Discretionary Account

A discretionary account is an investment account that allows an authorized broker to buy and sell securities without the client’s consent for each trade. The client must sign a discretionary disclosure with the broker as documentation of the client’s consent. A discretionary account is sometimes referred to as a managed account; many brokerage houses require client minimums (such as $250,000) to be eligible for this service, and usually pay between 1 percent and 2 percent a year of assets under management (AUM) in fees.