Anybody concerned about the security of their bank/brokerage accounts?
 

I received a phone call from my stock bookie at Schwab a couple days ago. He asked me if I was concerned about Schwab Bank, went on to point out about how large it was and so on. He told me he was calling all his clients. Then he asked me if I had any questions. I said not really and told him that I had a general understanding of why SVB was in trouble; it invested long at low interests rates and now was forced to borrow short at higher interest rates. As he seemed nervous I asked him if he was doing damage control. He did not take that question well. After a more or less inconsequential and somewhat strained affable conversation about the weather and such we ended the call.

Then, I got on the internet and discovered Schwab was taking some heat and its stock was down. Turned out Schwab had also gone long on low interest bond investments, was in a pickle to some extent and was assuring folks they had what it took to cover the bases.

Very interesting...

I believe there are more shoes to drop. I just purchased two, non-callable CD’S from my Vanguard account. I required two in order for each to be under the $250K FDIC limit of coverage.
Why take a chance? I opted for a 3-year term at 5%.
As Ron Popeil said: “Set it and forget it”. Due diligence is required and I do find it disgusting that the perpetrators of poor management often get a free pass.

It’s not just Schwab. Senior managers of many financial institutions are having their employees call banking customers — even stronger banks.

And Bernie Madoff said we are good - no reason to pull out.

Many politicians have accounts with Schwab and other firms. They will be protected.

Stock bookie?
 

Go to the Schwab website and read their comments from Chuck Schwab and CEO Walt Bettinger about recent events. Then click on Walt Bettinger's extensive interview with CNBC. There should be no and I emphasize no concern with investing with Charles Schwab. You say you are a client and yet you post this. Their stock went down. Not surprising given the overall situation. Why would you post a negative thing against the very place you invest?

My broker left Wells Fargo because they "encouraged" him to make similar calls in 2007/2008 to shore up their bank reputation. I'll bet your bookie was really nervous about making that call if you have been with him for any legth of time. Call him on his private number after business hours and hopefully he will give you the real scoop. BTW, shortly thereafter, my broker of 20 years and my portfolio left WF. :pray:

People panic and that's good enough reason for assurance from any bank.

Because the OP wants to warn us about the situation he's facing! I'd be more concerned about people who criticizes situations/people they are not attuned to!!!

Why wouldn't he? Do you think a post on TOTV is going to start a run of transfers at Schwab? He is a very savvy investor and knows how to protect his investments.

When it comes to investing, ignorance is not bliss. It may be a harbinger of surprises in the banking industry. Considering all the retirees here, many with financial backgrounds, TOTV is an idea place to broach this subject.

I dont think their is any problems with the huge banks as they are SIMPLY too big to FAIL... but what amazes me is IF you really understand the very complex banking System in the US it would shock the average Joe that Janet Yellin and Biden can decide what smaller bank they will cover and which they wont.
I would bet 99 % of the people in the US don't understand the difference between a Large bank Regional bank and a community bank as there is a HUGE difference.

No, I am not worried. But I don’t use Schwab. The stocks and bonds in your Schwab account are safe …that is yours. If you have less than $250k cash, your money is backed by the FDIC. SIPC insurance provides insurance up to $500k

At Fidelity, if you have more than $250k cash in a money market account, Fidelity will automatically split the cash and deposit it in different banks (like BoA, Citi, JPM etc) so that the entire amount is backed by the FDIC. For example, if you have $490,000 cash, your account would show something like $200k at BoA, $150k at Citi, $140k at JPM. Since the FDIC limit of $250,000 is for each bank account, your entire $490k at Fidelity (well technically elsewhere) is insured. This feature is called Fidelity Cash Management Sweep (you can google it). This only applies to Fidelity Cash Management Accounts and not its brokerage accounts. But you can easily move money between these accounts to maintain FDIC insurance.

Schwab has a similar sweep feature but i do not know how it works.

Too late for me. Bank Account compromised. 4 withdrawals in about an hour. Have a PNC account in Leesburg but the withdrawals taken at two PNC Banks in Georgia. They had a fake Fl. Drivers License, my checking account number and my SS Number. The only Link I can find that had all three is within the Health System in the Villages. Frauds been reported to the Authorities and PNC is investigating. Waiting for the return of my funds. Over $15,000! Lucky I caught it when I did! Could have been worse.

For a better understanding of the banking situation do a search of Lynette Zang. She is an expert on what is going on. Backs everything up with documented facts. Her YouTube videos are worth your time. Be forewarned. This is NOT going to end well. Pay special attention on her 3/21/23 video

"Anybody concerned about the security of their bank/brokerage accounts?"....................Nope.

Ask Schwab about their intelligent portfolio which was fined for false adverting about the intelligent portfolio product.
I have Schwab also and I am not happy with what going on with them .

If your bank doesn't have the ability to send text and or email alerts the instant there is a transaction on your bank or credit card account then find another one.

Silicon Valley Bank failed because it didn’t have enough cash on hand to pay off a lot of people with big accounts who tried to pull their money at once. It was a lot like the famous run on the bank in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but of course much bigger. If the people hadn’t panicked, little or no money would have been lost.

There is a simple solution: Pass legislation allowing banks to suspend payments to those requesting withdrawals by up to 30 days if necessary, perhaps with the bank paying a late-payment penalty. After all, if I bounce a check or fail to make a payment to my credit card bank, they aren’t going to throw me into bankruptcy. We should extend the same grace to banks. It would make our money safer. This money wasn’t pulled from SVB because it was needed, but only to keep from losing it. A grace period would have rescued all the creditors.

Many politicians had stock portfolios just before Covid hit. And then like magic, they were empty.

Schwab does have a sweep account too. I called years ago asking about my money sitting in accounts and not invested since I was going to get out of the market. They told me how they have insurance beyond having fdic insurance. What Schwab told me assured me about how they handle the safety for your money.
For added security on your accounts, make sure you use 2 factor authentication for all your access, freeze your credit, and I even call Schwab to lock my accounts if I’m going on a cruise for example, so no access to any of my accounts can be touched.

I'm more concerned with the anti-business environment out government fosters. Schwab accounts are FDIC, and SPIC and also covered under Loyds of London. Your CD's are covered by the individual issuing banks FDIC insurance. Your investments in stock and funds are still invested. The only concern would be cash in excess of the FDIC amounts with schwab

Access Denied

Charles Schwab’s Insurance Policy For Accounts Exceeding $500,000 | The Conservative Income Investor

Please feel free to explain to me what the situation is the OP is facing.

👍👍👍 SMS or Email alerts provide instant notification of a transaction allowing you to quickly identify suspicious activity.

In addition to email alerts, look for a bank that allows you to temporarily “lock down” your accounts and credit cards. My brokerage accounts are always “locked down”. No outgoing transfers of any kind are allowed while locked down. If I want to make a transfer, I unlock the account, make the transfer then relock the account. The whole process only takes a couple of minutes.

Please provide a link to empty stock portfolios.

In "real" life, the market sold off for a few months but recovered as soon as the vaccines were developed.

Totally agree!

Use only a FDIC insured bank.

Keep your total deposits less than $250,000.

If you need to use two banks, or even three, do so. I can’t think of a bank in The Villages that’s not FDIC insured.

Do those things and you have nothing to worry about other than your own investment decisions.

I agree. That is why I closed my VISA credit card account at the PenFed credit union.

US Treasury I-Bonds are paying 6.89%. 1 quarter interest penalty if redeemed at one year, no penalty if held for two years.
Zero risk.

Smart thinking. A woman I worked with back in the 70s got an extra two percent on her CDs at an uninsured bank in Kansas. They went belly up in ‘77, she lost all her savings.

Absolutely! I purchased $20K when rate was 9.6% in June, 2022 and another $20K the first week of January, 2023 ($10K each, spouse and myself). This was low-hanging fruit that I pounced on. For those with financial advisors, if they didn’t tell you to make these purchases you need to ask why. Perhaps because they didn’t want to diminish their AUM income?

The WSJ and Barron's have some good articles on the Schwab Bank situation. Actually, as many others do, I keep most of my liquid funds in money market accounts at Schwab and other brokerage houses. The articles point out that since interest rates have increased people are moving their liquid funds from bank accounts into money market funds, as I have. That is a large part of the problem for Schwab and other banks. Also, as most of us realize, by April 18, 2023 bank accounts will be hit with withdrawals to pay taxes.

My Schwab broker is OK. I am not faulting him although I chuckled when he told me he was calling all his clients on his own. Until about a year ago I had never heard from anyone at Schwab as I had just kept a small account there. When I deposited a substantial sum this guy called me out of the blue. We had a nice conversation during which I explained I had other brokerage accounts. He aggressively urged me to transfer those accounts into Schwab (he would make a lot more money of course). When I told him no, I remember Lehman Brothers and others and did not want to put all my eggs into one basket he was not happy.

For now I am fine with keeping securities with Schwab and have no plans to close my account.

I think you might be concerned IF you understand what is causing the present situation ...and have a smaller bank ...again a big difference between a big bank and a community or regional bank. .
As a retired banker I truly hope that all of the readers understand that if there was a TRUE run on all of the banks in the US. There is no way the US could cover the FDIC loans to $250,000 it just isnt possible no matter how fast the printing presses can print money.
The stock market would collapse and The banks would have no choice to close and say that they will open at a later time...
The US government would have no choice but to bail out the huge banks like JP Morgan

Do i think that will happen .. No but it could get very messy as long as YIELDS are inverted meaning
in simple terms that means
u get more interest on short Term T NOTES rather than on long term T NOTES..That is not normal and definately NOT good for banks or any Fianacial for obvious reasons

Money has been moving from bank accounts into money market funds. Subscribe to read | Financial Times

Banks have always carried their trading portfolios marked to market and investment portfolios at cost. Depending on where interest rates are the investment portfolio if marked to market will either be worth more or less than the value it is carried at. Those are the rules for decades so there is literally zero risk if people don’t panic and withdraw all their money . In addition the Fed will lend against these investnent securities at par virtually eliminating duration risk.

$250K/account or transfer to Schwab's money market funds
 

I have several accounts at Schwab which date to when it first opened for business. Over the years, I have had nothing but praise for Schwab for its low trading fees, customer service, and breadth of financial products.

That said, a few years ago, Schwab created a problem for all its customers who trade stocks and bonds when it opened the Schwab Bank. The problem is that all cash in an account is automatically "swept" into the Bank, which, for the past several years paid little or no interest. Also, there was no limit on the amount which would be "swept" into the Bank. Thus, it has been very easy for accounts at the bank to exceed the $250K limit for FDIC insurance, while, at the same time, earning little or nothing in interest.

If you have brokerage accounts at Schwab and actively trade in amounts in excess of $250K, you have to give specific instructions for your cash to be kept in a different account and not at the Bank. Probably, the best type for this is Schwab's money market fund, symbol SWVXX, which invests in a mix of U.S. Treasury notes and highly rated corporate notes. All these have short maturities and are extremely liquid. If you don't want any risk and complete liquidity, Schwab's SNOXX fund invests only in U.S. Treasuries and is 98% liquid daily and 100% weekly. Schwab has 9 money market funds, each of which invest at different ratios in U.S. Treasuries and corporate obligations, giving you an multitude of options, including funds which are tax-free both for Federal and State income taxes. Of course, no money market fund, be it one of Schwab's, Vanguard's, or any other brokerage, has FDIC insurance.

Maybe Schwab is worried about customers because their credit default swaps price (bets on the company defaulting on their bond interest payments) exploded higher on Friday

If your CDs are in your name alone you are only covered by FDIC for $250,000. Each person is insured, not each account.

I think you need a new broker. FAST!!!!

All this talk about how it's only accounts in small banks has me wondering: we have Citizens First Bank - there's also Truist, which is pretty small. There's also Vystar.

I don't "invest" in any banks, our annuities are with the Knights of Columbus, which has been and likely will always be stable. As long as there are Catholics, there will be the Knights.

But I am considering opening a Citizens First account to deposit my social security checks when they start coming in July so - should I just stick with Bank of America?

Livin ' la vida loca, once, doce, trece
 

don't contact me. I know a guy who knows a guy