To park cash and have no risk of losing principal, how can I achieve in my IRA or brokerage a counterpart of a bank-like savings account?

Question

I have $50k+ in my personal (taxable) and $50k+ in my retirement accounts. If I am conservative - I use a CapitalOne360 savings account (that in Sep 2016 yields 0.75%).

For my cash in IRA (traditional and Roth) and also in my brokerage (e.g., Fidelity), how can I achieve a similar product (that has a fixed interest) and can not "break the buck". I would want Brokerage supplied CD or some "savings account" that would yield 50% of my saving account (so let's say 0.43%; I am willing to lose some profit in exchange for product for "busy parent") and have no downside risk. I don't have time to wait for CD offers and manage CDs bought on the 'brokerage CD market'. Why a broker can't provide a product like an online savings account?

(Is it because banks need basic capital and are willing to pay premium rates for that and brokerage is not that desperate for people's money?)

(Also, I don't want a bond fund; I think bond funds can go down - and I want a product that would never lose money (like a bank savings account).)

also current money market funds (e.g., FDRXX) yield now where near 0.75%. More like 0.05% !! :-(

Answer 1

Why not just roll over part of your IRA to a bank? I don't know about Capital One, but Bank of America seems to offer a bank-based IRA.

In broker-based IRAs, the closest that I've seen to a savings account is a money market fund. They often set those as the default investment until money is allocated to more specific funds. It is conceivably possible that a money market could lose money, but it has never happened.