It’s no secret there is an increased amount of fraudulent activity in today’s digital world. I’m sure you have received spam emails, unwanted phone calls, strange looking texts, letters notifying you of a data breach, and a whole host of other fraud attempts.

One area where fraud can be particularly devastating is investment accounts – as they tend to hold the majority of individual’s wealth, are highly liquid, and subject to a high degree of cyber risk.

Our primary custodian, Charles Schwab, is continually provided proactive education and tools for Windermere (as an advisor) and directly to our end clients to better safeguard investment accounts. I discussed a few of these ideas with a client this week and thought I would share herein

Think first, then click

Approximately 3.4 billion fraudulent emails are sent each day. The best offense is a good defense. Consider only checking email on a computer where you can clearly see the sender’s address and hover over links to validate the addresses. Read all emails carefully before you ever click on a link and if an email seems odd, it’s likely a scam. Trust your gut, slow down, and be your own best advocate

Strong passwords

Goes without saying, but strong (and secure) passwords are essential for any investment accounts/websites. Don’t share them and don’t repeat them across other websites

Multi-Factor Authentication

If you use a mobile app or website to access your investment accounts (at Schwab or any other custodian), you should consider implementing multi-factor authentication. While several options exist for this (including a call or text with a code), the most secure is use of an independent authentication app. This app will generate a code (usually 6 digits) that you have to enter along with a password. This is a great added layer of security to your investment accounts

Secure Internet

It’s a best practice to avoid public wi-fi networks whenever possible – but especially when accessing your investment accounts. So if you are away from home, toggle off wi-fi and ensure you are using your data network and perhaps even a secure VPN. And at home, ensure you have a secure wi-fi router with a strong password.

Restrict Available Profile Actions

Windermere has the ability to adjust the profiles of our end client’s Schwab sites in a variety of ways. One such way is Windermere can restrict the ability for selected client accounts to be traded or used for outgoing money movement requests. While this may sound unduly restrictive to the client, most of our clients never trade their own accounts and never process outgoing money movements (at least for certain of their accounts). Windermere handles that for them based upon our agreements and limited power of attorney arrangements. As a result, what this feature does is prevent a fraudster from being able to trade in a client’s account without their permission (to free up cash they can then steal/abscond with) if they were to gain access to their Schwab profile. The feature can be toggled on and off, so if a client does wish to trade themselves or wants to make a money transfer on their own, we can provide that access as needed.

Hopefully you can use one or more of these suggestions to safeguard your investment accounts