Contacting Your Fund Company or Financial Institution

As discussed in this Resource Center, shareholders can protect themselves from state abandoned property laws by regularly contacting their financial institutions. State laws may require that you contact your financial institutions at least once every three years to avoid having the state deem your property abandoned. We recommend, however, that you make a habit of contacting financial institutions annually, around a time that will be easy to remember (such as your birthday, an anniversary, or tax season).

For your mutual fund shares, ICI has prepared a list of the contact information for mutual funds that are members of ICI.

Here are a few tips regarding how to use our list of mutual fund companies:

  1. It is important to contact the financial institution holding your mutual fund shares. Though you may own shares of a mutual fund company on our list, if you hold your shares through a broker, financial adviser, or other financial intermediary, you must contact that firm rather than the mutual fund company. This is important because if your account is held by a firm other than the mutual fund, the mutual fund company may not have full information on your account. If you’re not sure whom to contact, look at a recent statement you received regarding your account. It should have the name and contact information on the firm holding your account.
     
  2. Even if you have automated features on your account (such as automatic deposits or withdrawals, or the automatic reinvestment of dividends), you still must contact your financial institution(s). In the view of many states, such automated features do not constitute contact, allowing these states to deem your account abandoned.
     
  3. Have a recent account statement handy when you contact your mutual fund company or financial institution, in case you need to provide any specific information (such as your account number) to the company so it can verify your identity.
     
  4. What should you say when contacting your fund company or financial institution to establish contact? There are no “magic” words you have to recite to protect your account—but you must talk to a representative. Calling an automated phone line may not suffice! You might just say, for example, “I’m calling to maintain contact regarding my account(s),” or “I’m calling to make sure you have my correct address.” The important thing is that you talk to a live human being regarding your account. By speaking to a representative, the mutual fund company will be able to document that you contacted them about your account(s).
     
  5. Be sure to contact each financial institution holding your property, including property that does not involve mutual fund shares (such as bank accounts or brokerage accounts). In addition, if you hold mutual funds through a brokerage account as well as through an IRA account or other retirement account, make sure you contact each person or institution that holds an account of yours. And if you have multiple accounts at one financial institution (for example, an account in your name as well as a joint account with your spouse), make sure you let the institution know, so they can establish contact for each of your accounts.
     
  6. Finally, if you don’t see contact information for your mutual fund company listed below, it may be because your shares were issued by a mutual fund that is not a member of ICI. (ICI’s members hold 98 percent of all mutual fund assets, but some funds are not members.) Refer to the last quarterly statement you received from the fund company or financial institution holding your shares for the firm’s contact information.

Browse the contact information for funds that are members of the Institute.