Vanguard Security

[Getmeouttahere]

Hello All, working with a financial advisor currently. We know each-other personally and he even comes to our house for meetings with my wife and I when requested. Hes reasonable cost wise but now that I have studied up on this lifestyle im finding him more and more expensive. My concern comes in the form of security. Since I know him the risk for a security breach or unauthorized access seems lower. This is my concern. Im wondering since this relationship type is not present at VanGuard, should that be a concern as far as my account security goes? I do have the two stage authentication via text message set up.

[trollwithamustache]

Does he have an admin?  You have no idea if your records/passwords in his office are locked up or sitting out on the table because he forgot to refile them. Then of course are his online habits. He may have a great IT guy and have better computer security than you. Or, he is a good salesman and sort of does most of what the broker dealer tells him to on computer systems but why would he waste money on an IT guy?

Vanguard is as secure as you make it... unique password? strong? Did you share your password with anyone? Do you run some kind of anti virus software on your computer?

[BECABECA]

Although emotionally you feel safer with this personal contact, you’re actually more open to fraud through him. You probably know at least one person who lost their retirement savings because they put their trust in a financial advisor who turned out to be a con man. I know I do. Then there’s the financial advisors who aren’t fiduciary financial advisors, so they can legally make decisions about your money with their own interests in mind (making commissions off of getting you to purchase certain funds, transaction churning to rack up lots of buy and sell fees, etc.). Given he comes to your house, I’m betting he isn’t a fiduciary financial advisor:
https://money.usnews.com/investing/investing-101/articles/what-is-a-fiduciary-financial-advisor-a-guide-to-the-fiduciary-duty

Finally, what is his investment firm’s policy on reimbursing your account if it has been accessed fraudulently? Here’s Vanguard’s:
https://personal.vanguard.com/us/help/SecurityOnlineFraudPledgeContent.jsp

And on top of all that extra risk with him, you’re also paying management fees:
https://investor.vanguard.com/investing/how-to-invest/impact-of-costs

[MustacheAndaHalf]

To answer the direct question, you can provide read-only access to your account to someone else:
https://www.mymoneyblog.com/view-your-spouse-account-vanguard.html

Your adviser does not need your password for this: they view your data from their own account.  But they can't make changes.  They could provide advice, and ask you to follow through on it.