After SVB: What to Do Now with Your Cash and Investments?

As much as $42 billion in cash was withdrawn from Silicon Valley Bank on Thursday, March 9, 2023, an additional $90 billion was withdrawn from First Republic Bank
FRC
a week later, and today, March 20, 2023, we hear of UBS being forced to buy Credit Suisse. Not only are cash deposits being withdrawn, but presumably assets being managed by their wealth management departments also are departing. Many depositors will flee to the safety of banks like Citigroup
C
, Bank of America
BAC
, Bank of New York Mellon or any of the other banks that are “too big to fail” for both their cash and their investments. With such turmoil in the markets, asset protection and avoiding risks like SVB
VB
becomes part of every estate plan. The issue then becomes what to do once clients have their cash and assets out of SVB or other banks suffering from bank runs, what can they do with their cash and other assets to avoid this situation again?

Cash, as they say, is king, especially now that the yield on deposits rival the yield on bonds. In the US deposits are yielding as much as 4.7% while the two year Treasuries are yielding 2.9%. Additionally, cash deposits avoid the market volatility that equities and longer-term bonds are now exposed to.