Simple question: do most practitioners accept fax signatures on documents such as hardship withdrawal applications, termination distribution requests, and loan applications, or do you insist on original signatures? We are aware of the new laws regarding the acceptability of electronic signatures, but have not researched this thoroughly to see if there is anything specific about the acceptability of fax signatures. Our firm has been accepting them for several years now, but have heard of others that don't, so wonder if we're off base here.

I'm not an attorney, but my understanding is that the courts have been accepting fax signatures for many years.

Our shop always takes fax signatures and has never had a problem.

Rick: Thanks for the info. We have been accepting fax signatures for quite some time too, but recently ran across a big Plan Sponsor who says they do not accept them, so we decided to research this to be sure we were doing the right thing. I think the issue really is that this Plan Sponsor just doesn't want to mess with accepting faxes! Thanks again.