I am talking about fee structure, sweeps, exit fees, customer service... Who is second, third, fourth?? I'm thinking; Wells Fargo, Bank of America... If it was not Schwab or Fidelity for best screen, fill, hand holding, ect...Who would be next and why??
If you click on the "More..." part the quote in my above post, you will see the article contents including a brief review of E*Trade.
When my wife and I get older and frail, we will have a bank trust take care of our affairs and estate. I have money (including IRAs) at Fidelity and Schwab. Fidelity is fine and good. Schwab is the problem. I want to have two brokerage accounts at two different discount brokers. The problem is Schwab's sweep feature. Schwab will sweep all money into their bank...It earns less that 1%. Fidelity sweeps into a money market fund earning about 5%. A BIG difference... If the bank trust and the executor of the estate are not on top of the estate, much money will sit in the bank earning diddly/squat at Schwab. Because of this I may need to move to another brokerage...That has good/fair sweep features. They all are about the same in service and fills...PFOF I get it. Just looking around... PS Bank's dirty little secret...They will bring in new money with promotions. While the trustee/executor is waiting on the account/estate to clear, they can renew the new CD at very low rates. Very tricky...I want to be ready for their antics!! Just saying over the months, CDs and US treasuries mature...I don't want them going into interest-less back hole.
It just hit me...I think I solved the problem. Both my wife and I do not have huge CD/treasuries in our Roth IRAs at Schwab. We will invest and keep low balances in those accounts. What we will do (over the years), is to plan to draw from our Schwab trust account when we need money. So keep the IRAs the same (in all locations). When we need a chunk to live on (say $50,000.) a shot, we sell a treasury or CD at Schwab. We can just plan ahead, and wait for the CD/treasury to mature. If need be, we can always wire some money out of Schwab to Fidelity. Just always keep an eye on the sweep money...
IBKR isn’t as good with cash as Fidelity but they currently pay 4.8% if greater than $10k (IBKR pro). 3.8% for IBKR lite. Need to sign up for the program. https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/accounts/fees/pricing-interest-rates.php https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/services/cash-management.php