Opening account at Fidelity as POA

[Dufus]

I am DPOA registered with the County for a Parent who has Alzheimer's.

Recently sold an asset of theirs for 350k. No issues with sale, money deposited into their bank account which has my name on it and I have check writing privileges.

Bank pays 1% on money market. I would like to open an account for my parent at Fidelity (or someplace) where I can invest their money in Tbills or money market or SOMETHING that is as risk free as possible and has better rates. Can this be done?

If this cannot be done, is there a way to cover my ass such that I write a check from my parent's account to my account and invest it but give them the proceeds? Is there a way to document what I am doing for their benefit, that does not look like I'm trying to take advantage. They are physically healthy but mentally gone.

My parent would be willing to go into a Fidelity office and tell them I am authorized to act on their behalf. (They are also willing to go into a Fidelity office and tell them I am the ambassador to Mars.)

Any ideas? Parent is in a facility and has no assets other than the cash mentioned but gets ~2000 in SS and ~400 in pension per month. Facility costs more than twice that.

[HomeStretch]

I was in a similar situation. Fidelity is a good choice as they are POA friendly. They accepted my parent’s DPOA with a Fidelity form requiring notarization of my signature at their local office. I was able to open accounts, initiate account transfers from Vanguard online and link their bank account. LadyGeek has a good thread about the set-up process that mirrored my experience around the same time:
viewtopic.php?p=7490219#p7490219

Fidelity has good money market funds such as SPAXX or, if subject to state tax, FDLXX. You can also buy and autoroll US treasuries.

Sounds like the $350k may fund 10 years of net expense at the current facility rates? You may want to include 20% equity in Fidelity’s total US stock market fund (FSKAX) to help the portfolio keep up with inflation.

I also opened a Fidelity CMA for my parent as a backup to their bank account. ATM/debit card (ATM fees reimbursed), free paper checks, free wires, bill pay, direct deposit.

[CC Mike]

I had the same experience with Fidelity as HomeStretch. I was able to walk into a Fidelity office with POA in hand and open an account for my mom who is in a memory care facility. It was used as an account to deposit funds from the sale of her home which we directed to the account at the house sale closing. Fidelity was by far easier to deal with than her local branch bank in this regard. As you mentioned we invested in T bills in the account.

[RetiredAL]

I was in a similar situation. Fidelity is a good choice as they are POA friendly. They accepted my parent’s DPOA with a Fidelity form requiring notarization of my signature at their local office. I was able to open accounts, initiate account transfers from Vanguard online and link their bank account. LadyGeek has a good thread about the set-up process that mirrored my experience around the same time:
viewtopic.php?p=7490219#p7490219

Fidelity has good money market funds such as SPAXX or, if subject to state tax, FDLXX. You can also buy and autoroll US treasuries.

I also opened a Fidelity CMA for my parent as a backup to their bank account. ATM/debit card (ATM fees reimbursed), free paper checks, free wires, bill pay, direct deposit.

Schwab is also very friendly towards POA Agents opening accounts.

[Dufus]

Many thanks for the responses. The banks I have dealt with have been horrendous. Glad to hear Fidelity will work with us.

[HomeStretch]

I am not sure whether you are planning to keep or close the bank account. Don’t be quick to shut it down if that is where your parent has their SS benefit direct deposited. The only way to change your parent’s mailing address or direct deposit bank with SSA is in your parent’s online account (there is no paper form).

If you don’t have the log on credentials for your parent’s SSA account, you need to be appointed their “representative payee” to make any SSA changes. Link to a recent thread that about this:
viewtopic.php?p=8227104#p8227104

[mkc]

You might want to review @LadyGeek's posts when she opened accounts at Fidelity under POA for her mother. Here's one of the early ones

Finding out your Power of Attorney is useless

You can read further in the topic as she reported on the process/progress

[Dufus]

I got the account opened and approved after taking the forms in person to the local Fidelity office. I can log into my account and see his account (with zero balance). Great. Now it's time to put money in there. I try to add the credit union checking account but run into errors. The only accounts I can transfer from are MY accounts. I call Fidelity. "Oh, only the account owner can do that."

What about beneficiaries? "Account owner must do that and the sign forms."

I'm giving up for now. Headed back to Credit Union.

[evancox10]

I got the account opened and approved after taking the forms in person to the local Fidelity office. I can log into my account and see his account (with zero balance). Great. Now it's time to put money in there. I try to add the credit union checking account but run into errors. The only accounts I can transfer from are MY accounts. I call Fidelity. "Oh, only the account owner can do that."

What about beneficiaries? "Account owner must do that and the sign forms."

I'm giving up for now. Headed back to Credit Union.

Fidelity is weird in that certain fairly normal operations, like contributing $ to an IRA or doing some online transfers, cannot be done by the POA agent online. You have to call it in.

Does your DPOA give you specific authority to designate beneficiaries? If so, and it is done in a manner that is valid under state law, just fill out the beneficiary form, sign it as agent for Mr. Incapacitated, and send it in. If they reject, you may need to retain counsel. In my state (TX) a DPOA drafted according to the state provided form must be recognized, and the institution is liable to reimburse you the attorney fees you incur to enforce it. Your state may have a similar law. In any case, talk to the lawyer who helped draft the DPOA.

Also, unless the principal doesn't have a will, or the will is out of date in a way that would be contrary to their wishes, you would likely be better off not setting beneficiaries for taxable accounts anyways. (Retirement accounts and life insurance are a different matter.) See one of the many, many posts from bsteiner on the reasons why.

Granted, if Mr Incapacitated doesn't have capacity to draft a will, and the existing will is "bad", then doing the beneficiary designation may be your best option.

[Dufus]

Credit Union was easy. I opened a CD for him at 4% and made myself and DW beneficiaries.

I could have done a little better at Fidelity but it wasn't worth the hassle tax.

He has no assets other than the money currently at CU. There will be nothing to probate.

[snic]

I got the account opened and approved after taking the forms in person to the local Fidelity office. I can log into my account and see his account (with zero balance). Great. Now it's time to put money in there. I try to add the credit union checking account but run into errors. The only accounts I can transfer from are MY accounts. I call Fidelity. "Oh, only the account owner can do that."

What about beneficiaries? "Account owner must do that and the sign forms."

I'm giving up for now. Headed back to Credit Union.

I went through all this when setting up an IRA account at Fidelity as POA for my mom. Opening the account was easy. I did an ACATS transfer from another brokerage, also pretty easy. What was more difficult was linking a bank account. They make it very hard for POAs to do that. I ended up linking it to my mom's Fidelity trust account - but even that was not easy and took several days. And then the option to transfer funds electronically still was not available - I was told I would have to call to execute a transfer.

I know it's too late for the OP, but the easiest way to do it would probably have been to write a check and send it in (or take it to a Fidelity branch?) with a deposit form. (I am not sure why the difficulty with beneficiaries - to open the IRA account, I sent in a paper account application, which allows you to specify beneficiaries. I signed it as POA and as far as I can tell they accepted that.)

The whole thing was easier for the Fidelity trust account I set up for my mom - I am the trustee, and apparently they view trustees with less suspicion than POAs. I can do everything online, including transfers. To establish the link to the bank, as long as the bank account is titled the same way and you send Fidelity either a bank letter or a check with the trust name on it, they will link the account electronically.

The good news is that for both POA and trust accounts, there are no limits on online trading.

[CC Mike]

There seems to be so many differences in what people experience with DPOAs. I have had no issues linking branch bank checking for my mom to Fidelity and periodically make transfers to Fidelity with no issues