Francine Shuput sent a message to Abigail Johnson that said:
Dear Ms. Johnson and Mr. Giannetti,
I am writing this e-mail because I have been asking Fidelity to send me hard copy tax form each year for over 5+ years now and yet they have failed to do so in all but one year, and only after I called and met some resistance were the forms sent. My spouse and I have been with Fidelity for many years and this seems to be our sticking point. Last year we came very close to leaving Fidelity due to this issue, but we promised again that we would receive paper copies of our tax forms. At a couple of our annual meetings we logged on and had our representative change (again) our settings to receive paper copies and promise that the Pasadena office would personally see to it that we received hard copies each year. We have accounts with Merrill Lynch, Voya, TD Americatrade, First Federal Credit Union, Coast Savings, and Wells Fargo, and yet Fidelity is the only one who we have to chase for the forms. Having to go to each institution and locate are tax form and print them would be cumbersome and is the reason we always request hard copies. With regards to our investments, we value the personal contact vs referring us to a website , ie self service guide.
In all our years at Fidelity, we have not had reportable earnings because the funds remained in our investment account, so our form usually have 0.0, but still must report. Last year we were penalized by the IRS for not claiming the money from Fidelity, we again, didnât receive our forms and just reported 0.0. Last years was different as we purchased an international property and withdrew a quarter of a million dollars to acquire this home. Our ignorance was not thinking about us taking money out and the tax issues involved with that transaction. The part of my disappointment with Fidelity is if they had sent us the hard copy forms as promised, we would have seen the issue and handled it appropriately. Needless to say, we were penalized somewhere around $1500. We hire professionals to assist us, not hinder. Last year , as out annual meeting, I told the Pasadena office were going to write a letter complaining about repeated request for tax forms without success, and later decided not to as we were assured this would NEVER happen again. Fast forwarding to today, the last day of January and still no fidelity tax forms.
Please tell me, are we with the wrong company? Is there anyone who is able to honor our request at Fidelity?
Francine Shuput
Joy Pakkianathan
323-221-3482
Cell 323-309-6147
