Brokerage 1099 Statement SNAFU's

As you are well aware many brokerage houses have gone out of business and/or merged into others. In some cases others have changed companies that handle their dividend distributions and also names have been changed. Pershing handles the distributions for many investment companies and multiple 1099's are not uncommon.

All of this means you may get 2 1099's instead of one from the same company. For instance:

• Vanguard Brokerage switched from Pershing in the middle of the year. (This
  does not affect mutual funds)
• Bank of America took over Countrywide
• Chase tookover Washington Mutual
• Wells Fargo tookover Wachovia
• Smith Barney dropped the name Citi and added Morgan Stanley