Brokerages

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What online stock brokerages seem to be the best value? Can anyone relate stories with their personal brokers and how well/crummy they do their work?

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Personally, I have had good experiences with Schwab, TD Ameritrade, and Muriel Siebert. But I don't use them for advice, I just use them to process my transactions and as a research tool. You need to evaluate brokers based on your needs, your account size, and your trading activity. Most of the major personal finance and business magazines have annual broker scoreboards: Barrons, Money, Smartmoney, even Consumer Reports. Otherwise, you can visit the various company web sites. It's a personal decision and you need to do your homework.

What are the top three fiancial planning and investment companies in Canada. I heard Edward Jones and Amertrade were fantastic companies. Any advice or suggestions which ones are good to use?

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My guess is there must be more insurance because many people have more than 100,000. Is this private insurance....not required by the government?

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What the FDIC does is insure each deposit up to $100,000. If you have more than that in the account and the bank folds, you'll only get $100,000 - you lose the rest. Brokerages have the SIPC - Securities Investors Protection Corporation and they insure each account up to $250,000.

My guess is there must be more insurance because many people have more than 100,000. Is this private insurance....not required by the government?

Best Answer

What the FDIC does is insure each deposit up to $100,000. If you have more than that in the account and the bank folds, you'll only get $100,000 - you lose the rest. Brokerages have the SIPC - Securities Investors Protection Corporation and they insure each account up to $250,000.