Choosing a Roth IRA Broker
Published in General
One of the biggest decisions you can make with your Roth IRA, besides what you will be investing in, is which broker you’ll be investing through. While it may appear that all brokers are fairly equal, the reality is that they can be very different and it’s very important that you figure out what you need in a broker and pick one that can fulfill those needs.
When I thought about my Roth IRA, I knew that I wanted to be investing individual stocks. So I compared stock brokers that excelled in superior customer service, low commission rates, and had reasonable, hopefully low, fees. Since I didn’t have a lot money to invest, I chose one that didn’t have an account minimum and didn’t have inactivity fees (buy and hold!). Incidentally, I went with TradeKing and you can read a review of their service on this TradeKing review post.
On the flip side, the other choice is if you wanted to invest in mutual funds, like index funds. If you want that, I recommend going directly to the mutual fund company itself. If it’s a Vanguard index fund, go to Vanguard. If it’s Fidelity, go to Fidelity. Usually you won’t have to pay a fee to buy or sell shares of a mutual fund if you work directly with the mutual fund. Otherwise, fees are usually $40-50 a trade!
Hopefully that will help you decide which broker to use for your Roth IRA!
