Fidelity to Switch Advisor Custody Accounts to FCASH as Only Core Sweep Option

CityWire first reported this week on the change, expected to take effect in February.

The 7-day yield on Fidelity’s SPAXX fund was 4.27% on Tuesday, according to Fidelity’s website. As CityWire noted, Fidelity uses the SPAXX fund for retail clients’ cash sweep balances.

Kitces.com, the website for investment strategist and speaker Michael Kitces, posted on Facebook: “A reminder once again that when we consume an RIA custodian’s services ‘for free,’ they’re not really free, and the custodian HAS TO generate revenue somehow to provide the services it does. If we don’t pay directly, it will be extracted from our clients.”

FCASH has been the only core sweep account option for new non-retirement brokerage accounts managed by RIAs for the last year, and also has been the only core sweep account option for changes made to any new or existing non-retirement core sweep accounts.

Several investment managers, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, LPL Financial, Morgan Stanley, Ameriprise Financial, Merrill and PNC Financial Services, have been sued in recent months by customers who allege the firms have enriched themselves at clients’ expense by charging below-market rates on uninvested cash balances.