Comment by OkGoDoIt
Why do you assume sally@dankstartup.com doesn’t have a vanguard account? I’ve absolutely had similar retirement account logins that became difficult to access once I left that employer. Had to contact HR and get them to help me log into my account. If the company had folded during that timeframe I would’ve been screwed. Of course for financial institutions you can probably recover your account through some identity proving process, and generally money transfers require a second factor sms auth, but a domain takeover would probably have been sufficient to at least get someone logged in and able to see my account balance.
> I’ve absolutely had similar retirement account logins that became difficult to access once I left that employer.
Yes, but your employer's email domain wasn't repurposed. It's still an operating business, and the account is still there, and still yours. And for accounting reasons they still remember who you are and can recover your important information for creditors, etc... The fact that it's difficult for you to access that account is a feature and not a bug, because it means it's difficult for others too. But you can, and people do all the time.
The case here is failed businesses who have abandoned their domains and employee account history. Almost by definition that's a violation of financial regulation already. And this, btw, is the reason why DankStartup employees couldn't use their work emails to open Vanguard accounts.