Happy 2021! It has already been an interesting two weeks. I guess the excitement is not over yet.
Something less exciting than the personal stories we usually cover is an important policy that Woodbury Financial Services will be putting into effect starting this June. This only applies if you have a Pershing brokerage account, so if you do not you can skip this letter for now and read the other articles.
Starting in June 2021 (for Pershing brokerage accounts) – Woodbury will begin charging clients $1.50 per paper generated confirmation report for a trade. For paper prospectuses (which I know everyone eagerly reads when they arrive) – I am charged $1.50 per paper prospectus. Woodbury is really trying to get everyone paperless in these two areas and I have to agree on the benefits, as most clients end up placing these paper documents into the burn or shred bags after a few seconds of looking at them.
That brings us to eQuipt, Woodbury’s electronic platform. Many of you may have set up this account. The login is wfsequipt.com/login and most usernames are the e-mail address. Once you are in eQuipt you are directed to the Dashboard page that shows all brokerage accounts and you can navigate through the many links to see all the different information. There is a link called e-documents and if you click on that you will see Go Paperless or Quick Enroll to start the process to go paperless. If it gets confusing from here on – please call our office.
For now there are no charges for paper statements from Pershing. Several years ago, before eQuipt, Pershing was charging $0.75 per paper statement. At that time, I had clients set up a NetInvestor account. After a while the paper statement charges stopped. I believe the NetInvestor account from Pershing is still accessible, but ideally you may want to just shift to eQuipt. I suspect someday Pershing will charge for the paper statements again.
Some clients like the paper statements and keep them in binders or files. Others prefer to just keep it electronic to prevent accidentally throwing out the statement which has the account info on it or in theory it gets stolen from the mail. I personally think you will want to at least get your tax statements by paper. We are aware Pershing usually does not get this all completed until March. Keep in mind if you need a paper statement my staff can always go online and print one out for you.
For the more techy types, eQuipt can also be downloaded as an app on your smart phone. Many younger clients like this feature as a way to see what is going on with their Pershing accounts.
Finally – to confuse you more – we will still have the other way you can see all your accounts online and that is via a ONEVIEW access. Some clients do not have Pershing brokerage accounts but may have mutual funds or annuities held directly at the company. ONEVIEW is a program that consolidates the amounts for all the accounts. It has nothing to do with going paperless with Pershing. Even if you have the ONEVIEW access – I urge you to at least open an eQuipt online account and do the paperless settings .
So to summarize – I will have eQuipt on the meeting agenda for clients that have Pershing Brokerage accounts and will try and work with you on going paperless. Thanks for your patience!
By Richard A Balch, CFP, CLU, ChFC