Brokerage Accounts at U.S. Bancorp Investments
Highlights:
• U.S. Bancorp Investments provides self-directed brokerage accounts.
• Brokerage customers at U.S. Bancorp Investments can trade stocks, options, bonds, and funds.
• Self-directed accounts can have fees in certain cases.
If you’ve been using U.S. Bank for your banking needs, you may want to consider its related company U.S. Bancorp Investments for its brokerage service.
Assets and Accounts
U.S. Bancorp is mostly recognized for its U.S. Bank division. Beyond checking and savings accounts, this financial group also has investing accounts in several types through its arm, U.S. Bancorp Investments. With a brokerage account here, you can invest in:
- Stocks, including OTC stocks priced at $0.01 or more
- Exchange traded funds
- Mutual funds
- Closed end funds
- Options
- Bonds
- UITs (Unit Investment Trusts)
- Variable annuities
Other assets, including cryptocurrencies and foreign stocks, are not offered. Whatever you choose to trade must be in some type of account. U.S. Bancorp Investments has several account choices, like retirement, trust, custodial, business, and fully taxable joint or individual accounts.
To open any account type as a self-directed brokerage account, U.S. Bancorp Investments requires you to have either a checking or savings account with U.S. Bank or another investment account with the firm. You can’t open a self-directed account online without meeting one of these conditions.
Pricing
For brokerage service, U.S. Bancorp charges a $50 yearly fee. Sadly, there’s no way to avoid this cost.
You can dodge a $4.95 commission on stock and ETF trades. U.S. Bancorp offers its self-directed
clients 100 free trades per year if they sign up for e-delivery of documents and keep a U.S. Bank
Smartly Checking account, which has an avoidable $6.95 monthly cost.
Closed-end funds and options always have a $4.95 base fee; options add $1 per contract. Mutual funds with transaction fees cost $25 per trade; some funds don’t have transaction fees.
Treasury transactions are costlier than at most brokerages. U.S. Bancorp Investments charges
$60 for primary-market Treasuries. Secondary Treasuries, plus corporate and municipal bonds, have m
arkups or markdowns.
A $25 fee applies to any trade placed over the phone with a live agent.
Margin Service
A self-directed account at U.S. Bancorp Investments can be set up as either margin or cash. If you add margin, short selling is possible, and advanced option strategies are allowed. To include margin, you must fill out and submit a paper form.
Once margin is used, the debit balance is charged interest using the broker call rate plus a percentage. That percentage starts at 3% and decreases to 1% for a large loan amount. The 3% is for balances under $25,000.
With a current broker call rate of 9.25%, the margin rate on small debit balances is 6.25%.
Software
Self-directed clients can use the U.S. Bank website to manage accounts, research securities, and submit trades. U.S. Bancorp Investments provides Morningstar reports on stocks and mutual funds. Alerts can be configured, and there’s also a watchlist. The website hosts an education area covering many topics. A virtual chat assistant appears at the top of the site, plus other resources like a branch and ATM locator.
There’s a dedicated U.S. Bancorp Investments app for mobile use (separate from the U.S. Bank app). This investing app has tools for option chains, account balances, trading, charts, and news. A watchlist is here, too.
There aren’t any advanced trading platforms at U.S. Bancorp, such as a browser-based or desktop system.
Added Features
Fractional-Share Trading: Not offered.
Individual Retirement Accounts: A U.S. Bancorp Investments brokerage account can be set up as a Roth, Traditional, or SEP IRA. The company does charge $95 to close an IRA.
Fully-Paid Stock Lending: Not available.
Periodic Mutual Fund Investing: Clients at U.S. Bancorp Investments can schedule regular mutual fund purchases.
Extended-hours Trading: Only the normal day session is provided.
Initial Public Offerings: No IPO service here.
Dividend Reinvestment Plan: Dividends can automatically reinvest into additional shares. You have to call the broker for this after the first purchase; there’s no online way to set up a DRIP.
Recommendations
Mutual Funds: We can recommend U.S. Bancorp Investments because it lets customers trade over 10,000 funds, some of which have no loads or transaction fees.
Small Accounts: Because of the annual fee (and the IRA closeout fee), it’s tough to justify a U.S. Bancorp Investments brokerage account.
Stock and ETF Trading: Without advanced software, overseas markets, or fractional-share investing, we can’t recommend U.S. Bancorp. We’d pick Interactive Brokers instead.
Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: A self-directed IRA or trust account at U.S. Bancorp Investments is one way to work on long-term goals. But we suggest
Charles Schwab instead.
Beginners: A
Robinhood account is a better idea than U.S. Bancorp.
U.S. Bancorp Review Recap
U.S. Bancorp has a fair self-directed investment service, but it has a variety of shortcomings. These downsides are likely to push many investors to other brokers.
Updated on 3/27/2025.
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