Mail Service Address with Morgan Stanley

[RamblingRoze]

Anybody use Morgan Stanley as their Investment Firm? I just recently opened an account using my mail service address from Your Best Address in SD and they flagged it as a PMB and want a physical address. Unfortunately I only have my children's addresses to use in NJ and do not want that as my legal address to avoid any tax issues. I am working with my financial advisor to resolve but was wondering if anyone has encountered this issue and were able to resolve? What did you or your financial advisor do?

Thanks. Any input would be appreciated.

[deanansley]

We had similar issue but with RBC. We use Dakota Post. I made a point to insist that no mail go to our daughter ( in CA) for same reasons, it’s been several years and no problem. Everything legal is in SD. Wills, trust accounts, investment accounts, voteing, cars , medical etc all use SD. No issues but I’ve become a good ambassador as to how great it is to “ live” in SD.

[Barbaraok]

Your money, move to another financial institution. BTW, if you are paying for 'financial advisor' tell the person to 'get it fixed!'. Again, your money, and money talks!

[RamblingRoze]

Originally Posted by deanansley

We had similar issue but with RBC. We use Dakota Post. I made a point to insist that no mail go to our daughter ( in CA) for same reasons, it’s been several years and no problem. Everything legal is in SD. Wills, trust accounts, investment accounts, voteing, cars , medical etc all use SD. No issues but I’ve become a good ambassador as to how great it is to “ live” in SD.

Thanks. Everything else is all SD also. My only concern is tax reporting - that interest and dividend income not get reported to the legal address that they have as in NJ.

[RamblingRoze]

Originally Posted by Barbaraok

Your money, move to another financial institution. BTW, if you are paying for 'financial advisor' tell the person to 'get it fixed!'. Again, your money, and money talks!

I agree, but I'd like to stay. Just looking for suggestions to help the financial advisor. I've worked in the financial services industry and sometimes its a knowing what to say to compliance and auditors.

[TechWriter]

Originally Posted by RamblingRoze

I just recently opened an account using my mail service address from Your Best Address in SD and they flagged it as a PMB and want a physical address. Unfortunately I only have my children's addresses to use in NJ and do not want that as my legal address to avoid any tax issues.

You probably got "caught" by Morgan's Patriot Act CIP (Customer Information Program).

If so, according to law, you only need to supply a contact person's (family, friend, etc) physical address (see Page 480, bottom right column of Anti-Money Laundering Programs). The address of the contact person should not cause any tax issues as it's not your address.

If Morgan Stanley doesn't know what you're talking about, ask to speak to someone in their Compliance Department.

If your financial advisor doesn't know (or gives you a blank stare) when you talk about the Patriot Act CIP, get a new advisor.

[nancybninja]

Yikes. We use Charles Schwab and another financial company and Dakota Post. No one has complained.

[RamblingRoze]

Originally Posted by nancybninja

Yikes. We use Charles Schwab and another financial company and Dakota Post. No one has complained.

I opened a new account. If you were an existing customer I think you are fine. None of my other financial companies said anything when I changed my address. The only issue was my bank which would not accept the change online, had to call, but I've been a customer for decades.

[RamblingRoze]

Closing the loop for my situation with Morgan Stanley to obtain an exception to use my PMB address. To reiterate - My issue was the legal address stored is a relative's address that is in my previous resident state. Morgan Stanley will not allow a PMB as a legal address. My concerns were about tax reporting of dividends, interest and RMDs to the wrong state.

Morgan Stanley would not make an exception to use the PMB as the legal address. However, they indicated that they do not report RMDs to states unless there is state withholding. All mailings are to the PMB address (they keep a legal address separate from a mailing address). The mailing address appears on the tax forms. They also acknowledge that the address stored in the legal address field is a relative's address and not my domicile/legal address.

I have decided to stay with Morgan Stanley. CPAs advise that even if there was tax reporting to the state, I do not need to file since I am not a resident. Furthermore, I believe I have made all the necessary steps to change domiciles, so I do not think I will have any issues.

[saddlesore]

I had been told that M&S could have a prob with a PMB. So, on their change of address I "altered" it to read "apartment #xxx" from "PMB #xxx"... Have had no issues

[RamblingRoze]

Originally Posted by saddlesore

I had been told that M&S could have a prob with a PMB. So, on their change of address I "altered" it to read "apartment #xxx" from "PMB #xxx"... Have had no issues

I suspect that Morgan Stanley enforces the no PMB rule on new accounts, not with existing customers. The address I supplied did not use "PMB". They have a database of mail service providers. From responses on other forums, existing customers do not have issues with a PMB address at Morgan Stanley.

On other accounts, I have used #, and the company automatically changes it to PMB.

[onlakegaston]

Well it was USAA that just sent me a notice that my address at Americas Mailbox is now invalid. Funny we have had our checking and savings accounts with them for over 5 years. Our auto insurance is with them also but the notice ( see attached ) only said it was for our money related accounts and not auto ins.


Quote:


Thank you for choosing USAA for your banking needs. We have identified that one or more of your accounts has an invalid physical address on file.

What You Need to Know

Section 326 of the USA PATRIOT Act requires USAA Federal Savings Bank to obtain, verify and record personal data such as your name, address, date of birth, Social Security or Taxpayer Identification Number and other information that allows us to identify you.

You have been identified as requiring a valid physical, residential address. The physical address must not be a P.O. Box or other mail-receiving address (commonly referred to as Commercial Mail Receiving Agency), even if it appears as a street address. This is separate from your mailing address, which may be a P.O. Box or commercial address. Your physical address and mailing address do not need to be the same. Mail will continue to be delivered to your listed mailing address.

What You Need to Do

To prevent your account(s) from closing, the requested information must be updated within 30 days of the date of this letter on usaa.com or your USAA mobile app, or by calling us at the number provided below


I guess I will need to find out if one of my brothers or sisters will let me use their address.


What a pain in the a**




Jim

[Barbaraok]

The Patriot Act doesn't currently say that. It is banking regulations (Know Your Customer) regulations. Lots of post on all of the RV forums. I'm surprised that after 5 years they have started on that. Give them a call and ask to speak to a supervisor, about 3 times up the ladder, to get someone who can determine how you can comply. Often you can use a relative's address and have it known that it is NOT your legal address.

[Jlo11111]

Originally Posted by onlakegaston

Well it was USAA that just sent me a notice that my address at Americas Mailbox is now invalid. Funny we have had our checking and savings accounts with them for over 5 years. Our auto insurance is with them also but the notice ( see attached ) only said it was for our money related accounts and not auto ins.


Quote:


Thank you for choosing USAA for your banking needs. We have identified that one or more of your accounts has an invalid physical address on file.

What You Need to Know

Section 326 of the USA PATRIOT Act requires USAA Federal Savings Bank to obtain, verify and record personal data such as your name, address, date of birth, Social Security or Taxpayer Identification Number and other information that allows us to identify you.

You have been identified as requiring a valid physical, residential address. The physical address must not be a P.O. Box or other mail-receiving address (commonly referred to as Commercial Mail Receiving Agency), even if it appears as a street address. This is separate from your mailing address, which may be a P.O. Box or commercial address. Your physical address and mailing address do not need to be the same. Mail will continue to be delivered to your listed mailing address.

What You Need to Do

To prevent your account(s) from closing, the requested information must be updated within 30 days of the date of this letter on usaa.com or your USAA mobile app, or by calling us at the number provided below


I guess I will need to find out if one of my brothers or sisters will let me use their address.


What a pain in the a**




Jim

We got the same letter. We've had accounts with them for over 30 years. They have a dumb bot that just combs over customer addresses and sends out generic hate letters. We called them. They admitted they've had tons of complaints and would note ours. Gee thanks. We told them we have read the Patriot Act and it does not apply to existing accounts. He said duh, whatever. Then he said just put down a relatives address, they're just putting a check in the box to say they complied. We said that was stupid. Moral of the story is just put down the address of a relative or friend and call it a day.