Financial Perspectives – Fall 2009

Protecting Your Online Privacy

In today’s world, accessing your account balance, paying a bill or reviewing your investment portfolio online is easier than ever. But without the appropriate safeguards, that same ease of access could open the door to “cyber thieves” looking to tap into your accounts, divert your funds or steal your identity.

While reputable sites have their own safety precautions in place, you can greatly enhance their effectiveness by taking a few basic steps of your own.

Reality Check

Keep passwords and PINs in a safe place, and don’t share them via e-mail or over the telephone. Unencrypted e-mail is not secure, so you should never use it to provide financial information.

Make certain you don’t inadvertently store confidential information if you use a shared computer. Once you’re done accessing a secure site, log off your account, delete your temporary files and Internet history, and make sure the browser doesn’t preserve your username and password information.

Be aware that your private information is vulnerable when you access it from the convenient, but insecure, wireless “hot spots” often found at coffee shops, airports and other public venues.

Use It or Lose It

It’s all too easy to download a virus or spyware program that can record your account number, password or PIN as you type. To protect yourself, make sure your computer is behind an active firewall and equipped with up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Of course, no matter how sophisticated the program, it does you no good unless you use it. So run it automatically in the background or schedule the software to operate periodically.

When creating a password, avoid using a real word and use at least eight characters, including numbers and symbols. Change your password regularly and use different passwords for different sites to reduce the risk of someone “hacking” into your accounts.

Security Alert

Be wary of “phishers” – criminals who attempt to gain online access to sensitive information such as your passwords and credit card details by masquerading as reputable entities. Never respond to an e-mail or “pop-up” requesting your password or other confidential information.

Before entering any confidential information on a company’s website, make sure the site has a clearly stated privacy policy – and that you understand and agree to its provisions. If you have any question about whether a site or e-mail is genuine, contact the company directly using a means that you know to be valid.

In addition, make sure that any online forms you complete are secure. A key or closed padlock icon on the browser’s status bar or a website URL that begins “https:” (the “s” stands for “secure”) indicates that the website includes some security precautions. Keep in mind, however, that these symbols could be forged.

Investor Access: Focus on Safety

The newly redesigned Investor Access site offers you convenient online access to your Raymond James account information and features state-of-the-art online security, ensuring that only you – and those whom you authorize – can access your information.

You’ll notice certain security measures from the first time you visit Investor Access. When you enroll in the system, you’ll be asked to select and answer three security questions. Any time you attempt to log in from an unfamiliar location or other security risks are detected, the system will prompt you to answer one of these questions to confirm that it’s you trying to access your accounts. Also during Investor Access: Focus on Safety enrollment, you’ll select a SiteKey image and assign a unique caption to it. Each time you log in to Investor Access, your selected image and caption will appear, letting you know you are at the true Investor Access site and not a phony look-alike site.

Additional security processes take place behind the scenes to further protect your personal and financial data. For example, Investor Access encrypts your information using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to prevent unauthorized individuals from viewing or tampering with your data as it is transmitted over the Internet.

Please note that, to protect your privacy, we will never ask you to send us personal information through e-mail. If you receive such an e-mail claiming to be from Raymond James, please do not respond to the message, and notify your financial advisor or Raymond James Client Services at 800-647-7378 immediately.

To view our complete Internet privacy statement or enroll in Investor Access, please visit our website at raymondjames.com.

Raymond James & Associates, Inc. and Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. are wholly owned subsidiaries of Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE-RJF).

The information contained in this newsletter has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. We may, from time to time, have a position in the securities mentioned and may buy or sell such securities in the course of regular business.

This information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision. Investing involves risk and investors may incur a profit or a loss. You should discuss any tax matters with the appropriate professional.