Welcome to PathWise

Your PathWise Team

Here at PathWise, collaboration is key. We believe in harnessing the collective expertise, passion, and dedication of our team to serve you better. With a solid support network in play, rest assured that your financial goals are always in capable hands. Alongside your primary advisor, you'll have the backing of a secondary advisor and a client relationship manager, ensuring you have comprehensive support throughout your financial journey.

Trusted Contacts

To help protect both you and your financial assets, we would suggest that you add a trusted personal contact to the information we have on file. This person should be someone you trust to provide an informed and objective assessment of your current location, well-being, and overall health status.

Designating a trusted contact does not give PathWise or that person any authority to make decisions or conduct transactions on your account. Your selected trusted contact will not be granted access to any of the information we have about you, nor will they be given authorization to act on your behalf.

While you may choose anyone to be your trusted contact, we recommend selecting someone who is not authorized to transact on your account (such as your spouse or Power of Attorney). Only a Power of Attorney may act in a decision-making capacity for your finances. If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out to your advisor.

Once you name a Trusted Contact, we will include them as someone we can contact unless you decide to remove them. Your advisor will review this selection with you on an annual basis. We strongly urge you to let your Trusted Contact know that someone from PathWise may contact them in case we become concerned about your location or well-being. If you need more information about the role of a Trusted Contact, please reach out to your advisor.

Outside Professionals

Many of our clients prefer we connect directly with their outside professionals on financial matters. Typically we see this with tax preparers and estate attorneys. We can connect them to our file sharing system Box.com, as well as the PathWise Financial Dashboard. Your PathWise team can help you set this up.

Helpful Tip: Some outside professionals may or may not charge you fees for their time when working directly with us. Please be sure to talk with them about any questions regarding their fee structure.

The PathWise Financial Dashboard, which can be found on the Client Login page, is a useful tool that helps you get a comprehensive view of your finances in real time. You can securely and safely link your external accounts, monitor your spending, track your goals and access many other features. The PathWise Financial Dashboard Guide provides an overview of all the key features of the portal.

Read: How to Connect My Accounts

Option to Share Spending Information – Privacy is essential at PathWise. By default, we are not allowed to see any of your transactions in the accounts you link. If you’d like to share your spending information with us so we can support your cash flow planning, your PathWise team can help set that up.

While you won’t need to log in directly with the custodian that holds your money, we do provide you with logins to receive electronic delivery of paperwork from the custodian.

Your PathWise team will provide you with all of the relevant login information to access your accounts. Here is a link on how to get started with the Schwab portal.

You and your PathWise team will use Box.com to securely upload and share sensitive files. This is also where we’ll share files with your outside professionals.

How to set up Box.com: This step-by-step guide can help you get started.

Should I be worried if I don’t see my files anymore in the shared folder? No, it is normal if you can't find your files in the shared folder anymore. We move them to our internal filing system for our records as soon as we receive them from you. However, we are always happy to put a copy of your files back into your shared folder for your personal use. So, there is no need to worry.

Most documents you sign will come through the electronic signature providers DocuSign or SignWell. You most likely used SignWell when you first became a PathWise client.

Security Question Challenges or Phone-Based Verification – Due to the sensitive nature of information provided to custodians, you may be asked to complete a series of knowledge-based questions or provide a text message verification.

Who to Contact

If you have a money request, feel free to reach out to your advisor or their team member via email or phone.

Money Timeframes

1. Deposits – When depositing money, the time it takes for these funds to clear your bank account varies based on how the money was sent in. The general guidelines are:
   • Checks: 7 business days
   • ACH (Electronic Banking Instructions): 3 business days
   • Wire: Same day
2. Withdrawals – When requesting a withdrawal, there are two important timing factors to consider when receiving your funds: trading your investments to cash and transferring funds to your bank account. To be safe, we generally recommend making one-off requests a week in advance of when you need funds.
   
   
   • Step 1 – Trading in Your Account
     • When you request a withdrawal, we will commonly need to sell some of your investments to send you funds (we keep just enough money in your accounts to cover expenses and any normal distributions from these accounts). Here’s some important information to consider when making trades to satisfy your withdrawal request: The markets generally close at 1pm PST/4pm EST. After these times, we will not be able to liquidate any funds to complete trades that day. Once we have placed trades in your account, it typically takes 1 to 3 business days for your cash to become available for withdrawal.

       In non-retirement accounts, while we do our best to minimize potential taxes, you may be subject to capital gains taxes when liquidating any of your holdings. Please speak to your lead advisor and tax advisor should you have any questions or concerns around taxes.

   • Step 2 – Sending You Funds
     • Electronic Banking – Most clients receive funds through electronic banking by setting up standing banking instructions with their investment accounts. This typically takes 1 business day for you to receive funds into your bank account from the date of withdrawal. The cutoff time for sending funds to you is 1:30pm PST/4:30pm EST.
     • Wiring to Your Bank – It’s possible to wire funds to your bank, however, it requires additional paperwork. This typically only happens when you wish to receive funds the same day as the funds are needed. Some banks will charge you to receive a wire. Please contact your bank if you have any questions. Our custodians do not charge wire fees but this can be subject to change in the future. The cutoff time for making a wire request is typically 10:30am PST/1:30pm EST.
     • Sending You a Check – We are able to send you a check for your funds. This is rarely chosen by our clients and we recommend electronic banking or wire transfers instead. The timing around receiving your funds depends on the mailing choice you elect.
3. Transfers – When moving investment accounts to PathWise, the time frame is contingent on several factors, but you can typically expect this process to take between 2 to 4 weeks. Should you have questions about an account transfer, it’s best to reach out to your advisor.
4. Retirement Plan Rollovers – Prior to completing a rollover of any retirement plan to your PathWise account, please reach out to your advisor who will review your options and provide recommendations and instructions. The time frame for rollovers is highly dependent on the plan provider and how quickly they are able to process your request. Please reach out to your plan provider and PathWise advisor for further information regarding your unique situation.

Standing Banking Instructions

To make electronic transfers to and from your bank account easier, we can set up standing banking instructions for most of your accounts. This means that for future fund requests, you won't have to fill out additional paperwork or establish recurring deposits/withdrawals to and from your bank accounts.

If you ever change bank accounts, please inform your PathWise team and update your banking instructions on file. If you fail to do so, there is a chance that requests for receiving or sending funds could be disrupted. When changing bank accounts, you will also need to provide us with a voided check each time you update your account setup.

Checkwriting Information

When writing a check to your PathWise accounts, make sure they are made payable to the correct payee and sent to the correct address. Please reach out to your advisor for the correct check writing instructions.

Third-Party Money Movements

It is possible that at some point, you may need to transfer funds directly to or from your accounts involving a third party. For instance, when buying a home, it is a common scenario to send money to an escrow account from your PathWise account to close the transaction. To make this process hassle-free, it is essential to provide the following information as precisely as possible: payee, bank account information, amount to send, and any other critical details that can help ensure that the funds are accurately transferred to the correct payee.

To keep your accounts secure, when making a third-party money transfer request, you will have to confirm the request with our PathWise team or custodian through additional verification requirements. If you come across a third-party money transfer request, please contact your PathWise team.

Important Deadlines

Retirement Contributions

1. When funding your retirement accounts, there are important general deadlines to be aware of:
   1. For Traditional/Rollover/Roth IRA/Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): Typically April 15th (or whenever your usual personal tax return deadline is).
   2. For SEP/Solo 401(k)/SIMPLE IRA: Your tax filing deadline (plus extensions for your business).
      Your PathWise advisor will be in touch with you to ensure your contributions are done on time. Should you have any questions about what deadlines you need to meet, please contact your advisor.

Retirement Account Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs)

1. Some clients are subject to minimum distribution requirements from retirement accounts. This typically happens when you are over the age of 73 or if you have an inherited retirement account.
2. The general deadline to take funds out is by December 31st of the year you’re required to make a distribution.
   Your PathWise advisor will guide you through this process and make sure you complete it by the deadline.

Life happens and things change. If you do change your contact information (address, phone number, email), employment, or even your name, please inform your PathWise team as soon as possible so we can assist you in keeping your records up to date.

If you need to reset your password for any technology used at PathWise, you can generally reset them through those websites directly. We’re always glad to help though if you need it, so just reach out.

Each quarter, PathWise generates and electronically delivers a consolidated statement that summarizes your accounts, balances, holdings, and performance. You will be notified by email when statements are available and you can retrieve them through your shared folder in Box.com

Each month, your custodian generates and delivers a statement for each account held through your custodians. The custodian will notify you by email when statements are ready. You can access custodial statements directly through the custodian’s login.

From time to time, you may receive email or written communications from the custodian on your accounts. These communications typically include prospectuses of your investments, changes happening with your accounts, or trade confirmations for trades placed in your accounts.

You will generally get tax documents from your custodian based on the type of account you have at PathWise:

1. For non-retirement accounts: Form 1099
2. For individual retirement accounts: Form 1099-R, Form 5498
3. For limited partnerships and other privately-held accounts: Form K-1

PathWise can also provide supplemental tax reporting to aid in your tax preparation. Please contact your PathWise advisory team if you need any additional support with tax reporting.

For non-retirement accounts, the tax documents from your custodian are typically sent around the middle of February through the end of March. Please note you may receive more than one version of Form 1099 after receiving your first one. This can happen when taxation corrections occur in various investments in your portfolio. If you have a tax preparer, please provide them any and all Form 1099s and corrected 1099 forms so they may accurately report taxes on your tax return.

Form K-1s often involve complex financial transactions and partnerships, adding another layer of intricacy to the process. Meaning that for many of our clients, they have needed to file tax extensions as the K-1 may arrive much later than the rest of their tax forms.

Tax reports can be obtained directly from the custodian’s website or PathWise will help you get them.

Safe: Typically, safe things you can share by email are partial account numbers, names, bank account titles, and addresses.

Unsafe: For your safety and security, please refrain from sharing full account numbers, personal identifying information (e.g. social security numbers or tax ID), and any files or attachments with sensitive information (e.g., tax returns, statements, and financial data). 

When in doubt, please contact your PathWise team and provide the information verbally. If you need to upload files or attachments, please use the client file storage folder in Box.com we have provided you.

While PathWise is your main point of contact, the custodians we use to manage investments are also held to the highest standards of security and privacy. Not only are these standards dictated and enforced by government regulation, they also maintain self-imposed guarantees for unauthorized access of clients’ accounts. Charles Schwab posts their information at schwab.com/schwabsafe.

All of our custodians provide $500,000 in general federal protection through the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Custodians provide additional extended insurance coverage in the case of custodian default. Our custodians also provide an asset guarantee in the unlikely event that fraud occurs in your account.

Schwab Security Knowledge Center