I'd be finding someone else to handle my financial dealings. It sounds to me that you don't trust them. I can't imagine why they wouldn't accept the POA for your aunt.

Sounds very fishy to me. I would be changing companies asap.

His company knowing all about your finances benefits you HOW??????

I'd be looking for an advisor I can trust and be comfortable with...someone who treats me like "the customer is always right. YOU are the customer.

Something is definitely not right here. Their requests are absurd. Their explanations don't make sense.
I'd move my money very quickly.
They won't accept your POA? Has your aunt been monitoring her account? Something's wrong here too.

I deal with a couple companies, and they're not asking for my total financial situation. I wouldn't give it to them, and I would leave if they asked. I think your instincts are right.

I'd email the Suze Orman show she warns against stuff like this

Huge red flag. Run, and run fast. We've been w/ Smith-Barney for years and left to go w/ S. West Investmets b/c our broker made the decision to change. You need to be able to trust your broker, and I wouldn't trust yours as far as I could throw him. The POA thing about the aunt would have done it for me. We've had investments since we married and then inherited when my daddy died, and I trust my broker 100%. There's something wrong w/ your picture.

Only 3 people need to know ALL money and assets.

1. myself
2. my attorney, because all of that is in my will
3. my spouse he really doesn't know All &
   probably won't until the attorney reads the will

I would be looking for a new adviser if I were told they needed all my financial info.

LIL

Get away from them ASAP. Sever all ties ASAP.

We have had the same advisor for 20 years and we like him. I think the company our advisor is with now is putting pressure on him to get all this information. I would hate to leave him. We don't plan to give out all that information. If they don't like it they can tell us to move to someone else. It's interesting to find that no one else has been approached about telling all. That is just not right and I plan to tell our advisor. Maybe he needs to move to a different company.

gmom...again, another long time, well respected financial adviser in our area was just sentenced to jail for embezzlement. This is happening more and more.
Try a company like Vanguard, where you make decisions and keep control, but have the ability to call salaried advisers with questions.

Unless it is legally required for some reason, "just say no."

My answer would be with out doubt NO they do not need to know any info other than that required for them to do your business with them that is it. You see so many cases of fraud now and with some big name companies you have to be pro active in protecting your self and your finances.
Be sure you do your research on this company and it's employees, check with better business bureau do some online searches to see if you find complaints or law suits against them.

We had an account with a big name firm that we had used at one time when we were buying a house and did some stock transactions to get out money for the down payment, well the account then sat for a long time with no activity. One day we get a statement from them which was strange since we had not used the account and surprise it showed major money transactions in the account! I mean big money, we thought what the heck is going on, well turned out someone there at the company was using dormant accounts to move money around and had picked ours since it had been dormant for so long guess he never thought about the activity would cause a statement to be sent out. If we had been quick we could have cashed out that account for big money and he would really have been screwed! My husband went down there and the company was dumbfounded. Problem is that any money that goes through an account like that of course gets reported to the IRS which would have put us in a big mess!
No idea how many others he had been doing that to.

I would take my money out and RUN away, far away!!

The company he is with is pushing him to have all his clients report ALL the money they have, whether in bank accounts, real estate, or other investments the advisor may not know about.
I'm wondering if maybe your financial adviser's company also has Financial Planning services now or something, and is wanting to also provide you with Financial Planning services.

In working with my Financial Planner, I laid all of my cards on the table to be assessed and evaluated to see if I was on the right track in comfortably meeting my future long term needs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Q: What is the difference between an investment adviser and a financial planner?

Gmom, I don't like the sound of this, either. Our E. Jones guy sure didn't ask for that! He did want a yearly buget from us, but didn't get that either, only because I haven't used a buget in 20 years! All of my bills are paid as they come in, cc's are paid in full every month, and who knows how much will be on them, depending on wether we have been traveling or had another big expense. I would definitely be looking for someone else.

Tami, who is not investment savy but even for me, that's a red flag!

I have investments with one of the major companies, Once a year I receive a notice to update my assets - Value of home, how much land I own, and some other questions. It is from the company, not my broker.

I throw it away. Nothing has ever happened because I did not reply.

All the replies were interesting and you think much the same way we do. We will not tell either the company nor our financial manager (I'm surprised that he is going along with that) anything more. Thanks a lot for your input.

I'd call them up and tell them to send the forms immediately to pull the funds from their control. Run, don't walk from these jokers. They're just trying to get more info so they can try to get more control of more of your assets. It's a simple case of greed. Instead of asking in a professional and forthright manner to gain more business from you, they're trying to be sneaky. Again, run, don't walk, and get thee away from there now. And I'd be telling them I don't do business with liars, BSers, sneaks and frauds when they ask.

No one I deal with is asking (nor would they ever receive!) my full financial profile. It's NO ONE ELSE's business.

Liquidate what you have with him, and find a more trustworthy company to deal with.

And how can they NOT accept a POA? I was my aunt's POA (and now executrix) and I've NEVER had anyone refuse to accept the document. There's something radically wrong with this outfit. You need to get far far away from them

I think I would tell the advisor that while you have complete confidence in him that I don't agree with the company's policy and will not provide the information that they are requesting. And I would make it known to him that I would not hesitate to pull my accounts if need be. As far as the failure to accept the POA I probably would have been tempted to pull a significant amount of business from them at that point.

Sue (Chemocurl), I did as you did.

My husband chose to hire Fidelity for our financial investments while he was alive. I continued with the same company, location and advisor he chose before his death - I now live in Florida, but my portfolio is in Kansas.

No one has ever asked me where I have other investments - I requested that everything be under one umbrella.

I WANT all my money/finances in one place, so I can have it properly managed and tailored to my needs, AND I only have to look at one quarterly report. I trust Fidelity because my husband did, and they have taken very wonderful care of my file.

It's much easier for ME to look at my financial growth (and value) with this quarterly report. I would not be able to keep up with multiple financial outlets - this works for me!

My PFA calls me if he needs to change anything or ask any questions - we have a close personal working relationship and I am thankful for him (and his team)!

The only legitimate reason I can think of would be to keep you from being over-invested in something. If your other investments are heavily in real estate, for instance, they might weight your portfolio away from RE. But...surely YOU can see to that!

We are asked from time to time to state our goals, in a rather general way. It's mostly about how much risk we want to take or when we expect to need some 'ready cash' as opposed to longer term investments.

We have been with our financial advisor for about ten years. He is very highly rated, and we were referred by a friend who I have known since HS. The standard forms ask about all of our accounts and investments. Like chisue said, it is to make sure we have the right mix. The first year, we dutifully reported $$ in our savings account, which we later sent to him for investment. Well, the report showed it twice (invested and in savings). So after that, we never reported savings.

I agree about your POA for your Aunt; it is weird that the company won't accept it.