Protecting Your Assets: Working Together to Keep Your Funds Safe
Quest Trust Company is not like a traditional bank. We do not take our clients’ funds and make loans or other risky investments. In fact, our commitment to our clients per our Account Agreement (5305) is only to hold our client’s cash in FDIC & NCUA-insured bank accounts and instruments. Therefore, your cash is protected by the FDIC and NCUA, just as in any other bank.
When a client makes a deposit into Quest, the money is deposited into our local depository, which is Frost Bank (CFR, NYSE). This is the same bank through which we fund all investments and expenses. Any funds in excess of immediately anticipated funding requirements are transferred to Cornerstone Capital Bank, where it is held in a Demand Deposit Account that is readily available. Previously the excess was directed to UBS Wealth Management, where it has been professionally managed and deposited into over 50 carefully chosen banks. Additionally, a regular analysis is done to verify that no single client has more than $250,000 in any one of our banks, based on the percentage of the total uninvested cash that each client has.
Are my non-cash investments also protected by the FDIC? No. The FDIC protects your cash, but not your investments. The nature of a Self-Directed IRA is that you have the privilege to choose your own investments, free of the restrictions that the brokerage-style custodians impose. Quest Trust Company is simply a neutral holder of your non-traditional IRA assets, and we do not provide tax, legal, investment, or deal-structuring advice. This provides you with great flexibility in your choice of investments, but also it comes with great responsibility on your part to ensure that your investments are safe and appropriate for your IRA or other self-directed account.