Account Consolidation

As we begin your financial and retirement planning, consider account consolidations.  We believe there are many advantages to account consolidation.  Consolidation of your banking, savings, investment and retirement at one institution has significant benefits.  These benefits are significant, especially for retirees primarily related to simplification of overall money related responsibilities.  Simplification becomes increasingly important as retirees age and become less interested in the details of their financial plans.  Consolidation allows easy, one stop shopping for all investment, financial, and health care activities. 

Many investors resist the idea of consolidation because they do not want to put all their eggs in one basket.  However, in today’s modern financial world, this worry no longer applies.  Protective mechanisms are in place to safeguard investor assets.  Contrary to popular belief, accounts held at brokerage custodians are not subject to the demands of creditors if that firm fails.  Registered brokerage firms must keep their clients’ securities and cash segregated from their own, and if the firm discontinues operation, clients’ assets remain safe and would typically just be transferred to another registered brokerage firm.  For example, assets held at public custodians, such as Pershing, are not subject to the type of fraud perpetrated by Bernard Madoff. 

SEI Private Trust Company, one of our third-party money manager partners, is committed to protecting your investment accounts from fraud.  As a federally chartered limited-purpose savings association, SEI adheres to extensive federally mandated controls designed to prevent fraudulent activity.  Moreover, these control measures are audited by both independent and internal auditors.  As a limited-purpose saving association, SEI Private Trust company is also subject to examination by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).   SEI Private Trust Company does not comingle your assets with its own or other investors.  Most importantly, SEI does not participate in Margin Lending and is not an outside firm, rather, SEI maintains custody of all client assets and still performs rigorous due diligence on all outside firm affiliates.  Our arrangement means that associates at Universal Wealth Management never have access to your assets and cannot transfer money due to the presence of a system designed to help prevent fraudulent movement of money.

By consolidating, we are merely arranging for these entries to be at one institution, so that we can receive one statement detailing all of your holdings and the activity associated with them.  In general, investors can transfer all of your current holdings to a consolidated account without selling or tax consequences.

Remember: the number of accounts that one has does not determine one’s level of diversification. A client could have 10 accounts at different institutions and still not be properly diversified.  Likewise, one could have 100% of his or her assets at one institution and be perfectly diversified.