Brokerage Accounts at U.S. Bancorp Advisors
Highlights:
• U.S. Bancorp Advisors offers self-directed brokerage accounts.
• Brokerage customers at U.S. Bancorp Advisors can trade stocks, options, bonds, and funds.
• Self-directed accounts still have fees in some situations, although
online stock and ETF trades are now commission-free.
If you've been using U.S. Bank for your cash-management needs, you may want to look at its affiliate U.S. Bancorp Advisors for brokerage services as well.
Assets and Accounts
U.S. Bancorp is mostly known for its banking arm, U.S. Bank. Besides checking and savings accounts, the financial company also offers investment accounts in multiple forms through its affiliate U.S. Bancorp Advisors. With a brokerage account through this part 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. For
self-directed brokerage, U.S. Bancorp Advisors currently offers
individual accounts, joint accounts, Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, and SEP IRAs.
To open any account registration as a self-directed brokerage account, U.S. Bancorp Advisors requires an existing U.S. Bank or U.S. Bancorp Advisors relationship plus online access to those accounts. It is not possible to open a self-directed account online without one of these existing relationships.
Pricing
For its self-directed brokerage service, U.S. Bancorp Advisors now has
no annual account fee.
It is also no longer necessary to meet special checking-account or e-delivery requirements to avoid a commission on stock and ETF trades. U.S. Bancorp Advisors currently charges
$0 online commissions for stocks, ETFs, and closed-end funds.
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 Advisors 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 Advisors 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 now starts at
2.25% and drops to
1.75% for a large average debit balance. The 2.25% rate applies to debit balances below $100,000.
With a current broker call rate of 8.5%, we get a margin rate of 10.75% 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 Advisors provides research tools, market news, investing insights, alerts, watchlists, screeners, and educational resources. A virtual chat bot appears at the top of the site, and there are other self-help tools, such as a branch and ATM locator.
A U.S. Bank mobile app can also be used, and there is also a U.S. Bancorp Investments mobile app. The investing experience is now integrated more closely with the main U.S. Bank app, so customers can reach investment features there without needing a completely separate workflow. The investing tools include holdings, balance details, trading, charting, news articles, and watchlists.
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 Advisors can be set up as a Roth, Traditional, or SEP IRA. The firm does have an IRA termination fee.
Fully-Paid Stock Lending: Missing in action.
Periodic Mutual Fund Investing: U.S. Bancorp Advisors 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 Advisors because clients can trade over
10,000 funds, some of which are no-load, no-transaction-fee products.
Small Accounts: Without an annual fee, a self-directed taxable account is more competitive than it used to be. The IRA closeout fee is still a drawback, though.
Stock and ETF Trading: Without advanced software, foreign exchanges, or fractional shares,
we can't fully defend U.S. Bancorp. We would go with Interactive Brokers instead.
Long-Term Investors and Retirement Savers: A self-directed IRA at
U.S. Bancorp Advisors 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 still several weaknesses, and those problems will understandably send many people elsewhere.
Updated on 4/14/2026.
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