Financial Engines

[re-pilot]

I'm new to financial planning.  I am interested in utilizing the Financial Engines services, but have a question about security.  In the process of setting up an online account with Financial Engines, they want access to any additional retirement accounts I have outside of the company in order to have a more comprehensive picture.  In order to do that, they are asking me to enter my username and password for each online account.  Everything I've ever been taught to this point says that I am not suppose give out this information.  They also say that they would only have read-only access (despite my giving them my username and password).
 
For anyone experienced with financial planners, is giving the above information normal/acceptable from a security perspective?  How will they have read-only access when they have the ability to login as if they were me?
 
Sorry to sound paranoid, but this is a new area for me, and I don't care to have my retirement security compromised.
 
Thanks in advance.

 

[Kev3188]

I use them as well (through DL). I seem to remember being general questions about other accounts, but nothing as specific as you were...

 

[jimntx]

Have you considered asking Financial Engines exactly what information they want/need, then going to your other accounts find out how you can extract that information, and give it to FE without giving them your passwords, etc?  I'm sure FE is on the upright and all, but I don't give my passwords to family members.  (When I die, they are going to have to do some work to get at the remaining cash--if any.  )

 

[re-pilot]

Thanks for the replies.  It appears that they want my usernames and password to be able to take regular "read-only" looks at the accounts as it appears that their approach to retirement portfolio management involves possibly multiple fund changes per year.  It does appear that I have an option to supply them with a static snapshot of the accounts at certain intervals.  This would involve more work on my part, but may be the way I go as giving out usernames and passwords still just doesn't sit well with me.  I'm no millionaire yet, but I definitely can't afford to lose anything I already got.  That said, I am in no way suggesting anything bad about FE.  I just never had anyone manage my financial (for better or worse) portfolio as well as have access to multiple accounts.

 

[WeAAsles]

I wouldn't give a company access to my personal accounts even if they are legitimate. What they are trying to do is basically manage your entire retirement portfolio for you which probably comes with extra fees for the service. I personally let them manage my 401k because their professionals should know better than me how to maneuver the market.

If you're a new Pilot you're going to make plenty of money in your future if you don't live up to or above your means (You shouldn't) Set up multiple avenues for investing and keep your accounts separate and you should do just fine. But if you're worried about your own talents in this area I would hire my own outside Financial Adviser.

Good Luck.

 

[jimntx]

Thanks for the replies.  It appears that they want my usernames and password to be able to take regular "read-only" looks at the accounts as it appears that their approach to retirement portfolio management involves possibly multiple fund changes per year.  It does appear that I have an option to supply them with a static snapshot of the accounts at certain intervals.  This would involve more work on my part, but may be the way I go as giving out usernames and passwords still just doesn't sit well with me.  I'm no millionaire yet, but I definitely can't afford to lose anything I already got.  That said, I am in no way suggesting anything bad about FE.  I just never had anyone manage my financial (for better or worse) portfolio as well as have access to multiple accounts.

Good idea.  As someone who used to be in the Information Technology field, it's all well and good for them to say that they are going to do read-only status checks of your other accounts.  However, if they have YOUR logonid and YOUR password, there is no way for the computer to know whether it is FE or you logging on.  Therefore, there is no way for the computer to know that FE is not suppose to issue sell or buy orders for that account, and to block those orders if issued.