Unknown Beneficiary Name in my CIBC Investor's Edge Account
My mother and I have each had our own CIBC Investor's Edge accounts for over 10 years now.
Last month she mentioned that she looked into the settings of her account and found that an unknown name was listed as her Trading Authority / Power of Attorney and how she was dealing with CIBC to get this name removed.
I decided to look into my account and lo and behold, there was an unknown person listed as the beneficiary of my account.
Going through the process has been frustrating as you cannot simply just remove the name through the website, you need to:
- Call CIBC
- Wait an hour for someone to answer
- Get them to send a link to a secure email account
- Write out a letter of complaint
- Print the letter
- Sign the letter
- Scan the letter
- Upload and send the letter
Then wait over a week for each correspondence, in which they try to get you to respond by calling CIBC instead of emailing, and wait on hold for anyone to answer.
They originally mentioned they do not have the original paperwork to determine how this name was added and they don't keep paperwork from over 7 years ago... Then they happened to just find it and send it over to me.
In the provided scans, the beneficiary section in my original application form when opening the account had:
- My name pre-filled
- My account number pre-filled
- This random name pre-filled as the "Section 1: Designation of Successor Holder"
- My signature written in ink
- Witness signature written in ink
So of the 20 or so pages I had to sign, they must have rushed by or obscured this random person pre-filled into my form when I signed that page, as I would have never signed off on this person.
BUT, I was also provided with another form which is of much lesser quality (very pixelated) where they must have:
- Re-printed the original scanned beneficiary form
- Used white out to remove the typed in name from "Section 1: Designation of Successor Holder"
- Used pen to re-add the same name to "Section II: Designation of Beneficiary" and listed this person as my "Girlfriend"
- Scanned and submitted the altered form of less quality
Which leads me to conclude this is either a clerical error, or worse, an insider attempt at fraud.
The reason I am posting this is to warn others with Investor's edge accounts to check your own account as this seems to be more than a coincidence that the only people I know IRL with an Investor's Edge account have an unknown person attached to their account.
TLDR: Check the account settings of your Investor's Edge account! There may be someone you do not know that is associated with your account!