Is it common practice for a financial advisor

amother

DarkRed ↓

Mon, Dec 11 2023, 5:12 pm

It sounds like he’s looking to give you detailed budgeting type advise in which case seeing all your finances more than just a couple of bank statements makes sense.

amother

↑ Hibiscus ↓

Mon, Dec 11 2023, 5:16 pm

amother Dimgray wrote:

Because logging in at his office, he can have a computer programme to save all your data and account details, whilst a printout is only all the transactions and he can't do that much with numbers on a piece of paper.
NEVER give out account login details.

What data and account details could be needed besides transactions/balances?
Online bank accounts don't have a way to export all account data, and any software that pulls data out of people's online accounts would not be legitimate. And again, what data are your even talking about that would be needed?

amother

↑ Hibiscus ↓

Mon, Dec 11 2023, 5:17 pm

anonymous mom wrote:

I don't get why everyone is freaking out! It seems completely normal to me that he would like to look at your bank account to see how you're spending and why you're falling into debt or are losing money. He has no way to get into your bank account in general. Why would he memorize your account number? I don't understand the paranoia here; bizarre. This sounds ok to me.

That's what statements are for. The paranoia is because this is an unusual request.

amother

↑ Dimgray

Mon, Dec 11 2023, 5:33 pm

amother Hibiscus wrote:

The point people are trying to make is that it doesn't sound like a legitimate request. It is possible to save op's account log in details, and he can then log into their account whenever he wants and take their money, or whatever nefarious plans he wants to do with it.
The only data I can understand an advisor needing, it would be sufficient to provide printed bank statements.

amother

Orchid

Mon, Dec 11 2023, 5:39 pm

amother OP wrote:

to require access to the client's bank account?

OP, I can't answer your question because I don't have a financial advisor.

But I do want to mention that my husband is a CPA and very often he asks clients for access to online banking, credit cards, retirement plans, etc. etc. It makes his job a lot easier rather than having to chase after clients for copies of multiple statements in doing tax planning. He's never done anything nefarious with any of it. And I don't understand why, assuming you went to someone with a good reputation at a firm with a good reputation, you'd need to freak out over this. I think everyone is really over-reacting. Unless you went to some fly-by-night guy nobody you know ever heard of or used before.

amother

↑ DarkRed

Tue, Dec 19 2023, 8:54 am

amother OP wrote:

I'm still a bit in the dark
is it reasonable to provide bank statements or is this also not recommended?

What kind of advisor is this, someone helping you with investments probably not reasonable but someone helping you with daily budgeting and making ends meet yes they need to know every detail to help you effectively.

amother

↑ Hibiscus

Tue, Dec 19 2023, 9:14 am

amother OP wrote:

I'm still a bit in the dark
is it reasonable to provide bank statements or is this also not recommended?

Bank statement is reasonable.

amother

Ultramarine

Tue, Dec 19 2023, 9:49 am

I never used a financial advisor, so I can help you with that.

10+ years ago I worked in a very small heimishe office (just me and one other girl). One day I left on a Friday to pick up my kid and came back to work to stay a bit longer and finish something. My idiot boss had left a post it note on my desk. It had the login username and password to my chase account and one more website. I had gone onto those websites during my lunchbreak at work. There were no rules against that (these days I would never do that, I would use my phone). He had a program that tracked every keystroke. They never told me they had the program and I didn’t really care, since I wasn’t hiding anything. But I was so alarmed that he would write down my login info. I left the job soon after.

Basically just trying to say that I would never login to a private account on anyone else’s computer. It’s really not a big deal for you to login at home and print out every bank statement and cc statement going back however long he wants. It’s all saved online and can be easily printed.

amother

NeonYellow

Tue, Dec 19 2023, 10:51 am

Just want to say that some credit card accounts (and possibly bank accounts) can categorize all your purchases to show you how much you are spending on different categorize (ex: utilities, clothing, gas, groceries, etc). Maybe this is what he wants?
Anyway I would NOT log in on someone else’s computer.
Ask him what he wants and print it and bring it in. You can do bank statements, or reports and black out any personal sensitive info (like account numbers). Always best to be safe.