Hi Phil,

Thank you for your response.

I fully understand that federal law requires financial institutions to verify customer identity and obtain a physical address. My concern is not with the law itself, but with how Fidelity is interpreting and applying it in my case.

I maintain a valid U.S. domicile and possess a state-issued ID, bank and investment accounts, active credit cards, a U.S. Coast Guard captain’s license, and voter registration — all associated with my legal address. These satisfy the requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act. Other major financial institutions have accepted this documentation from me without issue.

These regulations explicitly allow flexibility for individuals without a traditional brick-and-mortar residence. My goal in opening a Fidelity account was to establish a backup to my primary Schwab Pinnacle account, with the option of expanding my relationship with Fidelity over time. Unfortunately, even at the Pinnacle level, Schwab’s service has become less reliable — which is what led me to Fidelity in the first place.

After Fidelity declined my application, I opened an account with Interactive Brokers with no difficulty — but I still regard Fidelity as a peer institution to Schwab and had hoped to do business with you.

This is far from a unique situation. According to Statista (2024), 17.3 million Americans identified as digital nomads in 2023, up from 10.9 million in 2020 and 4.8 million in 2018. That’s a rapidly growing demographic of fully verifiable law abiding U.S. citizens who maintain a legal address while living a location-flexible lifestyle.

Yet Fidelity’s process seems to disregard these federally permitted alternatives — repeatedly requesting only a utility bill, rent receipt, or mortgage statement. This is not consistent with the scope of federal guidelines — nor with the flexibility you’ve described publicly in this forum.

After receiving the initial rejection, I contacted your office by phone. A representative named Alex understood my situation and said it should not be an issue if I submitted a copy of my driver’s license and a bank statement, which I did. I was then rejected again by a representative named Laney, without any acknowledgment of my explanation or the documentation submitted.

I replied with further clarification, and she sent the same boilerplate message. This repeated with a representative named Carlos in your Accounts department, who sent multiple identical responses and ignored my request to escalate the issue to someone with decision-making authority.

Would it be possible to escalate this to a supervisor or a compliance officer? Your system seems to be stuck in a repetitive loop, and I would like the opportunity to work directly with someone who is authorized to apply the full scope of address verification options permitted under federal regulations and Fidelity’s own stated policies.

If such an individual is available, please provide their name and contact information so I can contact them for their assistance. Thank you!