Fidelity Cash Sweep Account Options and Rates
Fidelity Investments offers several sweep options for idle cash, although they’re not all available for all account types. Read on for the details.
Fidelity Money Market Fund
The most common vehicle that Fidelity uses for uninvested cash is the money market fund. There are multiple funds Fidelity uses. They are all protected by SIPC up to $500,000 in total (not each). Because these funds are considered securities and not actual cash, once cash goes into them, SIPC’s $250,000 of insurance on cash doubles. That’s a big advantage that money market funds offer compared to straight cash.
The disadvantage money market funds have is that their share values could dip below $1.00. Obviously, cash won’t do this. It’s not common for the NAV to go below a dollar (also known as “breaking the buck”), but it has happened before.
Whichever fund an account uses, free cash will be automatically swept into it. There is no need to manually place an order as for a regular mutual fund.
There are three primary money market funds Fidelity is using right now as core positions in brokerage accounts. They are:
SPAXX, the Fidelity Government Money Market Fund. This fund has an expense ratio of 0.42% with a current yield of 1.80%.
FDRXX, the Fidelity Government Cash Reserves Fund. The expense ratio on this one is 0.33%. It has a 7-day yield of 1.85%.
FZFXX, the Fidelity Treasury Money Market Fund. This one goes back to 42 basis points for the management fee. It’s yielding 1.86% currently.
All three funds hold securities issued by the U.S. government. They have no transaction fees, no loads, and no minimum hold periods.
Fidelity FCASH
The second option Fidelity offers for free cash balances is FCASH. This is simply a deposit of cash that is SIPC insured. It is not invested in any security, money market fund or otherwise. The advantage of this one as far as Fidelity is concerned is that the broker can use it to fund its day-to-day operations. The current interest rate on FCASH is 1.57%.
Fidelity FDIC Sweep
Fidelity clients who prefer FDIC insurance can get it through the firm’s FDIC-sweep program. Essentially, the way this works is that an account’s idle cash is moved to a partner bank that is FDIC insured. The cash sits in the bank’s vault, although it is available for trading inside the Fidelity brokerage account.
Because Fidelity uses at least 5 program banks in its sweep program, each customer is eligible for at least $1,250,000 in FDIC protection, five times the normal limit of $250,000. Thus, customers with large amounts of cash will find an advantage at Fidelity: more FDIC insurance with a single account.
Currently, the FDIC-sweep program has an APY of 1.58%, which is right at the SIPC rate.
Fidelity has recently launched a new program as part of its FDIC-sweep program: Money Market Overflow. In case a customer has more than $1.25 million of idle cash, or whatever the maximum is at the time, money beyond this level will be moved into a money market mutual fund. Currently, Fidelity is using FZSXX. This is the Fidelity Government Money Market Fund.
FZSXX is very similar to the other money market funds we have already seen. It has an expense ratio of 0.46% and a yield of 1.8%.
Comparison
Majority of brokerage firms offer very low interest on investors' uninvested cash. TD Ameritrade's
cash sweep rates, for example, are 0.35%.
J.P. Morgan Chase offers the industry's highest rate of
4.4% APY
on free cash balances.
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Choosing a Core Position at Fidelity
It’s really easy to switch the core position from one option to another in a Fidelity account. To do this, click on the link at the very top of the site for the virtual assistant (it may also appear in the lower-right corner of the site). This will generate a pop-up window with the automated chat system. Type in “change core position,” or something to that effect, and the system will show the choices for the account selected.
Here’s where it gets interesting: Fidelity restricts the available cash choices by account type, and some accounts may have other choices not listed in this article. The robo chat system will display all available choices for the account selected (in case you have more than one account with Fidelity). You simply need to select the choice you want. If you don’t see the core position you want, give Fidelity a call for more assistance.
By default, the Fidelity Cash Management Account uses the FDIC-sweep program. During our testing with a Roth IRA, we were given only two choices in the robo chat: SPAXX and FDRXX.
Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience
as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing
expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found
managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.
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