MEDALLION SIGNATURE GUARANTEE
What? The Medallion Signature Guarantee is used for selling, redeeming, or transferring securities, such as stocks or mutual funds. The transfer agent requires the signature of the owners(s) of the securities to be “guaranteed” by a financial institution before they will act on the transaction request. The Medallion Signature Guarantee procedure is more complex than a notarized signature procedure. Since we accept any liability for any forgery, we are required to verify more information than is needed for a signature to be notarized.
Why? The Medallion Guarantee offers you extra protection against fraudulent transfers. When we process a Signature Guarantee, we are not only verifying that your signature is genuine, but that you are the appropriate person to sign the request, and that you are acting within your legal capacity to sign the transaction request form.
How? Gather the following documents and stop by your nearest branch for the signature process:
- Two forms of identification including one unexpired photo ID (ex: a driver’s license or state issued ID card)
- Proof that you own the security you wish to sell, redeem, or transfer (ex: a recent account statement)
- Verification of the approximate value of the securities involved
- In special cases, we may need other documents demonstrating your legal capacity to act on the account (ex: a will, power of attorney documents, trust documents, death certificate, small estate affidavit, etc.)
- All joint owners of the security must be present, since they will also need to sign. Join owners will need to present two forms of identification.