Brokerage Accounts at U.S. Bancorp Investments
Highlights:
• U.S. Bancorp Investments offers self-directed brokerage accounts.
• Brokerage customers at U.S. Bancorp Investments can trade stocks, options, bonds, and funds.
• Self-directed accounts have fees in some situations.
If you've been using U.S. Bank for your cash-management needs, you may want to consider its sister company U.S. Bancorp Investments for its brokerage service.
Assets and Accounts
U.S. Bancorp is mostly known for its banking unit U.S. Bank. Besides checking and savings accounts, the financial conglomerate also offers investing accounts in multiple flavors through its subsidiary U.S. Bancorp Investments. With a brokerage account through this division of the company, it's possible to invest in:
- Stocks, including over-the-counter (OTC) stocks priced at $0.01 or higher
- Exchange traded funds
- Mutual funds
- Closed end funds
- Options
- Bonds
- UITs (Unit Investment Trusts)
- Variable annuities
Other products, such as cryptocurrencies and foreign stocks, are not available. Whatever assets are traded, they must be held in some type of account. U.S. Bancorp Investments offers several of these, including retirement, trust, custodial, business, and fully taxable joint and individual accounts.
To open any account registration as a self-directed brokerage account, U.S. Bancorp Investments requires a savings or checking account with its affiliate U.S. Bank or another investment account with the firm. It is not possible to open a self-directed account online without one of these other accounts.
Pricing
For its brokerage service, U.S. Bancorp charges a $50 annual fee. Unfortunately, there is no method to avoid this charge.
It is possible to avoid a $4.95 commission on stock and ETF trades. U.S. Bancorp gives its self-directed customers 100 free trades per year if they enroll in e-delivery of account documents and have a U.S. Bank Smartly Checking account; the bank account itself has an avoidable $6.95 monthly fee.
Closed-end funds and options always have a $4.95 base charge; options have an additional $1 fee per contract. Mutual funds with a transaction fee cost $25 per trade; some funds have no transaction fee.
It gets worse with Treasury securities, which are usually commission-free at most brokerage firms. U.S. Bancorp Investments charges $60 per trade on the primary market. Secondary trades have markups and markdowns; the same is true for corporate and muni debt.
There is a $25 surcharge on any trade that is placed over the phone with the help of a live agent.
Margin Service
A self-directed account with U.S. Bancorp Investments can be maintained on a margin or cash basis. If margin is added, the account can short stocks and enter into advanced option strategies. To add margin, U.S. Bancorp requires a paper form be filled out and returned.
Once margin is used, the account will be charged interest according to the broker's margin schedule. It is always the broker call rate plus a percentage; that percentage starts at 3% and drops to 1% for a large debit balance. The 3% rate applies to loans below $25,000.
With a current broker call rate of 8.5%, we get a margin rate of 5.5% for small debit balances.
Software
Self-directed customers can use the U.S. Bank website to manage their accounts, perform security research, and place trades. U.S. Bancorp Investments delivers Morningstar reports on stocks and mutual funds. Alerts can be set up on securities, and there's a watchlist, too. The website has an education center where novices and experienced investors alike can brush up on a variety of topics. A virtual chat bot appears at the top of the site, and there are all sorts of other self-help tools, such as a branch and ATM locator.
A special U.S. Bancorp Investments mobile app can also be used. This is a discrete app that requires a separate download from the U.S. Bank mobile app. The investing app has gadgets for option chains, holdings, balance details, trading, charting, and news articles. A watchlist appears here, too.
There are no advanced trading tools at U.S. Bancorp, such as a web-browser platform or desktop program.
Added Features
Fractional-Share Trading: Not available.
Individual Retirement Accounts: A brokerage account at U.S. Bancorp Investments can be set up as a Roth, Traditional, or SEP IRA. The firm does have a $95 IRA termination fee.
Fully-Paid Stock Lending: Missing in action.
Periodic Mutual Fund Investing: U.S. Bancorp Investments clients can set up recurring purchases of mutual funds.
Extended-hours Trading: Only the regular day session is available.
Initial Public Offerings: There is no IPO service.
Dividend Reinvestment Plan: Dividends can be set to automatically reinvest as additional shares. Customers have to call in, though, after the first purchase; there is no online tool to activate a DRIP.
Recommendations
Mutual Funds: We can endorse U.S. Bancorp Investments because clients can trade over
10,000 funds, some of which are no-load, no-transaction-fee products.
Small Accounts: With an annual fee (and a closeout fee on IRAs), a brokerage account at
U.S. Bancorp Investments cannot be defended.
Stock and ETF Trading: Without advanced software, foreign exchanges, or fractional shares,
we can't defend U.S. Bancorp. We would go with Interactive Brokers instead.
Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: A self-directed IRA or trust account at
U.S. Bancorp Investments is a decent way to save for the future.
But we would choose
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 decent self-directed investing service, although there are many weaknesses, and these problems will rightfully send many people elsewhere.
Updated on 1/14/2026.
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