By Jane Morrow, IACCP®, Compliance Manager
When spending time with your family and friends, you may find yourself reflecting on how you and your loved ones support each other. As you do, you should think about who in your life you could designate as a trusted contact at your financial institution.
What is a trusted contact?
A trusted contact is like an emergency contact, but for your financial accounts. This is an individual designated by you, the account holder, to act as a point of contact for your financial institution for a variety of reasons, such as if your financial institution suspects financial exploitation or cognitive decline or to confirm your current contact information.
What can a trusted contact do?
Your trusted contact may be asked to confirm any of the following:
- Your current contact information. If your financial institution is unable to contact you, they might reach out to your trusted contact to confirm if your contact information has changed or what the best way to reach you may be.
- Your health status. If you experience a health emergency, your trusted contact can let your financial institution know what the situation is. Additionally, as clients age, questions regarding cognitive decline may arise. Your trusted contact is someone who, with your best interest in mind, can respond to any concerns raised by your financial institution.
- The contact information for other authorized parties, such as powers of attorney. If your financial institution needs to, but is unable to, get in contact with other parties whom you have designated to fulfill certain responsibilities, your trusted contact can assist in making sure your assets are being handled by the correct people.
You should keep in mind, though, that a trusted contact does not have any power over the accounts for which they have been designated a trusted contact. They cannot act on your behalf, execute transactions, or engage in any account activity. This person is quite simply, as the name suggests, a point of contact whom you trust.
How does MONTAG collect this information?
At MONTAG Wealth Management, we ask all of our clients to complete and sign a TPA (Trusted Party Authorization) Form. This is where our clients can list the people they trust us to contact in the event we should need to. If you are a MONTAG client and aren’t sure if or who you have listed as a trusted contact, you can reach out to the team here at any time to review your designations. These contacts can be invaluable in protecting you and your assets in the unlikely event something happens in the future. As everyone’s grandparent says…better safe than sorry!
The information provided is for illustration purposes only. It is not, and should not be regarded as “investment advice” or as a “recommendation” regarding a course of action to be taken. MONTAG employees do not provide legal or tax advice. For specific legal or tax matters, you should consult with your own legal and/or tax advisors.
