Bank and broker issues for a new club
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Bank and broker issues for a new club The following was sent to the Trez_Talk inbox. It
brings up some valuable considerations for a new club.
Guy Russell wrote,
I thought we planned our group very well, but we seem to keep hitting alot of obstacles. Maybe these questions are some that others have been wondering about, and or had to discover the hard way... We have our partnership agreement done, signatures coming back, and we are working out the broker issues. One broker, with the best fees, Insists that checks being deposited must come from the same name on the account. So we cant deposit individual checks into the brokerage account. So this made us look into banks. The bank itself is easy, and with a savings account with a minimum balance wont cost us anything. But we were wanting to require 2 signatures on checks over 300.00. But we seem to be the only ones who can enforce this one.... Hmmm Any ideas??? Now our broker informs us we will need
to have everyone sign this one agreement. So we have to send it one by
one to every person which is going to take a long time.. If you figure
an average of 4 days per person time 18... MAN!!!
These are just some of the obstacles we
have run into when starting our group. And If there is an easier way, I
am sure everyone would appreciate the heads up!
Guy,
First, thanks for the "heads up".
We'll share it with others on Trez
Talk so that they may benefit from your experiences.
Secondly, a couple of ideas or comments.
Remember, the cheapest broker might not be the best broker in terms of time or
total money spent. Many brokers, including many of the deep discounters,
offer free checking and they don't require that the check be from the same name
as that on the account, as your broker does. Every month my
club sends in a separate check made out to our broker from each member
. Some clubs have even set up automatic transfers from each members
checking accounts directly to the club brokerage account bypassing the need for
written checks.
The fact that you must now have a separate bank account
also makes life more difficult. Your treasurer now has more statements and
accounting tasks to deal with, your club will have to transfer money to the
brokerage account every time your club makes a purchase and you don't already
have sufficient funds in your brokerage account, and, as you've already
discovered, you have another layer of bureaucracy to deal with.
Most clubs today use their broker as a single source for
investing and checking. It's just easier, and often cheaper, that
way.
Finally, every broker I have dealt with requires all
partners to sign a Partnership/Club Account Form. However, they will
often let partners sign duplicate copies so that the same piece of paper doesn't
have to make all the rounds. Check with your broker, they may allow
you to circulate several copies, having each partner sign one of them, so that
you can complete the necessary paperwork in a reasonable amount of
time.
Good luck and thanks for sharing your experiences with
bivio!
Disclaimer: statements are opinions expressed by Rip West and Jerry Dressel and are not official statements from either bivio or the IRS. These statements are not intended to replace professional tax or accounting advice. When in doubt, follow the advice of your local tax advisor or accountant who is familiar with your particular circumstances. |
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