Interest rates are dropping. Why so many investors are clinging to cash, CDs and savings accounts.

7 months ago 114

When the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2022, financial adviser David Flores Wilson needed time convincing clients to put their cash in places where it would produce yield — like CDs, money-market funds, T-bills BX:TMUBMUSD06M and high-yield savings accounts.

Now, the opposite is true. Wilson says it’s a challenge persuading some of them to reduce their money in those positions.

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For the past year or so, these supersafe investments were fetching investors 4% or 5% on their cash. But when the Fed starts cutting rates, that return is expected to diminish. Yet even when Wilson’s clients know this, some are still hesitant to budge.

“It’s a little bit of fighting city hall,” said Wilson, managing partner of Sincerus Advisory, where he’s compromised with certain clients on smaller allocations out of cash. “The certainty of a return is so attractive to so many people, and particularly to my client base.”

There’s plenty of people who have learned to love cash in recent years, and they don’t plan to break-up with it anytime soon. The coming Fed cuts aren’t going to change that, financial advisors and cash investment experts agree.

See also: Most retail investors are holding on to their cash these days. Here’s why.

What’s playing out on a big scale is “ambiguity aversion,” according to Vicki Bogan, a professor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy where she specializes in behavioral finance.

People tend to prefer what’s known and familiar, avoiding actions with an uncertain range of outcomes. Cash is a conservative asset, but Bogan said this isn’t “risk aversion.” That’s where people avoid risk — but at least they know the distribution of outcomes and odds.

Questions surrounding the Fed’s rate moves, the economy’s health and presidential election are clouding the range of scenarios, Bogan said. “As the dominoes start to fall, investors will become more confident or certain about what the distribution could be.”