Fidelity Custodian Change | JFS Wealth Advisors (2024)

Announcement Regarding Custodian Relationship with Fidelity

An essential part of our commitment to serve your needs and provide you the best experience possible is regularly evaluating our service partner relationships. As a result of our ongoing due diligence, JFS Wealth Advisors has made the decision to move from current custodian, TD Ameritrade, to Fidelity Institutional^SM(Fidelity) to custody and protect your accounts. This change is due to various reasons related to service level standards, data-protection commitment and investment, and a variety of other competitive landscape elements. We believe that this change is in your best interest.

We want to assure you that we will continue to deliver the high level of service you expect from us, and our commitment to providing you with solutions to help meet your financial objectives will remain unchanged. Below are more details on what the custodian change means for you.

Why is a Custodian Relationship Important?

As a Registered Investment Advisor, JFS Wealth Advisors is required to have a custodian. A custodian is responsible for, among other things, holding your assets, handling trades, and providing reporting for your financial accounts. Investments that you entrust to our firm are placed in custody with a clearing firm, an organization that handles the execution, clearance, and settlement of transactions. JFS has made the decision to transition custody of your accounts to Fidelity.

Why We Chose Fidelity

• Strong partnership.Fidelity has been a trusted partner of JFS for more than 20 years, with our relationship expanding significantly in 2015.
• Privately owned.Fidelity has a 78-year heritage of putting clients first. Their private structure allows them to put clients’ needs ahead of company shareholders. Because of this philosophy, Fidelity has earned a reputation as one of the most recognized and most trusted brands in the industry.¹
• Size, scale, and safety of your assets. Fidelity is one of the largest financial services providers with $10.2 trillion in assets under administration.²Helping to safeguard your assets, Fidelity has arranged for insurance protection beyond the coverage available through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). While your assets are covered by SIPC up to $500,000, including cash claims limited to $250,000, Fidelity provides supplemental protection that covers your account over and above this SIPC coverage. The total aggregate excess of SIPC coverage available through Fidelity is $1 billion. However, keep in mind that this coverage does not protect you against a decline in the market value of your securities.
• State-of-the-art security measures.Fidelity employs sophisticated technologies with the aim of making certain that your sensitive information and accounts are well protected online, over the phone, and in person. Fidelity makes a multi-billion-dollar enterprise technology investment annually to ensure their system infrastructure meets the needs of their clients. They also have a team of several hundred employees who are charged with combating cyber fraud by anticipating and combating attacks before they happen.
• End-client-friendly practices. For households enrolled for eDelivery, Fidelity has eliminated trading fees on general stock and ETF trades.³They also have offered relatively higher yields than other custodians on their cash-sweep products.
• Award winning web portal, Fidelity.com/portfolio, to access your accounts.Fidelity has made viewing your account information simple via its mobile-friendly website and app. Fidelity was named the best overall online broker in 2020 by Investopedia.
• Recordkeeping that helps simplify your life. The need to keep track of your transactions, including capital gains and losses, can be a burden—especially at tax time. Through our relationship with Fidelity, you will receive a simplified, consolidated statement each month reflecting all your investment positions and transactions. During tax season, you will receive one consolidated 1099 tax form per account which includes a Supplemental Summary that can make preparing your tax return much easier.

What These Changes Mean for You

The custodian change will not affect, in any way, how we manage your investment portfolio or financial plan. This transition means your assets will now be custodied with Fidelity, but the management of your portfolio will be handled as it was before. Our independence in providing advice and selecting investments for you is unchanged, and we still have access to the same universe of investments.

What You Need to Do Next

To complete the transition to Fidelity, you will need to sign a set of documents authorizing transfer of your accounts. In July, JFS will provide you with all the necessary paperwork via e-signature. Once these documents are received, we ask that you please complete the forms promptly.

We look forward to a growing partnership with Fidelity and leveraging its strength and stability as a trusted financial institution. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Amanda Smith, Client Service Manager, atasmith@jfswa.comor 724-383-1183. You may also contact any member of your service team directly.

As always, we thank you for your continued trust in our service.

^{1Fidelity Brand Image & Awareness Quarterly Tracking Study of 7,500 retail investors: Q4 2020. www.fidelity.com/why-fidelity/awards-recognition.}

^{2 Data as of 02/28/2021}

^{3 Applies to paperless accounts or accounts with household value exceeding $1,000,000.}

^{Fidelity Investments and Fidelity InstitutionalSM (together “Fidelity”) is an independent company unaffiliated with JFS Wealth Advisors (“JFSWA”). Fidelity is a service provider to JFSWA. There is no form of legal partnership, agency affiliation, or similar relationship between your financial advisor and Fidelity, nor is such a relationship created or implied by the information herein. Fidelity Investments is a registered trademark of FMR LLC. Fidelity Institutional provides clearing, custody and other brokerage services through National Financial Services LLC or Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC. Members NYSE, SIPC. 976605.1.0}