|
A Fidelity Bond is an important indicator of
a Qualified Intermediary's ethical past.
Although they don't protect you from fluctuations in the stock market, Fidelity Bonds are supposed to protect you from employee dishonesty.
When, during the last downturn, several QIs were discovered to have inadvertently become pyramid-like due to losing money investing exchange funds in government backed instruments, and others just plain spent exchange funds on themselves, the bonding companies did not pay one dime. Not one. When the FEA threatened to sue them, they just stopped writing coverage for a couple of years until they decided we'd learned our lesson. Here's what we learned: Bonds are worthless. We have never been refused a bond. We simply decided to no longer participate.
California Law says that if we hold each exchange account separately from each other that the bond is rendered unnecessary, due to the increased difficulty and therefore unlikelihood of theft from so many accounts. In addition, you may have "veto" power directly with the bank, meaning they won't disburse from it without your passcode, for which they contact you directly. There is no better security.
Each account is a dual signature, completely segregated, FDIC insured, qualified escrow account.
Other Qualified Intermediaries pool the exchange funds into one big account, so they can invest it in instruments they hope will pay more than the prevailing interest rates the banks pay.
AND THEY KEEP THE DIFFERENCE AND MORE.
RECENTLY WE HAVE SEEN TRIPLE A RATED INSTRUMENTS LOSE PRINCIPAL. MANY OTHER QUALIFIED INTERMEDIARIES INVESTED EXCHANGE FUNDS IN FANNY MAE AND FREDDIE MAC, BECAUSE
THEY WERE ERRONEOUSLY CONSIDERED SAFE, BEING GOVERNMENT BACKED. HOWEVER, THAT DIDN'T SAVE STOCKHOLDERS THIS YEAR. MANY MONEY MARKET FUNDS BROKE THE BUCK AND LOST PRINCIPAL AS
WELL.
Because Haven Exchange maintains separate money market accounts (not at all the same as "money market funds") for each exchange, not one penny of exchange
funds was lost. They all earned interest for our clients.
You cannot accept less security for your 1031 Exchange funds.
It is of note that while many Qualified Intermediaries claim that each exchange has a separate bank account, no one but Haven Exchange proves it with the monthly statement from the depository bank.
If they really open separate accounts for each exchange, where is the monthly bank statement?
Their own internal sub-accounting is not the same as or equal to an actual separate account at the bank, yet they try to make you think that it is.
Is that not some reflection of who they really are?
For your security, at Haven Exchange, two signatures followed by a changing, randomly generated encrypted security code are required for any release of your 1031 funds.
The questions to ask prospective qualified intermediaries:
1. Will I get a statement from the depository bank each month reflecting all activity? Does the total amount of exchange funds on deposit exceed the coverage of your (the Intermediary's) Fidelity Bond? Provide a written guarantee, please. If they tell you that the company is backed up by the Title Company with which they are affiliated, ask them to fax you the instrument that accomplishes this. Read it.
2. Do the growth proceeds accumulate in the same account with the principal? Do you (the Intermediary) retain a portion of these growth proceeds? If the answer to both questions is “yes”, then the intermediary is commingling exchange funds with its own, potentially making all the exchange funds they hold vulnerable to seizure in the event of a bankruptcy, lawsuit or judgment, etc.
|
