As banks and brokerages become increasingly enshitified and hostile toward Tor users so they can track you better, I quit logging in. I switch to paper or email statements when possible. But enshitification avoidance comes with penalties now.
Obviously I do not want to dance for them and step outside of my self-defensive environment (Tor) and login. Fuck them. The question is, what are all the ways to reset the clock on the abandonment flag?
For some checking accounts, you can write a paper check which the bank must honor, at which point it is regarded as activity. Not sure about a brokerage account. Maybe placing a trade but that’s a shitshow of another kind (having to download and install their app from their shitty website).
Is there any kind of analog way to mitigate the abandonment flag? Can I send a snail mail letter saying “I am alive and I have not forgotten about account XYZ”?
Look at your state’s and Brokerage’s Escheatment policies and procedures. My brokerage will send out a letter prior to taking any actions (and I’d assume they’d also send an email, but idk). Phone calls to the brokerage checking in on the account or direct deposits all count as activity (though with the phone calls, I’d confirm the account number to make sure they’re talking about the right account). https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/glossary/escheatment-financial-institutions
They have a fee for just about anything I could request that can be done on the web. But I suppose I could come up with something trivial like asking what my balance is. I like the idea of costing them by using the time of their call center as a penalty for trying to push me onto their website.
Court, Take it to court. That is your best paper way, especially when dealing with properties.
I’m generally with you on that… but what leg would I have to stand on? The states love their “abandoned” property law which feeds them, and the brokerage is happy to accommodate, to force people onto their website. I would want to show up to court with some kind of evidence that I did not abandon the property… but I’m not sure what that would be.
