Your Broker Sweeps Your Cash Into an Account Paying 0.01% While These 3 ETFs Pay 400 Times More
Your broker earns a healthy return on your idle cash every single day, and the standard sweep account is designed to keep you from noticing. Three ETFs were built specifically to close that gap.
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Log into your brokerage account and check what your idle cash is actually earning. There is a good chance that it is close to nothing, while the Federal Reserve’s target rate sits at 3.75%. Default sweep programs have quietly become one of the biggest silent taxes in retail investing, and three exchange-traded funds exist for the sole purpose of fixing that leak: iShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:SGOV), SPDR Bloomberg 1-3 Month T-Bill ETF (NYSEARCA:BIL), and JPMorgan Ultra-Short Income ETF (NYSEARCA:JPST).
All three pay monthly distributions that, at current short-term Treasury yields of roughly 3.72% to 3.93% on 4-week through 26-week bills, provide substantially more income than a sweep account paying 0.01%. The difference is significant enough to make the opportunity cost of leaving excess cash in a low-yielding sweep account difficult to ignore.
Why Your Sweep Account Is Costing You
Your uninvested cash isn’t really “waiting.” Instead, it’s working for your broker instead of you. Many default sweep programs pay a token rate while the broker earns the spread against prevailing short-term rates. With the Fed funds upper bound at 3.75% as of August 28, 2026, that spread is significant. Moving cash into a short-duration Treasury or ultra-short bond ETF captures most of that yield for you instead of your broker. The three funds below do it three slightly different ways.
SGOV: The Purest Cash Substitute
SGOV holds nothing but U.S. Treasury bills maturing within three months. Because those bills constantly roll over, the fund’s payout tracks whatever the very front end of the Treasury curve is paying. The expense ratio is 0.09%, so on every $1,000 invested, about $999.10 stays working for you.
The fund’s distributions arrive monthly. SGOV’s most recent payout was $0.306812 per share on August 3, 2026, and its trailing 12-month distribution total was $3.764645 against a share price of $100.69. Price volatility is negligible: SGOV is up just 0.32% over the past month and 2.4% year to date, essentially all of that coming from interest accrual rather than market swings. If you want something that behaves like cash but pays like a Treasury bill, this is an option worth considering.
BIL: A Larger, Longtime Alternative
BIL does something very similar to SGOV, targeting Treasury bills with 1-to-3-month maturities. The portfolio is dominated by U.S. Treasury positions, with the largest single line item weighing in at 12.04% of net assets. Net assets sit at roughly $47.1 billion, making BIL one of the deepest, most liquid T-bill ETFs on the market. Its most recent monthly distribution was $0.272951 per share on August 3, 2026, with a trailing 12-month total of $3.442831.
The practical difference between SGOV and BIL is small enough that many investors pick based on which one their broker prices better inside their account, or simply on the modest yield edge the very shortest T-bills offer at any given moment.
JPST: A Yield Step Up With Real Trade-Offs
JPST is the one to understand carefully. Unlike SGOV and BIL, JPST is an actively managed ultra-short bond fund. Its portfolio holds short-dated corporate debt, bank funding, commercial paper, and some asset-backed and CLO-related instruments. Recent holdings include names like Capital One Financial, Athene Global Funding, AbbVie, Bank of Nova Scotia, and Deutsche Bank, alongside slices of CLOs from Barings, Dryden, and CIFC Funding. Net assets stand at roughly $38.4 billion.
Recent monthly distributions have run around $0.16957 in August 2026, and the trailing 12-month total was $2.11451. The extra yield JPST typically offers over a pure T-bill fund is compensation for the additional credit risk. Its share price can fluctuate differently than funds like SGOV.
Real Trade-Offs Before You Move Your Cash
None of these funds are FDIC-insured, and their yields will drift with the Fed. The Fed funds target has already stepped down from 4.5% in September 2025 to 3.75% today, and distributions on all three funds have declined alongside it. JPST specifically carries credit and slight duration risk that SGOV and BIL do not.
Even with those caveats, the math is hard to ignore. Idle cash paying 0.01% is a choice, but not necessarily a default. If you have a meaningful cash balance sitting in a brokerage sweep, one of these three funds is worth researching as an alternative.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Ryne Mauck is an investment writer covering exchange-traded funds, portfolio strategy, and opportunities across public markets. His investment approach emphasizes fundamental analysis, valuation, and disciplined risk-taking.
Through his work at 24/7 Wall St. and other investment platforms, including Seeking Alpha, he aims to provide readers with clear, research-driven insights into investment fundamentals, portfolio construction, and risk management. His goal is to help investors make more informed decisions while maintaining a disciplined long-term approach to investing.
Ryne holds a B.Sc. in Finance and an M.A. in Political Science.
