Where would the assets
in my portfolio be kept?
How will I know when adjustments are made to my portfolio?
From whom will I receive my account statements?
What will my account statements be like?
Can I view my account online?
Which broker does Wessel Investment Counsel use?
Would my accounts be insured?
What if Wessel Investment Counsel were to go out of
business?
What if I no longer want Wessel Investment Counsel
to manage my portfolio?
Where would my account records kept?
Where
would the assets in my portfolio be kept?
To provide our clients with peace of mind, all portfolio assets
are held in custody by Pershing,
LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary
of the Bank of New York Company, Inc. As a member of the New York
Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and other regional
exchanges, Pershing provides custody, securities clearing, execution,
and settlement services to more than 1,100 financial firms worldwide.
As of June of 2008, Pershing held about $948 billion of
client assets in custody.
How will I know when adjustments are made
to my portfolio?
Our custodian (Pershing) will mail an official confirmation statement
directly to you anytime an adjustment is made to any of the accounts
within your portfolio. Unless you allow us to manage your account
on a fully discretionary basis, we may
also have to contact you to obtain your approval prior to
making any such adjustments.
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From whom will I receive my account statements?
Your statements will be generated and mailed to you directly by
our custodian (Pershing) on a monthly basis (or quarterly for less
active accounts). Since we do not issue or control your statements,
we have no ability to alter or intercept them.
Why is this important? We certainly have no intention of defrauding
any of our clients, but occasionally a rogue broker or advisor
steals assets from clients and then issues false statements in
an attempt to hide the crime. By having your statements sent to
you directly by our custodian, you can be sure that the statements
you receive are official.
What will my account statements be like?
Comprehensive. In 2004, Pershing’s account
statements were ranked #1 of 31 competitors in the brokerage industry
by DALBAR, INC. – a firm that specializes in evaluating the
practices of financial organizations. You will receive Pershing’s
most comprehensive monthly statement which, in addition to typically
reported data, will include detailed information regarding your
realized gains and losses as well as your unrealized gains and
losses. Your statements will also track your cost basis. Since
your cost basis information would appear directly on your statements,
your need to dig through old tax records may be reduced.
For accounts having an initial market value of at least $500,000,
you may request (at no cost to you) additional performance reports
that will address:
- Comparative Performance versus Major Market Indices
- Asset Allocation
- Realized Gains and Losses
- Credit Quality
- Maturity Schedule
- Projected Cash Flow and Income
As is the case with your regular account statements, Pershing
will mail these performance reports directly to you. Together,
Pershing’s account statements and quarterly performance reports
provide comprehensive account reporting.
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Can I view my account online?
Yes. You may either return to our home page or
and click the “Check My Account” link, or click here.
For additional convenience, The "Check
My Account" link is located on all pages of our web
site.
Which broker does Wessel Investment
Counsel use?
We utilize the services of Shareholders
Service Group, Inc. – a
discount brokerage firm that caters specifically to independent
investment advisors. When we make an adjustment to your account,
we place the order through Shareholders Service Group. The order
is then cleared and settled by Pershing. Please bear in mind that
while we utilize the services of a broker, we are in no way beholden
to this (or any other) broker. We have absolutely no incentive
to generate trading commissions on their behalf. Shareholders Service
Group is merely a service provider to us. Our fiduciary duty
remains
with our clients.
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Would my accounts be insured?
Yes. Your accounts will be insured by the Securities
Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) for up to $100,000 in cash and up
to $400,000 in securities. Additionally, Shareholders Service Group
maintains private insurance to the extent an investor’s account(s)
exceeds these limits. While the nature of both the SIPC and this
private insurance coverage is to protect you against actually losing
the cash and/or securities you hold in your brokerage account due
to the failure of the brokerage firm itself, this insurance does
not protect you against market-related losses. Please visit the
SIPC to learn more.
What if Wessel Investment Counsel were
to go out of business?
While we don’t plan to, it is a fair question. If we were
to go out of business, you would simply establish a new account
or accounts with some other advisor or custodian. The account(s)
we were managing for you will probably be able to be transferred
to your new custodian according to automated industry standards.
We would then promptly (by law) refund
any unearned investment management fees to you, and we are subject
to
certain
capital requirements to make sure we are able to do this. In the
meantime, if you wanted to make any adjustments to your portfolio,
you would simply call our broker (Shareholders
Service Group) directly
and they would handle your order instructions as would any other
discount broker.
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if I no longer want Wessel Investment Counsel to manage my portfolio?
You would simply put it in writing to us and provide a copy to
our broker (Shareholders
Service Group). Upon receiving your written
instructions to terminate our relationship, we would then be unable
(by law) to touch your account. Upon our broker’s receipt
of their copy of your termination instructions, they would make
it so that we could no longer even see your account(s) on our account
management system. We would then (by law) promptly refund
to you any unearned investment management fees we might have received
from you. You would then embark on transferring your accounts elsewhere
as discussed in the preceding question.
Where would my account records be
kept?
Your account data would be kept by our custodian (Pershing). The
safety and integrity of your account data is therefore in the hands
of a global custodian that holds client assets of approximately
$948 billion for over 1,100 financial firms. (See “Where
would the assets in my portfolio be kept?” to learn more
about Pershing.) We retain other client-related data on an encrypted,
fire-walled, network. (If you've seen the 60 Minutes episode
where the encrypted networks of various nationwide retailers were
breached after a few minutes of trying, you'll be glad to know
that the encryption standard we use is the far more robust "WPA" form
of encryption rather than the "WEP" form which is much more easily
hacked.) Such data is automatically and continuously
backed-up to an off-site data warehouse and all transmissions are
fully encrypted.
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Wessel Investment
Counsel, LLC
22 South Pack Square
Jackson Building, Suite 400
Asheville, NC 28801-3500
Phone: (828) 232-2000
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