Junk Mail: Simplify your life a bit with electronic documents
When you open up new accounts with us, there will be a flurry of mail. Much of that will be coming from Schwab and your My529 college savings accounts or other accounts.
I encourage you to create an online account at Schwab.com and turn off paper mail at least to some degree.
There are four main things that you can have delivered to your house from Schwab.
Tax Documents: I recommend that you have tax documents always sent to you by mail. That way, you won't have to remember to print them.
Statements: Some people like to review their statements, and from an anti-fraud perspective, I think it's a good idea to make sure there are no unauthorized withdrawals. Alternatively, you can also monitor those by logging in when you get a statement notification if you are diligent about it. It's crucial that you notify Schwab and us within ten days of the beginning of the month if you see any discrepancies with these fraudsters. If there is a lot of time between the fraud and when it is noticed and reported, recovery is more complicated and may result in an unrecoverable loss to you.
Shareholder Documents and Trade Confirmations: I don't recommend that you have those mailed to your house. We vote your proxy's for investments, so you don't have to do it. Trade confirmations are unnecessary because you get that information on your monthly statement and no longer need to save them because we do the tax accounting reporting for you at the end of the year.
Seeing Accounts Online: When you log into Schwab, you won't necessarily see your spouse's accounts without special authorization from them. If you would like to see all accounts with one login, please let us know, and we'll get you the paperwork to sign and return for access.
The Last Word on Junk Mail: If you are married and opening up new accounts in both of your names, you each need to create an online login to Schwab to authorize electronic documents and stop all the junk mail.
Please let us know if you have any questions.
We hope this process goes smoothly for you, and we are standing by to help if you need a little guidance.
Thanks for taking a look!
Tom