7 Best IRA Accounts for 2023

TD Ameritrade also provides a wide range of useful retirement planning tools and research. If you’re unsure of what type of IRA you should open, you can actually go step-by-step through their IRA Selection Tool.

You’ll find out what you’re eligible for by answering a few quick questions. You can also speak to a retirement counselor if you still have questions.

Once your IRA is selected and funded, you have access to more than 100 fee-free ETFs. Stocks are $0 per trade. There are also about 4,000 mutual funds you can choose from with no fees for trading.

Another feature making TD Ameritrade extremely popular for IRAs and other investment accounts is their mobile trading.

There are actually three different online trading platforms that cater to your needs, whether you’re a beginner or a serious trader.

Regardless of what your skill level, you have access to countless free resources through TD Ameritrade. If you want control over your IRA, check this one out.

Charles Schwab recently eliminated its commissions on stocks, EFT, and options trades. Standard trades are $4.95. So, you can begin investing commission-free, and there’s no account minimum to get started.

The company also offers a robo-advisor called Schwab Intelligent Portfolios. The company will invest your money in up to 20 different asset classes at no annual charge.

This feature alone makes Charles Schwab one of the best options for new investors and anyone who is looking for a low-cost investing option.

And this means Merrill Edge customers also have the option to receive in-person customer service. If you live near any of the bank’s locations, you can receive in-person assistance at the bank.

Merrill Edge offers unlimited $0 online stock and ETF trades with no trade or balance minimums. The company also offers mutual funds for $19.95 per purchase, though some mutual funds are available for free.

And the online broker doesn’t have a minimum deposit requirement to open an account. So, it’s an excellent option for new investors and anyone who is looking for in-person customer support.

What’s the pricing structure like?

You have two levels of service to choose from. The first is the Digital level, which comes with a 0.25% annual fee and no minimum balance. So if your first year’s balance is $5,000 your fee would be $12.50.

Because Betterment is a robo-advisor, it offers automatic rebalancing so that you’re always hitting your target allocations, even with a shifting market.

Their portfolios are globally diversified, and you can adjust your risk tolerance based on your preferences. Plus, Betterment implements automatic tax-loss harvesting to boost your after-tax returns.

Need to talk to a certified financial planner?

No problem, you can chat online with a licensed expert with no limit on the number of questions you ask. If you want even more advice and support, you can upgrade to the Premium level. The annual fee jumps to 0.40%, and you’ll need at least $100,000 to start your retirement account.

But you get holistic advice on all of your financial questions, not just those related to your Betterment investments. So in addition to chatting about retirement, you can also talk to your advisor about joint financial goals with your spouse.

You can also discuss college savings plans for your children, and new and existing investments.

If you’re interested in a “set it and forget it” mentality for your IRA, Betterment certainly provides that option.

There’s no account minimum to get started, and you can choose from multiple types, including Roth, traditional, rollover, SIMPLE, and SEP IRAs.

Account fees are fairly limited as well. You don’t have to pay anything to set up the account, and there’s no minimum account opening, so it’s easy for anyone to start saving. Ally also doesn’t charge an annual fee or an inactivity fee.

There’s a $50 fee if you decide to terminate your IRA account with Ally Invest. If you transfer your funds, you’ll have to pay an additional $50 as a transfer fee — plus the first $50 termination fee. There’s also a $50 conversion fee if you want to change from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA or the other way around.

If you’re an active trader even with your IRA, then you’ll appreciate Ally’s low trading fees.

Stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are $4.95 per trade, but you can get that lowered to $3.95 if you trade at least 30 times each quarter or have a balance of $100,000 or more. Options fees start at $4.95 each plus $0.65 per contract, and that price also lowers with heavy quarterly trading activity.

If you don’t want the burden of actively trading your IRA portfolio, then look elsewhere for an IRA account. But if you like handling your investments regularly, then Ally Invest could be a strong contender for your IRA account.

You do have to open an IRA with at least $500. The more friends you refer to Wealthfront, the more you access free services, like getting an additional $5,000 managed for free. You can choose from a few different IRA types, including traditional, Roth, SEP, and rollovers.

Where does Wealthfront shine?

The answer is in retirement analytics. Wealthfront has a retirement planning tool called Path. It lets you integrate your various retirement accounts across financial institutions so you can see an accurate and comprehensive picture of your overall retirement plan.

Wealthfront economists use projects for things like inflation and Social Security to help plan for a realistic future.

Considering a major life event or financial change?

Wealthfront’s Path program lets you see potential impacts on these types of scenarios, so you’re not surprised at how your retirement savings are affected. Plus, like other online robo-advisors, all Wealthfront investments provide tax-loss harvesting and portfolio rebalancing.

You don’t have to worry about tracking individual stocks and funds. Instead, you get to invest passively while Wealthfront’s analytics keeps track of your portfolio. With IRA options and other tools at your disposal, Wealthfront is a solid choice for hands-off retirement investing.

There’s a great balance of getting access to in-depth research and resources, while also having the option to let E*TRADE take on your account management.

You can choose from a traditional IRA, Roth IRA, rollover IRA, or one-stop rollover IRA. That last one lets you transfer existing IRA funds in a diversified ETF that is managed by professionals.

This adaptive portfolio takes advantage of the automation processes. It requires a $5,000 minimum deposit to get started and comes with an annual advisory fee of 0.30%.

If you’re an avid ETF trader, you can trade for free on more than 100 funds; otherwise, it’s $6.95. Like Ally, that number drops if you make 30 or more quarterly trades, costing just $4.95 per trade at that point.

Stock trades also cost $6.95 each, with the same discount available as ETFs. Fees vary on mutual funds, but E*TRADE offers more than 4,400 no-transaction-fee mutual funds.

If you’re happy working with certain restrictions on the funds you choose, you can get away with a lot of fee-free trading via E*TRADE. Plus, you don’t have to worry about a minimum opening balance for most IRA accounts.

The company has been around for decades and consistently gets strong ratings from external sources, so they have a strong reputation in the industry, which can be comforting for beginning investors.