Customer Accounts
When a brokerage firm is a member of SIPC, it means that the firm’s customers’ assets are protected against firm bankruptcy. If the firm fails, the customers get back all securities that are registered in their name and those securities that are in the process of being registered. The firm’s customer assets are then divided among customers in proportion to the size of their remaining claims.
If these funds are not sufficient to satisfy the claims, SIPC will supplement up to $500,000 per customer, with a maximum of up to $250,000 cash (this has increased recently from a ma