The financial industry is abuzz with a bevy of new cash solutions aimed at individual investors. Each offers benefits versus keeping funds in traditional bank or brokerage accounts. But it’s important to read the fine print – not all solutions are created equal.

Fundamentally, people hold cash for two reasons: safety and liquidity. Safety typically refers to the preservation of value or the use of cash as a hedge against turmoil elsewhere in the portfolio. Liquidity is for paying monthly bills, funding capital calls, or for the option value inherent in being able to invest at a moment’s notice.

The latter is why Warren Buffett loves cash so much. Holding lots of cash on hand enables you to be “greedy while others are fearful” and also provides the psychological cushion necessary to weather the ups and downs of the market. This may explain why, according to Capgemini, the average high net worth household keeps a surprising 23% of its investable assets in cash. In the midst of the financial crisis when everyone else was selling, those fortunate or prescient enough to hold cash were buying – and they profited handsomely. Had you bought the S&P 500 at the market trough, you’d be sitting on a 300% gain right now, a once-in-a-generation event in public equities investing.

If the most important aspects of cash are that it be kept safe (i.e., fully FDIC-insured) and liquid (i.e., immediate accessibility), why are these new cash solutions falling short on both fronts?

The answer is in the fine print.

Behind each of these cash-like offerings is an old system of brokered deposits. Invented nearly 20 years ago, brokered deposits were a simple way for banks to offer customers increased FDIC insurance coverage to prevent customers from opening up additional accounts at competing banks. Unfortunately, brokered deposits don’t offer same-day liquidity, and sometimes cap withdrawals at as little as $100,000 per day. And brokered deposits aren’t always fully FDIC-insured since deposit brokers often place funds at banks where you might already have a bank account, resulting in less-than-full coverage. Investors typically need to read the fine print to figure out where their funds are being placed and then mail in a written letter to request that certain banks be excluded from the brokered deposit program. Hardly a transparent or practical option for most investors.

Brokered deposit systems work by taking your deposits and selling them to other banks. The deposit broker collects a high-interest rate from the recipient banks – circa 2.50% in today’s market – then keeps a spread for itself, perhaps 0.20%, and passes on a net yield of 2.30% to the client. While advertised as “free,” this offering isn’t “free” at all. As a customer, you’re paying 0.20% for this service, and if you read the fine print, you’ll find that you are taxed on the full 2.50%, even though only 2.30% of that will ever see its way through to your account. Need access to your money the same day? You’re out of luck – your funds are locked up by the broker and not available until the next day. Changed your mind and want to withdraw all your money? You may not be able to do that either due to withdrawal limits imposed by the broker. And if the originating institution fails, you could lose access to all of your funds until the FDIC resolution process is complete.

What’s shocking about these recent developments are that some robo advisors are RIAs that should be acting in a fiduciary capacity are now co-opting the same tools that broker-dealers have used for years to make money on their clients’ cash while marketing these solutions as “free.” They are by no means free. That spread that they keep for themselves is the fee. It’s just hidden in the fine print.

Investors seeking higher yields on their cash have other options. They can look directly to online banks, or solutions like MaxMyInterest, which helps clients obtain increased FDIC insurance coverage, preferential yields, and same-day liquidity on the cash that sits in their own bank accounts, in a manner that’s fully transparent and free from conflicts of interest.

If you’re sitting on cash, you may be fortunate enough to benefit from the next market dislocation. Before you decide to move that cash in search of a higher yield, I encourage you to do one thing: read the fine print.

Gary E. Zimmerman is the Founder and CEO of MaxMyInterest, an independent, intelligent cash management solution that helps individual investors earn more on their cash, free from conflicts or cross-sell. Visit MaxMyInterest.com or MaxForAdvisors.com for more information.

If you have a financial emergency — an unexpectedly high medical bill, a sudden move across the country, or a job loss — how will you pay for it? Most financial advisors recommend keeping a separate emergency fund that you wall off from your retirement and other lifecycle-related savings accounts. This will allow you to meet urgent funding needs without having to take money from your retirement or educational accounts, which can lead to penalties and tax bills.

It can be difficult to get started with an emergency fund, especially if you’re focused on specific savings goals like buying a house or paying tuition. The best way to make saving a habit is to use behavioral-finance techniques to your advantage. Open an online-savings account at a bank that pays high interest rates, and set up automatic monthly transfers from the main checking or brokerage account where your paycheck gets deposited. That way, you won’t have to think about making a manual deposit. It’s okay if you start with a small amount; the important thing is to be consistent.

While you’re setting up your emergency fund, make sure that you’re earning the highest interest rate possible. This will harness the power of compound interest, which means that the money in your account will earn interest as it sits there, and, if you don’t take it out, will accumulate as the interest goes back into the account to earn even more interest.

Why does this matter? Your emergency fund, by design, is money that you are going to keep on the sidelines and — hopefully — never have to use. Because you are not going to invest it in securities, which are risky, you want to make sure that you can earn as much as possible in interest on your cash in this account. Earning higher interest can help your emergency fund keep pace with inflation.

It’s also important that your emergency fund be kept in an account that’s fully liquid. If you have to access this money, you may need it immediately; you won’t have time to wait the three days that a money market fund will take to get the money back to you. An online savings account solves this problem. You can have the money wired back to your checking account same-day.

Are these accounts safe? Any bank account that is FDIC-insured is backed by the federal government up to $250,000 per depositor, per account type, per institution. If the bank goes under — unlikely, but still possible — the FDIC will return your money up to this limit.

One good way to make sure your emergency fund is FDIC-insured and kept in the highest-rate online-savings accounts possible is to use technology solutions, like MaxMyInterest, to manage it. Max isn’t a bank; it’s software that automatically allocates your funds among high-yielding accounts at online banks, to make sure your money always earns as much as it can safely. You can learn more at MaxMyInterest.com.

Investors in the U.S are holding a quarter of their assets in cash, a new survey from UBS Global Wealth Management found this week.

The quarterly Investor Sentiment survey, which analyzed 3,653 investors’ holdings in the U.S., looked at investors with more than $1 million in investable assets during the month of March.

Around the world, investors are holding an average 32% of their portfolios in cash, while in the U.S., 23% of investors’ assets are in cash, the study found. U.S. investors hold less cash than those in Europe (35%), Switzerland (31%), Latin America (36%) and Asia (36%).

This is not what financial advisors would recommend to high net worth investors.

“Cash is a safe asset for a liquidity strategy but a risky one for longevity,”  Paula Polito, Client Strategy Officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a press release announcing the survey’s results. “Right now, we see high levels of cash globally. This is a good time for investors to consider a more diversified portfolio.”

Financial advisors may not recommend a cash allocation that’s as high as this, but investors are likely holding onto all that cash for what they consider logical reasons. Some are waiting for the stock market, now hovering close to all-time highs, to fall so that they can buy in at lower levels. Others have a conservative bent and prefer to keep some assets in cash where it’s not at risk. And some are keeping cash in anticipation of a large purchase, like a home.

What’s nearly certain is that most, if not the vast majority, of this investor cash is earning less than it could. The average interest rate on cash held in savings accounts is now 0.10% (10 basis points). How can an investor earn more on cash? CDs generally pay higher rates, but they lock up investors’ money for a fixed term. Fixed-income investments also pay more, but they are not FDIC-insured, and involve risk.

This is where Max is helpful. The top rate on the Max platform, available only to Max members, is 2.71%. If an investor in the UBS survey has $1 million in assets, including $230,000 in cash, he or she is making, on average, $230 a year in interest on that cash in the bank. The same investor would earn $6,233 each year with Max. That’s the highest rate on FDIC-insured cash anywhere in the country. This interest compounds year over year, to generate even more return on risk-free cash.

Learn more about how to get started with Max and get your cash working harder for you.

When we launched Max back in 2014, the premise was very simple: online banks have lower operating costs, and so should be able to pay higher yields to customers than their brick-and-mortar counterparts.  The market dynamics were very similar to what we observed in the word of e-commerce: eliminate storefronts, and goods naturally cost less.  In the case of banking, rather than lower prices, online banking makes possible higher interest rates.  Back then, the average Max member was earning 0.88%, or 0.76% more than the national savings average.  Not bad.

Over the years, we’ve found ways to remove many of the frictions that keep people from earning more on their money.  With the Max Common Application, it’s possible to open multiple high-yield savings accounts by filling out a single form.  With our newest platform banks, we’ve been able to eliminate trial deposits, making it possible to link new savings accounts to your existing checking account instantly.  And for clients who join Max through their financial advisors, we can even eliminate form filing.  Imagine opening a bank account without ever needing to type in your name and address.

As rates have risen, Max members are earning even more.  Today, the highest yield on the Max platform is 2.46% — that’s not only higher than the highest nationally-advertised savings rate in the country, but it’s also a staggering 2.36% higher than the national savings average, which stands at just 0.10%.

How do we do it?  By eliminating customer acquisition cost for banks.  Most banks have to pay hundreds of dollars to attract each new customer account, through a combination of advertising and referral fees.  Who pays for this expense?  You, the depositor, by accepting a lower yield on your cash.  By contrast, Max does not accept advertising or referral fees from banks.  Not only does this eliminate potential conflicts of interest, but it also means that you can earn higher yield on your cash.

Take a look at your existing checking and savings accounts, or put a magnifying glass to your brokerage account statement to see how much you’re earning on cash.  If it’s lower than 2.46%, it might be worth taking a few minutes to see if Max could be right for you.

If you’re an accolyte of Japanese decluttering guru Marie Kondo, you are already familiar with her commandment to get rid of anything that doesn’t inspire happiness. Usually this applies to unnecessary things in your home or office: stacks of books you don’t plan to read again, toys your children have outgrown, clothes that don’t fit or are out of style. You might have accumulated souvenirs from travel — too many magnets on the fridge, or a surfeit of knicknacks on bookshelves — or been overly optimistic about how many old magazines you will actually open. Everyone has some area of their life that could use an anti-clutter intervention.

The same logic can be applied to any sort of encumbrance (do you have a vacation home you rarely visit?). So it’s reasonable to consider your investment portfolio to see if you’re getting the maximum amount of joy out of how you’ve allocated your assets.

Look particularly at the cash portfion of your portfolio. If your cash isn’t earning enough, it’s just like clutter: sitting there, taking up space, and not contributing to your happiness.

Here’s how you can make cash work harder for you:

1. Make sure you are earning the highest interest rates on your cash

If you keep your cash in a checking or brokerage account, or in a regular brick-and-mortar bank savings account, chances are you are earning close to the average interest rate on savings accounts of 0.10%. That’s a waste, because online banks are now paying more than 20 times that amount on cash, FDIC-insured.

1. Confirm you are not above the FDIC insurance limit on any of your bank accounts

The FDIC limit for deposit insurance is $250,000 per depositor, per account type, per bank. If you have more than that at a bank, the excess is not insured. You can solve this problem by opening accounts at other FDIC-insured banks (ideally those which offer higher interest rates).

1. Streamline your accounts to ensure a holistic view of your assets

The best way to gain an understanding of your cash is to be able to see a dashboard view of all your cash, no matter where you’re holding it. Many people don’t think about all the cash they have on hand as money that could be working; they only think about investments in terms of stocks, bonds, or other financial assets. Some people trade similar assets through trading platforms similar to questrade, you can learn more about their platform through this questrade review. But knowing where your cash is and what it’s earning is a key part of understanding your whole portfolio.

1. Automate your accounts to make sure your money is working for you

You can set up multiple online bank accounts, research their interest rates, and move money among them to make sure you’re always getting the best rate. But this DIY approach is a lot of work, and it violates another principle of decluttering your life: simplifying your schedule so that you can spend time doing what you truly enjoy.

Instead, a service called Max can do all this for you. Max helps you link your existing brick-and-mortar checking account or brokerage account to higher-yielding online savings accounts where you can earn more. Max monitors rates daily and automatically moves your funds so that you’re always earning the highest rate. Learn how Max can help you earn more on your cash.

For a generation that’s grown up with a smartphone in hand, millennials are surprisingly wedded to the most old-fashioned of investments: cash. That’s a conservative strategy, but it raises the specter of whether these young workers will build their portfolios quickly enough.

Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 were the most likely age group to choose cash as their ideal place to stash money they don’t plan to use within a decade, according to a survey from Bankrate.com. Thirty-nine percent of millennials said they would invest their money in cash if they didn’t need it within 10 years, triple the number who said they would buy stocks.

That could be a problem, because investment returns, compounded, tend to grow over time, if a portfolio is performing well. The more millennials earn on their investments today, the more these gains can grow throughout their working years. For Americans as a whole, one in four said they’d pick cash over other long-term investments. The report also found that Americans feel they haven’t saved enough money. For every survey participant who thought they had saved a sufficient amount, two survey participants said they don’t have a large enough savings reserve.

The report points to twin problems investors have today: a propensity to hold cash to avoid risk, alongside a nagging feeling that their portfolios won’t be large enough to support their future needs.

There are many reasons why millennials, and Americans as a whole, might feel more comfortable with large cash holdings. The global financial crisis is only a few years in the past, and many market participants might still hold bad memories of that experience. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway now holds $111 billion in cash. Many millennials either suffered losses among their own investments during the last crisis or watched family members lose money in the markets. With cash, they’re not taking a gamble on stocks.

Similarly, the housing market crash and subprime-mortgage bust that accompanied the crisis may have sparked an aversion to buying real estate (or perhaps millennials just can’t afford to buy houses). Millennials as a group also owe record amounts of student debt, and they may feel they can’t risk the money needed to make those payments. All this contributes to a desire to hold cash rather than riskier investments that hold the potential for a higher return, such as real estate investing itself, if millennials are looking for profit opportunities they have many options open to them, such as real estate investing courses via Roofstock, this gives them the option and interest to invest in something other than cash, and for possible massive returns too.

For investors of any age who want to hold a large portion of their portfolios in cash, it’s essential to consider both the interest rate on that cash and the degree to which their cash is protected by government deposit insurance. According to Bankrate.com, the average interest rate on bank deposits in U.S. savings accounts stands at 0.09%, while some online bank savings accounts pay more than 1.80% in interest, often with no minimum balance or monthly fees. Because of the power of compounding, that additional interest can make a large difference over a millennial’s long investment horizon.

As long as these online banks are guaranteed by the FDIC, the deposits are insured up to $250,000 per depositor, per account type, per bank, to guard against a bank failure. That’s essential for the investor who is holding cash to keep that money safe against all eventualities.

Here at Max, our system is ideal for investors of any age who choose to hold larger amounts of cash. Max helps depositors avail themselves of the higher interest rates paid by leading FDIC-insured banks. For millennials, signing up for Max could be a smart choice. Even if they’re not prepared to take greater risk by buying real estate or investing in the stock market, with Max they can at least earn up to 20 times the national average on the cash that’s sitting in their checking or brokerage accounts, while helping ensure it is fully protected by FDIC insurance.

Learn more about how Max helps investors earn higher yields on cash.

While Max members have always earned much more on cash than the typical American depositor, as interest rates rise, the benefits of using Max are increasing even further. Since 2014, the incremental yield, or alpha, that Max has generated for its members has increased from 0.76% to 1.23%.

According to Bankrate.com, the national average interest rate earned on savings accounts is 0.09%. Max members, however, are earning dramatically more — 1.42% on balances up to $250,000, and an average 1.32% on larger balances up to $1,000,000.

Why does earning more on cash matter? Because interest compounds over time, meaning that the gap between those who manage their cash wisely and those who don’t widens as years go by.  Since all FDIC-insured savings accounts carry a government guarantee and are essentially risk-free, focusing on the banks that can deliver the highest yield makes sense. Leaving your money in a brick-and-mortar savings account that pays the national average — or worse — means you are missing out on the opportunity to earn an additional 1.23%, on average, without taking any additional risk with your money. In fact, because of Max’s feature that helps spread cash across multiple banks to maximize FDIC insurance coverage, many Max members are earning higher yield while taking less risk.

While online banks have gradually raised rates over the past several months, brick-and-mortar banks have yet to do so in a significant fashion. Online banks are able to offer higher interest rates to savings-account holders because they don’t have physical branches to maintain. This means that if you don’t keep your cash in online banks, you likely aren’t keeping pace with rising rates.

For financial advisors, the ability to help clients earn more on their held-away cash — typically cash that advisors don’t see — is a major reason why many are recommending Max to their clients. As a fiduciary, charged with looking out for their clients’ best interest, many advisors feel it is imperative to offer Max to their clients. Incremental yield on cash is, after all, the same as incremental yield anywhere else in a client’s portfolio — but in the case of FDIC-insured cash, it comes without risk.

To learn more about how Max can help you or your clients earn more on cash, visit MaxMyInterest.com or MaxForAdvisors.com.

How can a company, nonprofit, or foundation make the most of its cash? It’s even easier to do now that Max partner American Deposit Management Co. has raised the rates it offers to Max members on FDIC-insured corporate deposits.

Now Max members using ADM’s AMMA savings account for their institutional cash will earn 0.85% — 85 basis points — on up to $25 million of cash, all FDIC-insured. That’s a considerable boost over most business bank accounts that pay close to zero.

As the Federal Reserve has raised rates over the past year, bank depositors have been among the last to benefit — but Max members have been able to take advantage of higher rates automatically. Now institutional clients can also enjoy higher rates.

To a corporate or nonprofit treasurer, or the trustee of a trust, this incremental interest income can make a significant difference. On every $1 million, that’s $8500 in interest each year, in perpetuity. In a regular business-savings account, that money would earn next to nothing.  Moreover, most bank accounts are insured to only $250,000, while the AMMA account can provide up to $50 million in insurance coverage.

Many companies and nonprofits are constrained when it comes to how they invest their cash, preferring safe and liquid instruments over riskier bets. They may use their cash for working capital, or may be required to keep in cash any funds they’ve raised from investors or donors.  

In these situations, it’s crucial to make sure this cash is safeguarded under FDIC protections, which are limited to $250,000 per depositor, per account type, per institution. When Max members use ADM for their corporate cash, they know their money is spread across multiple banks to maximize FDIC coverage.

We at Max use ADM’s solution for our own corporate cash, so we know how useful it can be. Many of our members, who find Max helpful for the cash they hold as individuals, also use ADM to manage cash for their companies, trusts, foundations, nonprofits, or residential associations, including co-ops. And financial advisors, who already use Max to help their clients earn higher yield on cash, often find they can add more value to their client relationships by delivering better solutions for corporate cash as well.

Learn more at MaxForBusiness.com.

Get your stopwatch: the race to intelligent cash management just accelerated.

Max and UFB Direct, an online-banking brand of BofI Federal Bank, have just launched the industry’s fastest account-opening and linking process. It now takes just minutes to open a new Max-linked UFB Direct online savings account.

How is this possible? In partnership with BofI, Max developed new technology that allows the process to go much faster than the usual procedures for opening an account at an online bank.

What this means for Max members: it’s now possible to visit the Max website, apply for a new UFB Direct account, link it to Max, and start optimizing your cash all within minutes.

Financial advisors who use Max can also help their clients open UFB Direct accounts right on the Max site. The new, streamlined linking process means it’s faster than ever to start earning more on cash, FDIC-insured.

We’ve heard from financial advisors that they would like to add clients to the Max platform as quickly and with as little friction as possible. That’s why we made it possible to pre-onboard clients with one click from advisors’ CRM systems. Now, with rapid account opening and linking, clients can get a savings account set up quickly and can start their first optimization right away.

Why does speed matter? Because every moment counts — not just because time is valuable, but also because the power of cash optimization can start working sooner.

Learn more about Max’s intelligent cash management services for individuals, financial advisors, and businesses, nonprofits, and institutions, or contact us with questions: member.services@maxmyinterest.com.

 

This will be the year that banks and fintech companies work together to solve customers’ problems in new ways, industry-watchers predict.

“In 2017, there will be a widening of the gulf between banks that are building meaningful partnerships with FinTech firms and those that think that they are because they have a couple of tech vendors and a procurement department,” JP Nicols, managing director of Fintech Forge and chairman of Next Money U.S, told bank innovation consultant Jim Marous. Financial-industry conferences, including the recent LendIt conference in New York City, have echoed with the same sentiment over the past few months: the banks that successfully tie up with fintech companies will pull ahead of those who don’t.

At Max, we’re proud to be part of this trend. Today, we announced a partnership with BofI Federal Bank, one of the pioneers of online banking, to add their UFB Direct brand to the Max platform.

Through a direct API integration and our patent-pending approach to account opening and linking, we’ve made it possible for clients to open new online savings accounts in less than two minutes, without the need for clients to leave the Max website or complete a cumbersome trial-deposit verification process. UFB Direct is also offering a preferred rate to Max members, who tend to hold balances that are many times larger than typical online bank customers.

Why would a bank partner with Max? Because this integration allows BofI to streamline customer acquisition without the need to spend money on advertising or referral fees, which in turn means they can operate more efficiently than their peers while delivering even higher yields to depositors. UFB Direct will get new customers — Max members — who are savvy about maintaining full FDIC insurance coverage and earning more interest on their cash, and who understand the benefits of online banking.

With the UFB partnership, all Max members will have the ability to link an additional online bank to their Max accounts, increasing the amount of FDIC coverage they can receive.

We believe this partnership represents a true win-win-win opportunity for BofI, for Max, and for our members — and is illustrative of the type of bank-FinTech partnership of which we expect to see more in 2017.

Learn more about Max and how it helps individuals earn more on their cash, FDIC-insured at MaxMyInterest.com.

Or find out how Max helps financial advisors and their clients to optimize cash by visiting MaxForAdvisors.com.

Banks seeking more information about the potential to partner with Max can contact us at info@maxmyinterest.com.