Between 2022 and 2025, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate from near zero to over 5%. Many brokerage, retirement, and advisory firms automatically moved their clients’ uninvested cash into bank deposit programs that appear to have paid far less. Our firm is investigating several of those programs. If you held cash at one of the financial institutions below, a free and confidential review is available.
No cost to have your potential claims evaluated
Your information is protected
Submitting this form does not create an attorney-client relationship
These investigations are ongoing. No court has found that any firm named on this page has engaged in wrongdoing.
When you hold cash in a brokerage, retirement or investment advisory account — money waiting to be invested, proceeds from a sale, or a dividend payment — most firms do not simply leave it sitting there. They automatically transfer it, or “sweep” it, into a bank deposit program. Your cash is deposited at one or more banks, and you earn interest on that deposit.
The firm sits in the middle of that arrangement. The bank pays the firm for the deposits it brings in, and the firm passes some portion of that along to you as interest. The difference between what the bank pays and what you receive is known as the spread, and it is revenue for the financial institution.
A spread is not unusual on its own. What our investigations examine is what happened to that spread between 2022 and 2025 — the fastest rate-hiking cycle in four decades. As market rates climbed past 5%, the rates paid to sweep clients at a number of firms appear to have barely moved.
Is My Financial Institution Under Investigation?
For clients who held uninvested cash in an Edward Jones brokerage, retirement or advisory account between 2022 and 2025 that was swept into the IBD Program or another deposit account controlled and managed by Edward Jones.
For clients of First Citizens Investor Services or First Citizens Asset Management, including Silicon Valley Bank account holders, whose uninvested cash was swept into the Bank Deposit Option between 2022 and 2025.
For brokerage, retirement, and advisory clients of Avantax Investment Services, Avantax Planning Partners, or Cetera Investment Advisers.
If you are not certain whether your firm or advisor is covered, give us three details and our team will look into it and follow up. There is no cost and no obligation.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
It is an automatic arrangement that moves uninvested cash out of your brokerage or advisory account and into one or more banks, where it earns interest. The firm arranges the deposits and is compensated by the bank. The portion the firm keeps, rather than passing along to you as interest, is the spread.
Because of what appears to have happened during the 2022–2025 rate-hiking cycle. As market rates rose above 5%, the interest rates paid to sweep clients at a number of firms appear to have stayed low. Where a firm’s own account agreements or disclosures stated that rates would reflect prevailing market or economic conditions, that gap may raise contract and fiduciary questions. Each investigation examines a specific firm’s own documents and rates.
Manfred, APC is a boutique plaintiff-side complex litigation firm representing individuals, investors, and policyholders in complex financial disputes. With over 20 years’ experience, Manfred, APC is a trusted and reliable firm dedicated to combating unlawful financial and investment practices.
Manfred P. Muecke is licensed to practice law in California and Oregon. Submitting a claim form does not create an attorney-client relationship.
These investigations are ongoing; no lawsuit has been filed by this firm and no court has found that any financial institution named on this page, or any affiliated entity, has engaged in any wrongdoing.
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