Retirement Chat: Account Security

In this episode of Retirement Chat, we discuss a topic that you may not think about often — the security of your account, and the ability to have someone act on your behalf. These are important features of any retirement plan administered by Union Bank & Trust, and we want you to be aware of how we keep your money safe while also ensuring that our team is taking care of retirement plan participants.

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Audio Transcription:

 

Intro

Welcome to Union Bank and Trust Retirement Chat, a series of conversations designed to answer your retirement savings questions and help you reach the retirement you envision. We have our experts with us, so let's chat.

Caitlin

Hey everyone, it's me, Caitlin Moore again, Retirement Educator with UBT. And we're back for another chat. I'm sitting here with Kristy Leitschuck, vice President of Client Services. Kristy has been with UBT for 23 years and in Retirement Plan Services since the beginning. So thanks for being with us today.

Kristy

Thanks for having me.

Caitlin

So today we're talking about security when it comes to your retirement account, and I think for the most part, folks understand security behind banks and securing money, but we still get a lot of questions and concerns about various security measures that we take around our retirement accounts here at UBT. So Kristy, I've got a few frequently asked questions that we as educators get and I'd love for you to talk more in depth about them.

So to start out with, how secure is my retirement account and what are a few steps that UBT takes to ensure the safety of my account?

Kristy

So one of the things we do is that if you're having trouble logging into your account for the first time, or this is the first initial time that you're logging in, have your phone with you, have that email with you. But if you haven't provided that information, give us a call. Let our associates help you walk through everything, assign that PIN number to you, help you set up the multifactor authentication so that you can use it going forward. The way that we have multi-authentication set up is that any time that you do anything on your account, you will be asked to use that PIN number that you receive. So anytime that you are moving money, we want to make sure that it is you and that we're keeping your account secure. Anytime that you are taking a distribution, we want to make sure that that is you asking for that money. And so we're going to send you another PIN number so that we can keep your funds in the account if it isn't you. So we want to make sure that you have all of the tools there so that our security can work for you.

Caitlin

So follow up to that then, what happens if your identity has been compromised and not necessarily on the retirement account, just in general?

Kristy

If your identity has been compromised, we encourage that you call our office right away. It may not have been compromised with your 401(k) and profit sharing plan, but if you let us know that that has taken place, we can put your account at “high risk.” More than likely when an identity is stolen, they have your social security number. People can do anything with that social security number. So we want to mark your account as “high risk.” We want to go ahead and put an additional password on your account so that you will have to call us every single time you want to move money until you know that the theft has been taken care of and that there's no longer fraud on your accounts. We want to take care of that by asking those questions to ensure that your safety is protected with your account.

Caitlin

Perfect. So I get this question a lot: If someone can speak on their behalf, so we have the person that their account belongs to, but can they have an advisor or a spouse talk on their behalf? Is that allowed?

Kristy

Absolutely, that is allowed. And again, we want to make it easy for you. So if you want to give someone access to that account, you're going to have to call into our office the first time and we will go through a series of verification questions. Once we have that you can note who we can provide the information to. Now, we don't encourage that you give us multiple names — we want to work with a single individual so that we can, again, have those verification questions ready for them and speak to them on your behalf. But we will note your account so that we can move forward and take care of your account for you.

Caitlin

So, if you're not super-great at running investments and things like that, you can have somebody call in and do the job for you.

Kristy

Absolutely.

Caitlin

Well, thank you, Kristy for being with us today on another retirement chat, and I appreciate your expertise on the subject of account security. And thank you everyone for joining us today!

Disclaimer

Please keep in mind that the information that was provided here is for informational purposes only. As educators we're able to give you education, we are not able to give you financial advice. This is strictly for your information only.

Investment products offered by Union Bank & Trust are not FDIC insured, are not guaranteed by any bank, and may lose value.