We recently closed on the sale of a rental property of ours, resulting in a wire transfer deposit of $300K into our checking account. I’ve been moving some of the money around, such as depositing money into different banks for their sign up bonuses (for example Citibank checking has a deal where if you have a Citibank credit card and deposit $15K for 90 days, you will get a $400 cash bonus). I put some money into our Vanguard Taxable account. I also made two $10K purchases at Treasury Direct for me and my wife to purchase the maximum allowed amount of I-Bonds (3.54% yield) per person.
Within a few days, I received an unsolicited phone call from my banker. He commented that he noticed some large transactions occurring within our account and wanted to know more about what my intentions were with the funds. I said I was probably going to move most of the funds into index funds (VTSAX, VTIAX) and ETFs (VHT). He then recommended I set up a meeting with one of the private banking financial advisors for a free wealth management consultation to “make sure I’m making the right financial moves.”
Our current financial situation is that we are CoastFI. We are still working, saving and investing a lot of our income and trying to enjoy the journey along the way. We manage our own finances. At first I didn’t mind setting up the consultation just to hear what type of ideas they would try to sell us on. Later on after speaking with my wife, she pointed out how this phone call really was an invasion of our financial privacy. The bank is not managing any of our investments. We didn’t ask for any help. This is now really rubbing me the wrong way.
Can a banker legally just check on their client accounts and balances?
Submitted August 31, 2021 at 11:12PM by blurrryvision https://ift.tt/3kKq814
