You've never had to authenticate any of your clients.

The Taxpayer and Spouse Authentication area has, in previous years, had a entry entitled "customer type" which, in it's drop down choices, included the choice "returning customer." That entry is not on the 2020 version of Lacerte. When you pull up support entries, the first "hit" still shows and discusses that line of entry. I'm just trying to find out why it has been taken off. It does seem to force us to gather ID info or (other research has opined ) document that the client has refused to provide it.

Many more clients of mine than usual are getting California FTB letters asking the client to verify their identity. I am trying to figure out if this is an anomaly or something I did.

I did not notice until just a few days ago that the Customer Type input field was removed. In prior years, my clients transferred to the new year with "Returning Taxpayer to the Same Preparer" in this field.

I wonder if the elimination of this field is the cause of this increase of notices, and if the only way I would have been able to avoid it is to enter ID information for every client. If so, I can only wish I had known this field was eliminated.

(As you mentioned, when you search for this, Lacerte still shows this input field as being there in the top result.)