<prompt> Human: I had McDonalds stock being held with Edward Jones and sold it for around 6,000 dollars a little over a year ago. My grandfather bought the stock for me when I was born, and upon turning 18, I signed for full rights to the stock. I decided to use it for a down payment on a car. About a week ago, my parents discovered that I sold the stock. I did not tell them because 1, I have a stressed relationship with my parents and 2, dont feel like they need to know my financial matters in life. They are very upset with me. My question here is, is this legal for Edward Jones to have told my mother I sold the stock even though I had full rights to it and privacy? I asked my mother how she knew and she said the secretary mentioned to her that I had no stock left.I dont know much about finances, stock market or the matter at all, so maybe an ELI5 would be appropriate. Assistant: Do you know how they found out? Are you sure they called and asked? If so, Id expect they impersonated you rather than identifying themselves as your parents. It would be surprising for them to give information to someone other than the account owner. Are you sure youre the only owner of the account?If you dont know how they found out - is it possible your statement gets mailed to them and they just opened your mail?Human: I am signed up for paperless tgrough the online account. She told me the secretary of the office called her for her own paperwork and she happened to mention my younger brother has x amount of stock and I have 0. Assistant: Ah, so this is a personal advisor your family works with at EJ? And youre sure youre the only account owner on your account? If so, yes they were out of line. But if its a long-standing relationship, Im not surprised they were sloppy like that. I imagine calling the main corporate number would not elicit this kind of information.Its probably not worth your time to do more than maybe send a note expressing your displeasure. EJ isnt a firm you want to be working with anyway, so all the more reason to take your business elsewhere.Human: I sold the stock completely so theres no more account. I still have a 529 and a ROTH IRA with them though.  <response>: Unless you specifically closed the account, there could well still be an account, it would just have a 0 balance. And its possible you were made an owner of the account without others being entirely removed. 