Where is a safe place to put large amounts of money?

Question

Not that I have large amounts of money, but I wondered...what should one do if they have millions of dollars and FDIC only insures $100,000USD. If they are retired for example, and looking for a low maintenance account with relatively high return.

Also if you ask a question as a reply, please check this question as I will update it to answer those as best I can.

Answer 1

Multiple banks and real estate investments (large apartment buildings, office buildings, warehouses and shopping malls). ~

Answer 2

You should probably put it into a safe and liquid money market account until you know what you are doing. The criteria you set up suggest that you should be mainly invested in stocks, where you can get very low-cost diversification using foreign and domestic index mutual funds or the similar ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). You may do fine without an advisor, since you can use index funds and get the same return as the total U.S. or world stock markets; you do not have to beat the market. At your current level of understanding, this will probably be the best approach. Spend your time learning more about investing. Do you really want to invest in real estate, not be diversified, and have the headaches of a landlord or a developer? Depending on your age and motivation you may be 100% financially independent at this point and not need to work. This would suggest that a certain portion of the total should not be in stock funds but should be more liquid to pay your living expenses and to increase the safety of your portfolio. You should look at asset allocation and probably need some help with this at first. Be very aware of costs and conflict of interest; you are your own best financial advisor. If you do not understand an investment completely just walk away. What I suggest would be better done on Fidelity, T. Rowe Price or Vanguard than at a stockbroker such as Schwab. They will offer you some general suggestions for free, especially common sense suggestions about diversification, index funds, risk, and asset allocation. You will get extra attention because of the size of your portfolio. From the tone of your post, I don't suggest a paid advisor; you are too vulnerable to being ripped off.

Answer 3

FDIC insurance covers up to $100K if your account is a single account. If you have a joint account, it covers up to $200K.

You can actually go further than $200K insured, if you have a trust with many trustees and trustors.

If I had, say $500K, I would simply split it among 5 banks, each holding $100K. Naturally, bank accounts have the lowest risk and the lowest rate of return.

Corporate and Treasury bonds give slightly better returns, but are higher risk. Stocks are high risk, high possible return.

Answer 4

Many large brokerages insure balances much higher than $100,000. Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan to name a few. They all have stock/bondand money market accounts to get you whatever you need. No lack of places for people with lots of money to put their assetts.

Answer 5

put them equally on 10 gold & silver miners shares. 90 % chance you will have 50 mil in 5 to 8 years.

Answer 6

I would spread those millions across banks at the rate of less than $100,000 per bank.

Answer 7

swedish banks. But remember the tax man gets you anyway. when you bring it back in the states. he will hit with the tax. but the swedish accounts give good returns.

Answer 8

I would open a few online bank accounts, HSBC has no fees, no minimum, and pays over 5 percent APY.

Answer 9

the bank is always reliable & you get interest.

if your amount of money is too large to put in one bank, you can always use multiple banks for your money.

putting your money in more than one place is safer anyways.

Answer 10

offshore banking