How Do I Group InvestorLine Accounts Under a User ID and Whose Accounts Can I Group?

Posted on 2014 02 20 by BetCrooks

I’ve been on a mission over the last three years to re-organize our finances. This included opening some online brokerage accounts and moving funds in from all the various banks, trust companies and government offices where they’d been mouldering. I am by no means an expert on brokerages and I am still learning new things each day as I work. Recently, I learned, somewhat to my surprise, that it is possible to group BMO InvestorLine accounts under one User ID even if they don’t all belong to one person.

Why Do You Want to Group InvestorLine Accounts Under a User ID?

For the reasons why grouping accounts is a good idea, please see Why You Should Group Your BMO InvestorLine Accounts Under a Single User ID.

The key point:

If you can group accounts with $250 000 or more, you will get a different type of trading quote and you will get “exclusive access to a dedicated service team.”

Which Accounts Can I Group Under a BMO InvestorLine User ID to Qualify for the 5 Star Trader Program and Level II quotes?

If you’re like me, you can group your

RRSP
LIRA
TFSA
RESP
spousal RRSP
unregistered regular trading account

and still not get close to $250 000 in assets.

That left me wondering, is it possible to add accounts belonging to anyone else to my User ID?

Will I Be Able to See the Portfolio Details for Each Account I Group?

While I was wondering whether I could group other people’s accounts under my User ID, I also started wondering whether doing so would let me see

their total investments,
their portfolios and
their transaction history.

After all, I can see all of those things for my own accounts which are grouped under one User ID.

I knew it would NOT allow me to trade on their accounts. You need a trading password to execute a trade at BMO InvestorLine and it is different from your sign in password.

So now I have three questions to resolve:

Can I add another person’s accounts to my InvestorLine User ID?
Do they need to sign a form authorizing my access to their account information?
Who would let me see everything in their account, every asset they hold and what they’ve been doing?

I can think of one very kind man who might let me peek into his portfolio. Admittedly if I do, he will lean over my shoulder and gloat at how much better his returns are than mine, but still, no pain no gain, right?

Now to check InvestorLine’s rules.
Well at
https://www.bmoinvestorline.com/home/popups/user-id they say you can consolidate accounts under one User ID if you own them or “manage accounts for others.”
And at
http://www.bmoinvestorline.com/home/popups/5-star-program-terms-conditions
It says that the accounts cannot be “Investment Club” or “Partnership” accounts.

Whose Accounts Can be Grouped Under One InvestorLine User ID?

I wrote InvestorLine to ask this question using their secure email MyLink.

Their response was:
I can add anyone’s accounts to my User ID if I know the account numbers and the account sign in passwords.

Wow. That’s almost scary.

So I can add

my husband’s account/s
my parents’ account/s
my aunts’, uncles’, nieces’, nephews’, sister’s, brothers’, cousins’ and grandchildrens’ account/s
my friends’ account/s

If they change their sign in password, then I will also have to update their sign in password under my User ID or their account will be removed from the User ID.

Will I Be Able to See the Portfolio and Holdings for Any Accounts I Link to my InvestorLine User ID?

Once I linked someone else’s account to my User ID, I signed in using my User ID to see what I could see.

I could look at:

their account balance
their holdings
their transaction history

Eeps! You’d better make this part very clear to any friends or relatives BEFORE you ask them to link their account to your User ID.

Note: I can’t trade on their account because I don’t have their trading password.

Also note: They cannot see MY account information unless I add my account to their User ID. This might be handy if you want to add your children or parents to your User ID but you are not willing to reciprocate by opening your finances for review and discussion.

Do I Need Written Permission from Another Person Before I Can Add Their Account to my InvestorLine User ID?

According to the MyLink InvestorLine representative “There is no form required to be completed for this purpose.”

That also is a wee bit disturbing. I guess it’s a good reminder to keep your sign in password secure from prying eyes!

Before You Start to Create your InvestorLine User ID

You may wish to think ahead about

What 8-20 letters and numbers you want to use for your User ID. You may not use special characters such as &.
What unique challenge question that you type yourself that you would like to use to help confirm your identity. It has a maximum length of 60 characters.

To create a BMO InvestorLine User ID to Group Accounts

Sign in to one of your InvestorLine accounts.
From the Account Services tab, under the heading Account Profile, click on Create User ID.

On the screen: Step 1 of 3: Choose a User ID and Password

In the User ID: field, type the alphanumeric id you want to use to sign on to your group of accounts.
In the Password: field, type a password to use when signing in to your accounts. This can be different from the Password used to sign in to a single account.
In the Confirm Password: field, type the password again.
From the drop-down list in the Challenge Question 1: field, select a security question.
In the Response 1: field, type the answer.
From the drop-down list in the Challenge Question 2: field, select a security question.
In the Response 2: field, type the answer.
In the Challenge Question 3: field, type your own security question.
In the Response 3: field, type the answer.
Click on the Continue button.

OK, I made every possible error!

Your User ID must start with a letter.
Your responses must be at least 6 characters in length.

Now it accepts them. Phew.

On the Step 2 or 3: Link Accounts to Your User ID screen

In the Account Number field, your current account number is listed. To add this account to the User ID you must input the existing password for that account (not the new password for the User ID).
In the Account Password column, type the password for signing into the numbered account.
If desired, in the Account Nickname (optional) column, type a nickname for that specific account.
If desired, on the next line, type the values in the columns
- Account Number
- Account Password, and
- Account Nickname (optional)
for your other InvestorLine accounts.
Click on the Add More Accounts button if you have more than 5 accounts to link up.
Once complete, click on the Continue button.

On the Step 3 of 3: Provide Contact Information for your User ID screen

Review the information in the Email Address: field and make sure it is correct.
If that is the address at which you wish to receive your InvestorLine email, type it again in the Confirm Email Address: field.
In the How you would like to be greeted when we correspond with you: field, type your favourite. For example, you could try
Supreme Grand Emperor Smith
I’m not sure if that will work or not. Guess I’ll have to update my profile and see!
Rats. You can’t use that particular title as there is a character length limit of 20.
Click on the Continue button.

On the Register your User ID for an opportunity to enjoy our 5 Star program and $9.95 Flat fee commissions – Optional screen

If you wish, click to select the radio button beside Yes to have the User ID evaluated for the 5 star program.
Click on the Continue button.
If you select Yes, look at the linked accounts summary to ensure it is correct.
Click on the Continue button.

To check if all of the accounts for the User ID are set up to be evaluated for the 5 Star Program

Click on the $9.95 Pricing & 5 Star Program tab.
Under the Receive Program Benefits tab, the account should be listed as Yes. If not, click on the Edit button to update the setting.

When Will I Start to Receive the 5 Star Program Benefits?

If the combined holdings in all of the accounts under the User ID add up to at least $250 000, the accounts will become eligible for the 5 Star Program benefits. User IDs are evaluated 4 times a year, at the end of

March,
June,
September and
December.

The benefits should be available the day after the evaluation date.

So I guess I won’t know till April Fool’s Day if this worked. How appropriate!

Related Reading

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Do you group accounts to get better services at your brokerage? Please share your experiences with a comment.

How to Buy a GIC in a RBC Direct Investing Online Brokerage Account

Posted on 2013 12 03 by BetCrooks

UPDATE: This article is historical, from 2013. I no longer invest with RBC Direct Investing.

We keep some of our hard-earned savings in guaranteed investment certificates. It’s true that right now the interest rates offered for them are abysmal. However, they give us a solid base for our portfolio that won’t evaporate during a market meltdown. We need that sense of security. So when I opened a RRSP account at RBC Direct Investing, I checked out how to buy a GIC in this new brokerage account.

Does RBC Direct Investing Offer a Reasonable Selection of GICs for No Fee?

Yes.

In fact, RBC Direct Investing offers GICs from some of the same financial institutions that offer the best annual rates at BMO InvestorLine. (CIBC Investor’s Edge often does not offer a GIC at the highest rate that you can get from InvestorLine or Direct Investing. They should consider fixing that!) In all, RBC Direct Investing offers GICs sold by about 20 financial institutions.

I also double-checked. I do not have to pay a fee or commission to purchase a GIC from RBC Direct Investing.

Buying a GIC from RBC Direct Investing

Go to the RBC Direct Investing website.
1. Click on the Sign In button.
2. In the Client Card Number: field, type your card number.
3. In the Password: field, type in your password.
4. Click on the Sign in button.
Click on the Trade tab.
From the list of links across the top of the Trade tabbed page, click on Fixed Income.
The highest rate for GICs with 1- to 5-year-terms will be shown as a link. The table of links displays the best rate for Compound interest, Annual Interest, Semi-Annual interest, Quarterly interest and Monthly interest.The minimum purchase required for a Registered Account is $3,500.
The Minimum purchase required for a Non-registered Account depends on the term: It is $20,000 for a 1-year term; but drops to $15,000 for 2; $10,000 for 3, $5,000 for 4, and $3500 for 5 years.You can also perform a search for GICs using the Fixed Income Search table.
I just clicked the interest rate link to select an Annual pay, 1-year term certificate for today’s test.
The Fixed Income Search screen opens.
To see the best offered interest rate, I clicked on the light grey downward-pointing arrowhead beside Interest Rate in the table of results. When you hover over this arrowhead, the message says “Sort on this column in descending order.”Eeeww. Bug!
Instead of re-sorting the table, it opened the Fixed Income Search box again with no data selected. It has not even got the GICs radio button selected.Doggedly, I use the browser back button and try again. Same thing happens. And again.
So I decide to fill in the Fixed Income Search box again. So I:
1. Click to select the radio button for: GICs
2. From the Type drop-down list, select: Annual
3. For the Maturity, from the drop-down list, select: 1 yr
4. And click the Find button.
And it just gets me back where I was with the GICs still not sorted by highest rate to lowest!
THIS time, though, when I click on the downward arrowhead beside Interest Rate, it sorts the table properly. Interesting!
To check this again,
I left the Fixed Income screens entirely by clicking on my Home tab.
Then started over again. I clicked on the Trade tab and etc.
The bug repeated.It seems it will only allow me to use that downward-pointing arrowhead to sort the table of GICs by rate if I run a customized fixed income search first.I checked that it sorts properly if you do a customized search right from the beginning. To do so, I:
1. Clicked on the Trade tab.
2. From the list of links across the top of the screen, clicked on Fixed Income
3. Instead of picking the highest listed interest rate for the certificate I wanted on the first screen, I completed a Fixed Income Search:
4. Click to select the radio button for: GICs
5. From the Type drop-down list, select: Annual
6. For the Maturity, from the drop-down list, select: 1 yr
7. And click the Find button.
8. From the resulting table, I can immediately click to sort by descending interest rate.

Why am I bothering with trying to sort the table by descending interest rate?

To avoid missing a higher interest rate when scanning down the table. I could have mistaken or forgotten the highest rate I saw on the first screen.
To see which companies are offering the best rate. Often there may be 2 or 3 financial institutions offering the same highest rate. I might prefer one company over another, especially if I am at the CDIC maximum insurable $100,000 limit for one institution but not for another.

So now I finally know from which institution I want to buy my GIC.

To Buy the GIC at RBC Direct Investing

From the Fixed Income Advanced Search Results table sorted by Interest Rate in descending order:
Click on the linked name of the financial institution offering the GIC.
A “Financial Institution’s Name” Buy screen will open. For example, the screen may be titled: Equitable Trust.
Review the
- security type (GIC),
- payment frequency (annual),
- maturity date (today’s date plus one year), and
- Interest Rate (should be the high one you’re looking for)
If they are all ok,
Click on the Buy button

Which was a bit unnerving as I had not entered how large of a certificate to buy!
Ah. That’s because I’m not done.
Review the info again. Then:
- From the Account #: drop-down list, select which account to fund the purchase.
  For RRSPs be careful to select the CAD account, not the USD one, if so desired.
- In the PAR Value of Purchase: field, type the cost of the certificate you want to purchase. For a RRSP account, the minimum purchase is $3500.
- In the Contact Phone field, type your phone number.
Click on the Continue button.
If you tried to trick it, like me, it will reply:
“The minimum Par Value for purchasing a GIC is $3,500. Please see the Fixed Income Order FAQ for more details before trying again.”If you put in the proper amount, it will take you to the Confirm Transaction Step 2 of 3 screen.
Review the “Important Notice” and the details of your purchase.
If it all looks ok, click on the Confirm button.
The Transaction Complete Step 3 of 3 screen will be displayed.
Make note of your Order ID number by writing it down, or by copying the entire order confirmation and terms into a document and saving it.
To check what’s been updated:
- Click on the My Portfolios tab.
- Check your Available Funds.
  Interesting. So far it has not removed the $3,500 from my available cash even though it says this is my “available cash as of the time it actually is now.”
- Under the list of links for the My Portfolios tab, click on the Order Status link.
  There’s the order. All is as expected. The Status Action is “Pending.”
- So I guess I’ll just have to make a note to not spend that $3,500 while waiting for them to drop my Available balance.
Click on the Sign Out button.
For added security clear your browser cache and close your browser session.

How Did the Purchase Compare to Buying a GIC at InvestorLine or Investor’s Edge?

BMO InvestorLine automatically sorts its table of GIC offers from the highest to lowest interest rate. That seems sensible. It does mean that the BMO GIC product offerings are not at the top of the list.

Investor’s Edge makes you sort the list of GICs you can buy, like RBC Direct Investing does.

On the possible plus side, RBC Direct Investing lets me buy a smaller GIC in a registered account, with a $3500 minimum versus $5000 at InvestorLine and Investor’s Edge.

It’s easiest to buy a GIC at InvestorLine. It takes more steps at RBC Direct Investing, even if it didn’t have any programming bugs.

It’s most profitable to buy a GIC at InvestorLine or RBC Direct Investing as they offer GICs from financial institutions with better rates than those at Investor’s Edge.

Given that InvestorLine sorts the rates for me and requires fewer screens to make a purchase while still offering the same high rates as RBC Direct Investing, I’d say InvestorLine is slightly better for purchasing GICs.