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Morgan Stanley acquires E*Trade Advisor Services

Morgan Stanley’s acquisition of E*Trade Advisor Services has been in the works for several months. We recently received an announcement about the completion of the transaction along with the company’s FAQ, available here. If you have any questions or would like to learn more, please contact our Client Services team at 800-347-3539, extension 1.

Account address changes

To protect the safety of client account data, E*Trade will no longer accept client address, email, and phone number changes by email. E*Trade will require either a signed Letter of Instruction or the completion of the Change of Address form, available here.

Trusted contact person

E*Trade has added the Trust Contact Person feature to client accounts. The account owner can designate a trusted contact person as the authorized party for E*Trade Advisor Services to contact and disclose information to if there is a concern about their account. The trusted contact person cannot view account information, execute transactions, or inquire about account activity. The trusted contact person may be asked to confirm the client’s current contact information if they are unreachable, confirm the account owner’s current health status, or be notified of any possible financial fraud. The form to add a trusted contact person is available here.

Liberty access for new accounts

E*Trade Advisor Services will no longer use the client account number as the username for access to Liberty. New clients will receive a temporary username in their welcome letter. Once a client is logged in to Liberty, they can change their username and update their password.

We’re always looking for ways to improve your FPI experience. As part of that effort, we have given our website a fresh new look with your needs in mind. The redesigned flexibleplan.com features streamlined navigation to the features you use most, as well as enhanced security. Make sure to take a few minutes to check it out!

Charles Schwab recently completed its acquisition of TD Ameritrade. We have been assured that this change in ownership will not affect our management of client accounts at this time, as Schwab Advisor Services and TD Ameritrade Institutional will remain separate custodians until the account conversion is complete, which is expected to take between 18 and 36 months. For more information, please read Schwab’s announcement about the acquisition, available here. If you have any questions, please contact our Client Services team at 800-347-3539, extension 1. 

As a reminder, CARES Act legislation passed earlier this year enabled clients with a required minimum distribution (RMD) due in 2020 from a defined-contribution retirement plan—including a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, or an IRA—to skip those RMDs. This includes any client who turned age 70½ in 2019 and would have had to take the first RMD by April 1, 2020. The suspension for RMDs also applies to required distributions from beneficiary IRAs. (Note: This waiver does not apply to defined-benefit plans.) For more information about RMD repayments, see IRS Notice 2020-51.

On July 31, E*Trade Advisor Services sent a notice about the RMD rollback to account owners who are eligible for RMDs. A copy of the notice is here.