Many of our clients have expressed that they no longer want to receive paper delivery of financial statements and notices of activity in the mail. LPL and Charles Schwab provide several options to minimize the printed materials delivered to your mailing address. Here are the options and ways to help you go paperless.
Your Options
Investors can enroll in electronic delivery by contacting our office to establish an LPL Account View profile or Schwab Alliance profile where you can then log in and select electronic delivery. Electronic delivery election can be made for each of the following document types.
- Monthly statements
- Quarterly Performance Reports (on LPL Advisory Accounts)
- Trade confirms
- Prospectuses/Proxies – Please note that you will receive an email from Broadridge requesting that you log into http://www.investordelivery.com to complete the process of turning off prospectus and client shareholder mailings from fund companies.
It is important to remember that each spouse will need to complete this process separately.
Possible Delays in Going Paperless
- A combined statement group can cause a delay in going paperless if all accounts in the client statement group do not use the same primary email address.
- Since fund companies and/or the custodian are required to deliver prospectuses, a hard copy of such prospectus may be mailed if email delivery is rejected by the client’s internet service/email provider, or on occasion certain materials are not available in electronic format.
Electronic Delivery – Direct Business with a Fund, Insurance Company or 529 Plans
Sponsors or fund companies are responsible for making proxies and prospectuses available electronically and arrangements must be made directly with each sponsor to confirm your preferred delivery method.
- Most sponsors have electronic delivery available and require investors to set up an online profile in order to view documents electronically. Once investors activate their online profile, they typically can elect online delivery of statements as well.
- Some sponsors allow advisors to set up electronic delivery for their investors over the phone if they can verify they have an online profile created.
Documents Delivered by Physical Mail
For your protection many account level communications are still sent through the physical mail to the address of record when a triggering event occurs, such as a welcome letter to confirm that the account has been set up correctly, funds withdrawn from an account, a failed email delivery attempt, and confirmations of registration changes. We are evaluating these topics and options for transitioning to electronic delivery as well. As always, please contact us if you have questions about this process.