As the race for retail bank deposits ratchets up, asset manager Personal Capital has introduced a new savings product. Deemed Personal Capital Cash, the high-yield account offers a 2.3% interest rate for people who aren't Personal Capital clients. That rate goes up to 2.35% APY for advisory clients, providing a greater incentive to current clients not to defect for higher yielding accounts elsewhere.
Personal Capital Cash offers FDIC insurance on accounts up to $1.25 million, no minimums, and unlimited number of withdrawals. The firm also launched Savings Planner, a new tool that provides guidance on building emergency funds and managing expenses.
“We have more than 2 million registered users who combined hold more than $41 billion in cash or money market accounts,” said Personal Capital CEO Jay Shah. “If those folks are earning the national rate on that cash, that amounts to more than $900 million in lost interest annually. We saw that and immediately knew we had to do something. So we built Personal Capital Cash to put that money back in the hands of American consumers.”
Most Americans aren't generally aware of their savings options. In various studies, they don't know what they're earning on their own savings accounts. In new research conducted by Personal Capital, 53.2 percent of people surveyed have never checked to see if another financial institution offered a higher rate than your current savings account.
Accompanying the new savings account is a marketing campaign under the leadership of new CMO, Porter Gale. The former Virgin America executive lead a new aesthetic behind Cash that utilizes more striking colors and imagery than the dark blues and greens typical of other ads competing over savings accounts.