Q&A: How can we get a better rate of return on our reserve investments?

Q&A: How can we get a better rate of return on our reserve investments?

Q. My co-op has $570,000 in reserve funds invested in CDs earning approximately 0.5% interest. My question is this—are we being too cautious given that the rate of inflation is about 2.7%? How can we get a better rate of return or is this good enough?

          —Money Manager in Melville

A. According to Mindy Eisenberg Stark, a certified public accountant and certified fraud examiner with the Scarsdale-based accounting firm of Mindy Eisenberg Stark (MES), “Your board has a fiduciary responsibility to preserve the principal on the funds. That said, speak to a broker. Sometimes there are other CDs that might offer a slightly higher rate of interest.” 

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Comments

  • I perform reserve studies for common interest communities and we encourage communities to be cautious with their reserve account balance as we saw some that invested before the big downturn in the economy lose a substantial amount of their balance and were then forced to sell their investments as the money was needed for large scale projects.