financial advisor asking for proof of AD

BrownSparrow

My LO's financial advisor who works for a very large financial services firm says his compliance office is asking for a signed doctor's note that says my LO has AD. 

I have PoA (which they have been given a copy) so I find this extremely unnecessary, intrusive and uncaring towards the difficulties family members face in dealing with the terminal illness of AD. 

Has anyone ever had to provide such proof? 

King Boo

It's a reasonable request.   Unfortunately, the tale of the adult child who has DPOA taking off with Mom and Dad's assets is a familiar one.  Whether it is technically needed could be fought, but it's not worth the energy at all.  

Not worth fighting it since it is easily produced and is ultimately for the protection of your loved one.

Financial institutions have to have their legal department vet POA's.  It is a tedious process at times.   They are sometimes unreasonable, but needing to have access to financials, we may need to comply.

harshedbuzz

This can be standard depending on how the POA is written. A springing POA will require at least one physician to certify that the PWD is impaired to the degree that their agent should be acting on their behalf. I mean, otherwise an unscrupulous agent could say mom's got dementia and drain her accounts whether she does or doesn't. 

My parents POAs were durable and I was able to use them without such documentation. FTR, dad had dementia; mom does not. I sold their homes and realigned mom's investments once dad died. IME, the banks and investment brokerages wanted to see and copy the originals which were sent to their legal department and vetted before I was given access. When I sold the houses, the title companies wanted a copy ahead of preparing the documents and required the originals to be sent with the paperwork at the time the transfer was made and later returned to me. 

Inconvenient as the timelines were, I was glad for the barriers that kept them safe.

HB

JJ401

Last month I read an article in Forbes about POAs and brokerage firms. From the article I learned that each brokerage has its own policy on a POA. Some firms have additional paperwork that must be signed for them to recognize the POA. I called where I have my small retirement account and there is additional paperwork my sons will need to do if/when they need to use the POA. So the doctor paper is not out of line with what I read.

M1

JJ401 its worth inquiring further now. Schwab would not honor my poa and required we fill out their own, including having my pwd sign. So better to do it while you still can, if your sons wait until you are incapacitated it may be too late

JJ401

M1, after I read the article, I called. They sent me the forms, my sons signed, had them notarized, and they are sent back. If I become incapacitated they still have to show up with the POA, but the firm forms are done.

harshedbuzz

M1 wrote:

JJ401 its worth inquiring further now. Schwab would not honor my poa and required we fill out their own, including having my pwd sign. So better to do it while you still can, if your sons wait until you are incapacitated it may be too late

M1-

That's interesting. Mom did have to complete a form and produce a copy of dad's POA for vetting at Schwab. It was reviewed by their legal department and she was granted access in about a week. This was 3 years ago, so perhaps it's changed. Or maybe it's related to the POA itself. Mom saw a CELA for her paperwork and we've never had issues. 

We found Schwab practically breezy compared to Vanguard. 

HB

Cynbar

You probably are dealing with a springing POA, which requires such medical documentation for the POA to kick in. But even if you don't have this language, I don't find it intrusive at all to require documentation. It's done to protect your LO's interests, to make sure that he/she in fact does require someone else to handle official business. It's designed to prevent an unscrupulous person from swooping in and taking advantage, you may well be totally trustworthy but they don't know that. Try to reframe it that way in your head, it will help with the anger, and remember that any organization is free to set its own rules about this sort of thing.