Money-market funds report true value

Your money-market fund statement may show a balance with a few more digits.

Own a money-market fund?

When you next check your balance, you may see a lot more digits. Fidelity, Schwab, and other firms managing 40% of U.S. money fund assets said in January they would disclose the exact per-share value of their funds' holdings daily, in place of reports they've issued monthly since 2010.

Don't be confused: Shares you trade will still be priced at the standard net asset value (NAV) of $1 apiece.

So why the new detail?

The firms are responding to proposals aimed at protecting investors from a repeat of 2008, when one fund's NAV hit 97¢.

One such idea (which stalled at the SEC last year) is to have funds trade at a floating NAV like other mutual funds.

Related: Money 70 - Best mutual funds and ETFs

Wall Street hopes the daily disclosure will reassure people that values stay very close to $1. As low as the funds' risk may be nowadays, though, it may not be offset by their reward: an average yield of just 0.05%.

Unless you need a brokerage sweep account, keep your cash in an FDIC-insured bank account.