Client Deliverables
The cash that sleeps.
Two brokerages can look identical — zero trade commissions, zero account minimums, the same funds — and quietly pay wildly different rates on the cash sitting idle in the account. One sweeps it into a fund near 3.9%. Another leaves it near 0.01%. Same dollar, same desk, very different year.
The question we actually answer
Most platform comparisons stop at the headline: free trades, no minimum. The cash sweep — what the platform pays on uninvested dollars while they wait — rarely appears in the side-by-side, because it is the line where platforms quietly differ most. A default sweep can pay a near-zero rate; a higher-yielding sweep option can pay close to the prevailing money-market rate. The examination asks one thing: on the cash a household typically leaves idle, what is the default costing them each year, and what does that compound to.
On $50,000 of idle cash, the gap between a near-zero default sweep and a ~3.9% high-yield sweep is roughly $1,950 a year — left on the table for doing nothing differently except holding the cash in a better resting place. It recurs every year the cash sits.
| Idle cash held | Default sweep (~0.01%) | High-yield sweep (~3.9%) | Annual gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | ~$3 | ~$975 | ~$972 |
| $50,000 | ~$5 | ~$1,950 | ~$1,945 |
| $100,000 | ~$10 | ~$3,900 | ~$3,890 |
| $250,000 | ~$25 | ~$9,750 | ~$9,725 |
Illustrative. Sweep yields move with short-term rates and vary by platform and sweep option; figures shown are representative, not current quotes. Not a recommendation of any platform.
"Idle cash is one of the quietest leaks in a portfolio."
How the examination is built
- Find the default. We identify what sweep the platform uses automatically — not the best-available option, the one the account lands in by default.
- Find the alternative. We identify the higher-yielding sweep or money-market option the same platform offers, and the rate it currently pays.
- Estimate the idle balance. We use a realistic average of cash that actually sits uninvested across a year — not a peak, not zero.
- Quantify the annual gap. The difference in rate, applied to that balance, is the yearly cost of the default.
- Project the recurrence. Because the gap repeats every year the cash sits, we show it as a standing drag rather than a one-time number.
What this examination is — and is not
This is an examination of a platform's default cash-handling, applied to an illustrative balance. It is not a recommendation of any brokerage and not advice to move accounts. It surfaces a cost most comparisons omit, so a household can ask the right question of its own platform and decide for itself.
Want this checked against your actual account?
This examination shows one way money can quietly leave a portfolio. If you want us to examine what may be happening in your actual accounts, request a confidential fee review.
Related examinations
The Cash-Coverage Benchmark — Whether a portfolio's income actually covers a household's fixed yearly cash need in year one, or forces a sale to make up the shortfall.
The Yield-Mirage Examination — Why a fund's headline distribution yield can sit well above its true long-run compound return, with the gap hidden in the price.
The Fee-on-Income Examination — How a fee that looks small against total assets can claim a large share of the income a household actually lives on.