What’s Better for Clients Than Money Markets? Max.

This week, Max is at the T3 conference in Orange County, Ca., which is spurring us to think about financial advisors and how we can help them best serve their clients.

As financial advisors think about where to put their clients’ cash, many head automatically toward money market funds. But in today’s regulatory environment, where money market funds pay ultra-low rates and can force investors to pay redemption penalties in times of market turmoil, they may no longer be the best choice.

There is a better solution for cash held in brokerage or bank accounts. It’s called Max.  

Some statistics about cash: high-net-worth households in the U.S. are currently holding 23.7% of their assets in cash. That works out to a staggering $3.5 trillion, just among the top 4% of the U.S. population.

Most of this cash is being kept in the wrong place. In money market funds, it is under-earning its potential and it’s not insured.

Clients hold cash for a host of reasons, including as a reserve for a future real estate purchase, private equity capital call, or other asset buy. A recent U.S. Trust survey showed that a majority of clients were holding cash on the sidelines to serve as “dry powder” to capitalize on market opportunities. That’s the same reason why Warren Buffett has said he likes cash so much.

Most financial advisors think that clients aren’t holding much cash because what they see is the cash allocation within the client’s investment portfolio. The reality is that there’s a lot more cash sitting on the sidelines, out of view of the advisor. Most high net worth investors maintain multiple advisory relationships at several institutions. Advisors’ wallet share is only what clients choose to bring to them.

Where is this cash being held? Up until this point, the default for many financial advisors was to keep client cash in a money market fund. This is no longer best practice, especially in a fiduciary environment. It’s difficult to justify offering your clients less of a yield on uninsured cash when there’s a solution that allows them to earn more and stay FDIC-insured.

After the 2008 financial crisis, the SEC imposed new rules on money market funds, rendering them no longer a true cash equivalent. Under the new regulations, retail-held prime funds are subject to redemption gates of up to 10 days and redemption penalties of 1-2% in periods of financial stress. This means that your clients may not be able to access their funds when they need them most. At the same time, yields on money markets are still relatively low, and these funds are not insured.

How can Max solve these problems? Max offers a tool that lets advisors bring more cash into view, help clients earn more on that cash, and help ensure that cash is fully insured. We’ve created a better solution for cash, offering liquidity, higher yield, and greater FDIC insurance. Max doesn’t take custody of clients’ funds. Their cash stays in the client’s own name, while our software acts as a sort of air traffic control system, telling the banks to move funds among the client’s own accounts whenever it’s advantageous to do so to get better rates. In this manner, clients continuously earn the highest yield possible within the FDIC limits. That means Max members can keep up to $5 million per couple insured, and we have a partner solution that can deliver up to $50 million of FDIC coverage per tax ID for business accounts or complex trusts.

Now that money markets are considerably less attractive, isn’t it time to find a better way to manage cash? Learn more about Max at MaxForAdvisors.com.