Trusted contact person

What it means

A trusted contact is not an agent. They cannot trade, withdraw, or instruct anything. The firm may simply talk to them.

Firms may contact them to confirm the account holder's whereabouts and wellbeing, to ask about a suspected diminished capacity, and to ask about a possible exploitation.

Naming one takes a form and costs nothing, and many firms now ask at account opening.

Why it matters

It is the single cheapest protection against financial exploitation there is, and almost nobody has one.

It also gives a firm somebody to ring before freezing an account or executing a suspicious instruction, which is the moment when a family usually finds out too late.

When you are likely to meet it

• When reviewing a parent's investment or bank accounts.
• When setting up your own accounts.
• When a firm asks whether there is anyone it may contact.

Related terms

• Authorized signerSomebody a bank permits to transact on an account they do not own. It is access without ownership, and it ends at the account holder's death.
• CapacityWhether somebody is able to understand a decision and its consequences well enough to make it. It is decided decision by decision, not once and for all.
• Durable power of attorneyA power of attorney that keeps working after the person who signed it loses the ability to make decisions — which is usually the whole point of signing one.
• Financial exploitationTaking or misusing an older or vulnerable person's money or property. It is usually done by somebody they know.
• Transfer agentThe company a corporation employs to keep its share register and to move shares from one owner to another.
• Undue influencePressure that overcomes somebody's own wishes, so that a will, gift or transfer reflects the influencer's intentions rather than theirs.

Sahvelo guidance that uses this

• Financial exploitation
• Account and asset inventory