Listen to Lawrence Letter: Seasonal address change for banks
May 27, 2022
Dear Clients and Friends:
I am a long way from being a snowbird (I do like that dry hot weather in Arizona though), but many of my clients can sympathize with the following practical problem:
CLIENT QUESTION:
I am a snowbird that travels to Florida for the winter months. I currently have established an Irrevocable Trust with you. During the months I go to travel I update my address with the financial institutions I have my money in. Upon calling them I am constantly told they cannot talk to me since I am not the trustee on file. I find this continually frustrating. Is there anything that can be done to have the institutions just update a seasonal address so I get the mail sent directly to me? I update my address with the post office so eventually, the mail does find its way to me but that can take up to 3 weeks.
Thank You.
MY RESPONSE:
Hi, that is a tough one. The bank is technically correct. It is not your money, it is the trust’s money.
However, here are three things off the top of my head that I think you could try:
1. I assume that your trustee is getting all the paperwork. Just have them take a picture of the statements and email them down to you; or
2. Get on the phone with your trustee present (or on a conference call) so they can (i) directly authorize a second set of documents to be sent down to you or (ii) simply troubleshoot the problem with the bank; or
3. Perhaps your online banking has the functionality to change addresses with the use of a username and password.
If anyone can think of a better solution, I will publish it here.
I hope this helps! Please forward this information to your friends and relatives to share these informative answers to some very commonly asked questions.
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Until next time,
peace, health and happiness,
Lawrence Eric Davidow