Likes
Same here. I’m an authorized user on a CC DH opened. No SS was needed from me.
2 Likes
Yes unless the prenup says otherwise.
In 1990, I received about $10k from my grandmother. I’ve always kept it in a separate account and added my Ds as beneficiaries. It’s memory-money. DH never cared that I kept it separate for the girls. It’s now worth about $40k. I joke that it is my plastic surgery fund.
When DH’s parents passed, their will first allotted 5% to each grandchild and then divided the balance among their kids. We were thrilled that the grandchildren got a nice start with about $50k each, circa 2018.
As far as I know, my Ds have contributed some to home purchases but kept a separate account as I did with my memory-money.
Most of DH’s portion went into a remodel that we had been planning. (He always asked me to use my then-future inheritance to pay off our mortgage).
DH passed before his parents estate was fully settled and the executor asked me what to do with his remaining portion. I instructed to divide it between the Ds.
Moving ahead: I have a trust and four small bank accounts have list the Ds as beneficiaries. If one D passes, I think the other receives it fully — not per stirpes to the next generation.
Currently, my IRAs pay out to a trust. I understand that can incur greater taxes than passing to individuals. But, depending on the ages of Ds and grandchildren, I want the trust to hold funds for five years. Our trust also allocates 5% per grandchild, and I don’t want to leave out any children that are born in the next 5 years.
Throw in that one of the Ds lives in Pennsylvania, a state with a 4.5% inheritance tax. Currently, the trust is set to pay that 4.5% on behalf of the PA resident.
There’s a lot to consider. I think I will spend this frigid day looking for my IRS pin and organizing passwords!
8 Likes
You have a bit of decision-making to do. I would be in the same boat about ‘future grandchildren (younger DD is 29 and single).
I find in retirement, one does ‘the dance’ on getting things sorted out but when one is in the mood to tackle certain things.
I like to do a ‘deep dive’ once I get into certain financial things - like our separate investment account. We moved some 401k money into it but haven’t done ‘step 2’ with the investments. It is in a low interest money market account now, in holding pattern. I want to rebalance funds there as well but need to do some studying on current market conditions/potential funds and read up on other sources as well. We had our ‘state of the market’ semi-annual meeting from our FA group, and we get little videos weekly or every-other week on market conditions and unusual things going on.
I’m guessing you don’t care enough, but if you realize you made a large purchase on CC and you don’t want it to impact credit score, you can make a payment right after that charge.
3 Likes
Thanks! You are correct in thinking that the temporary drops do not concern me. I prefer the float on the money.
I find it silly that the agencies ding my score for using my CC.
It has been a few frustrating weeks with my FA and I am wondering if it is time to switch.
When my mom died I was fortunate to be one of the beneficiaries of her substantial IRAs. I had met with the advisor on numerous occasions and was comfortable with her approach in Mom’s situation. Mom never would have moved her account.
H and I met with her a few weeks ago. I felt like I was being lectured about spending and I wasn’t happy about it. I scheduled the meeting to review what our goals for 2026 were and how our investments were going to help us achieve that. I walked out of the meeting with recommendations to get a HELOC, stop accumulating money in my personal savings, and cut my periodic distribution. I thought maybe I should quit trusting so much and do a bit of my own research.
The vast majority of the bene IRA is tied up in American Funds. I am now realizing how high the fees are and why advisors like them so much. I have looked at Bogleheads previously but have been overwhelmed with all of the information. Can anyone suggest a good starting point for me to have a better understanding of these accounts before I start looking for a new FA?
2 Likes
First off, I’m sorry you had that experience with that sales person (not FA). Remind yourself that salespeople are good at their job - selling their product. That you’ve realized this person isn’t working in your best interests is a great step and you should feel proud of yourself and empowered to move forward.
It might be a good idea to (if you want to have a FA going forward) to meet with someone at Vanguard. They offer basic FA services for a relatively low fee.
If you want to take this on yourself, believe me when I say that you are capable of doing so. Bogleheads has a wiki that might be very helpful in your case as you can look at that instead of the forum and get some basic information (asset allocation in IRA might be very helpful, as well as figuring out what purpose you want to use that money for).
If I were you, I would probably choose to roll the bene IRA under your current “FA” to a new provider (no matter what else you choose). You can initiate that transfer from the new provider - no need to get your current “advisor” to agree. That most likely means liquidating the current positions and the money would probably roll over as cash. Depending on the products you’ve been sold - I’m not sure if there would be fees charged during liquidation. Even if there are - it still is probably a better idea to get out of high fee funds and have the ability to buy no load/low fee funds - no matter the fees charged to leave.
Bogleheads has a template to follow to get suggestions about how to get advice to restructure your investments. It could be well worth following their template and posting your question on that site. Lots of very experienced, very helpful posters over there.
6 Likes
Thank you!
2 Likes
I agree with everything you wrote above, other than the suggestion of Vanguard.
I know that the Boglehead crowd loves them, but I find their platform completely unintuitive. I think they were excellent when the other brokerage firms were not offering no fee funds, but most have caught up.
Also, their tech lags so during peak transaction times (late December), users may encounter delays. I should add that I have not looked at Vanguard in five or six years, when my children moved their Roth accounts from Vanguard to Fidelity. Functionality may have improved since then.
I find Fidelity’s site the easiest to use, but that may be operator error! I also like their phone support, where I can agree to screen share with a rep so that I can more easily understand instructions.
Schwab offers excellent research, but I don’t like that they do not provide YTD tax info (on a taxable account) and their cash management is terrible. If a position matures, the proceeds are deposited to an account that earns a few basis points, if that. Fidelity’s core position (where proceeds are deposited) is paying 3.33% presently. This will not be an issue for someone with an actively managed account, but is for someone handling own decisions.
1 Like
Asking for clarification …Was this person already your FA, or did you inherit her along with the IRA?
Lectured you about spending? Like told you to spend less? Did she give a reason why ?
1 Like