SEC Warns on Cash Sweeps
We learned from an article on Financial Advisor magazine's website entitled, "SEC Cracks Down on Hybrid RIAs' Sweep Money Market Account," about a recent speech from the Stephanie Avakian, the SEC's Co-Director, Division of Enforcement, that discusses brokerage sweep accounts. She comments in her talk, "What You Don't Know Can Hurt You," "We are also looking at cash sweep arrangements. Cash in advisory accounts is often automatically swept into a money market mutual fund or a bank deposit sweep program. A dually-registered adviser or an adviser with an affiliated broker-dealer may have a financial interest, a conflict, in recommending one cash investment over another. For example, some money market mutual funds carry 12b-1 fees or make revenue sharing payments that may be shared with a dually-registered adviser or an adviser's affiliated broker-dealer, while other money market funds do not carry those fees. Advisers recommending or choosing between different money market funds must make full and fair disclosure of these types of conflicts to their clients. The Commission has brought enforcement actions in the past where advisers have failed to make appropriate disclosure." Avakian adds, "As another example, some clearing brokers offer bank deposit cash sweep programs where an investor's un-invested cash is swept into an interest-bearing bank account. In some cases, the bank, often an affiliate of the clearing broker, agrees to share a portion of the revenue the bank earns on the investor's deposits with the clearing broker. The clearing broker may, in turn, agree to share a portion of the revenue it received with the investor's dually-registered investment adviser or with the adviser's affiliated broker-dealer. In some cases, the revenue received by the adviser or the adviser's affiliate far exceeds the interest earned by the client on its cash. In fact, in some cases, these arrangements may actually lower the interest paid to the client. These types of cash sweep arrangements create an obvious incentive for an adviser to recommend products where revenue sharing will result in larger payments to the adviser and lesser returns for the adviser's client. This is a clear conflict and, without full and fair disclosure, investors cannot make an informed investment decision to agree to the adviser's cash sweep vehicle selection."
