That's absurd advice, from two perspectives. First, in terms of feasibility: in the overwhelming majority of cases, customers are going to be the last to know that their brokerage firm is having, or is on the threshold of having, financial troubles that imperil its' liquidity. And, wires will be out of the question once - if indeed insolvency is on the table - all the accounts are frozen and the firm put into receivership while a trustee is appointed.
Second, because given that SIPC coverage is for $500,000, no more of which can be $100,000 of cash: if you had a $250,000 account, all of which was in stock, by going to cash (again, assuming that you could, which is unlikely) you've just reduced the amount you're (potentially) covered for from $250,000 to a maximum of $100,000.
In fact, in one case where I personally knew an individual who thought his brokerage firm was about to go under, he - already having taken the smart approach and not having more than $400,000 in each account - sought to take positions in treasury bonds and leave as little cash in each account as possible.
LP. |
