Fidelity

Linda Wiltse on

I would like to inform the Bivio community of what our club has gone through to try to change our officers with our Fidelity brokerage account. We had tried several years ago to change officers with no success. Last year we changed officers again and I am the only authorized officer left. The other 3 new officers have not been authorized. This means we don’t have 2 people to sign checks. We have sent them signatures of everyone in the club, the minutes from the meeting where we voted in new officers, a copy of our bylaws, all their forms filled out, etc. Their legal department still won’t accept the changes. They want a charter, a list of all current members with new signatures, and who knows what else. I don’t know what they mean by “charter”. We are a large club (over 40 members) with many members who have winter homes in Florida. It is impossible to give them what they are asking. Several years ago they changed the requirements for clubs, and it makes it extremely difficult to satisfy their requirements.

Our only option , at this point is to disband the club. They are so worried about their legal liability, they make it impossible for us to function. They said most of their clubs are much smaller and they don’t change officers every few years. What would happen if an officer died or left the club and they were the only one able to make transactions?

Clubs better be prepared for these problems when changing officers and make sure 2 officers remain to provide continuity. Fidelity does not seem to care that they will lose our business.

Linda Wiltse

The Pointe Players

Ty Hughes on

Linda:

Have you explored moving the club portfolio in kind to another custodian such as Schwab? That way the club would not have to be disbanded.

Ty Hughes

On Feb 17, 2020, at 12:59 AM, Linda Wiltse via bivio.com <user*31518000001@bivio.com> wrote:

I would like to inform the Bivio community of what our club has gone through to try to change our officers with our Fidelity brokerage account. We had tried several years ago to change officers with no success. Last year we changed officers again and I am the only authorized officer left. The other 3 new officers have not been authorized. This means we don't have 2 people to sign checks. We have sent them signatures of everyone in the club, the minutes from the meeting where we voted in new officers, a copy of our bylaws, all their forms filled out, etc. Their legal department still won't accept the changes. They want a charter, a list of all current members with new signatures, and who knows what else. I don't know what they mean by "charter". We are a large club (over 40 members) with many members who have winter homes in Florida. It is impossible to give them what they are asking. Several years ago they changed the requirements for clubs, and it makes it extremely difficult to satisfy their requirements.
Our only option , at this point is to disband the club. They are so worried about their legal liability, they make it impossible for us to function. They said most of their clubs are much smaller and they don't change officers every few years. What would happen if an officer died or left the club and they were the only one able to make transactions?
Clubs better be prepared for these problems when changing officers and make sure 2 officers remain to provide continuity. Fidelity does not seem to care that they will lose our business.
Linda Wiltse
The Pointe Players

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