There are some flags that can be set, or relationships built, or accounts characterized in certain ways that make this harder. Schwab's point person for all our stuff is great. She is also the point person my elderly MIL, who is pretty astute but sometimes things happen. Both she and the CFP who manages MIL's accounts I talk to about quarterly, with MIL's invitation to sit in on the calls. They would both tell me, because we've got some measures in place for alerting, if there was something out of character.

A very, very good friend of mine - I've been his best man twice, he's been mine once - cannot handle money. If you give him $1, he's soon to be a guy with a Snickers. Both his wives put him on a cash system - he gets $X at the beginning of the week and when that's gone, he has to wait. Because if you give him $2X, it's gone. If you give him $4X and tell him to make it last the month, it will last a week. He's been like this forever; I've known him more than half his life. None of this will change at this point. So some folks need this - they get $X and that's all they get. They can't handle more, they can't handle credit cards, etc.