NFS Annual Custody and Recordkeeping (Inactivity Fee)

National Financial Services will be applying their annual “inactivity fee” on December 31, 2020. The fee is charged once per year to accounts meeting the following criteria:

  • Account is open
  • Account is holding a position for balance on 12/31/20
  • Account was established prior to 1/1/2020 (last 12 months)
  • DVP/RVP accounts that have a balance on 12/31/20
  • No trading activity or margin interest during the period of 1/1/20 to 12/31/20

Note: PIPs and SWP’s, no-transaction fee funds, mutual fund exchanges, and systematic equity dividend reinvestments are defined as trading activity. All trading activity (identified with a buy or sell mnemonic) must settle prior to 12/31/20 to exempt the account from the fee.

For purposes of the Annual Custody Fee, the following transactions are NOT defined as trading activity:

  • Mutual fund dividend reinvestments
  • EFT transactions resulting from PIP’s into or SWP’s out of core money market funds
  • UIT tender Rollovers

The following are types of accounts for which NFS does NOT charge a fee (e.g. the account would be exempt from the fee assessment):

  • Non-prototype retirement plans
  • Grandfathers Brokerage Access with Debit Cards and Premier Access Asset Management Accounts
  • ESI Illuminations accounts
  • Accounts with a combined balance of $10K or more in Fidelity Money Market funds
  • Accounts with margin activity
  • Accounts with alternative investment positions
  • Closed accounts
  • Abandoned accounts
  • Deceased accounts

The charges will be applied to client accounts on January 2nd. Unfortunately, National Financial does not make the fee criteria reportable in Wealthscape. Therefore, representatives will NOT be charged if ESI needs to take action to resolve a debit balance resulting from fee. If you would like a list of impacted accounts, you may send a request to ESItrading@nationallife.com. Please contact the service desk at 1-800-344-7437 with any questions.

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