U.s. Wealth Management U.s. Bancorp Investments

Disciplinary Questions

After checking the disciplinary records of U.S. Bancorp Investments, our system has identified the following question(s) to ask. Learn more.

U.S. Bancorp Investments or an advisory affiliate was previously involved with violating a regulation or statute by a domestic or foreign court, the SEC, CFTC, or another regulatory body or commodities exchange.

What happened? When? How many times did it occur? Will anyone that was involved be involved with my accounts in any capacity?

U.S. Bancorp Investments or an advisory affiliate has previously been fined or ordered to cease and desist activity by the SEC or CFTC.

What happened? When? How many times did it occur? Will anyone that was involved be involved with my accounts in any capacity?

The SEC, CFTC, or another regulatory agency has previously entered an order against U.S. Bancorp Investments or an advisory affiliate in connection with an investment-related activity.

What happened? When? How many times did it occur? Will anyone that was involved be involved with my accounts in any capacity?

Our system found no other disciplinary questions to ask. Checks take place monthly.

Conflict Questions

After checking the regulatory records of U.S. Bancorp Investments, our system has identified the following question(s) to ask. Learn more.

Is U.S. Bancorp Investments also a Broker-Dealer or are they affiliated with one? What conflicts arise from this relationship? How does U.S. Bancorp Investments mitigate them?

Currently U.S. Bancorp Investments is also a Broker-Dealer or is affiliated with one. When firms are dual-registered as broker-dealers, they may be subject to compensation-related conflicts of interest, including revenue sharing from mutual funds, cross-selling of commissioned insurance products, and the sale of proprietary investment products. All of these conflicts can negatively impact clients via hidden fees and overall higher costs.

Does U.S. Bancorp Investments offer mutual funds that have 12b-1 fees?

12b-1 fees increase the total annual cost of owning a mutual fund with no guarantee of higher returns. Some firms receive these fees as payments, which creates an incentive to promote them.

How does U.S. Bancorp Investments approach insurance sales? What conflicts do I need to be made aware of?

Currently U.S. Bancorp Investments actively practices as insurance brokers or agents, or they are affiliated with an insurance company or agency. This arrangement creates a conflict where the firm and its representatives may be motivated to insure clients with products, including annuities and life insurance, that generate high sales commissions when lower-cost alternatives may exist.

Regulatory disclosures state that U.S. Bancorp Investments sells proprietary investments and products. Please provide me a list of the products and a summary of how much U.S. Bancorp Investments earns from them.

U.S. Bancorp Investments recommends proprietary investments and products that could generate larger commissions than other similar non-proprietary products. This could also limit the number and diversity of investment options available to you and may impact their transferability. Do not be afraid to ask how much they will earn from the product or what other non-proprietary options are available.

Does U.S. Bancorp Investments offer products that have performance-based fees, or does it accept performance-based fees? Will any of my assets be invested in those products?

When performance-based fees are charged, the financial advisor is paid for outperforming a benchmark, typically an index. While this may seem like an attractive compensation structure to ensure your advisor is making your money work for you, often, the managers of those products are incentivized to take inappropriate risks to beat their performance benchmark. For instance, research has shown that mutual funds that use incentive fees take on more risk that funds that do not, and tend to double down and increase their risk following a poor performance. This could be detrimental to a client during down markets.

Does U.S. Bancorp Investments perform side-by-side management? How does U.S. Bancorp Investments mitigate conflicts that arise from managing accounts with differing fee structures?

This typically occurs when firms manage mutual funds or hedge funds alongside smaller retail accounts. Side-by-side management can create an incentive for the advisor to favor the larger funds, potentially leading to unequal trading costs and unfavorable trade executions for their retail clients.

Does U.S. Bancorp Investments recommend securities that it or its affiliates underwrite, or in which it serves as general or managing partner? Will any of my assets be invested in those products?

U.S. Bancorp Investments recommends securities that they may have recently taken public or otherwise have controlling interest over. This relationship could introduce bias where a firm and its advisors may push those products over others that may have a more favorable performance with which they are not affiliated.

Does U.S. Bancorp Investments accept soft-dollar benefits? How do these benefits affect the firm’s selection of a broker-dealer partner?

U.S. Bancorp Investments receives soft-dollar benefits that could incentivize them to push trades through broker-dealers that provide advantages to the firm instead of through broker-dealers that could provide the best trade execution for their clients.

Which securities does U.S. Bancorp Investments trade for itself that it will also be recommending to me?

U.S. Bancorp Investments has marked in their disclosures that they trade recommended securities. While this often can be seen as “eating your own cooking,” there are several inherent conflicts that can arise. For example, front running is when a financial professional buys or sell securities ahead of their client. In short, any financial professional should disclose all positions they hold (or have sold short) that they will also be recommending to you.

Our system found no other conflict questions to ask. Checks take place monthly.