Best Free (No Fee) IRA Accounts

Item: Best Free IRA Accounts
Rating: 5
Author: Chad Morris

Below are the top online brokerage firms that offer free IRA accounts to their customers. These companies don't charge retirement account setup, annual, monthly, or maintenance fees but might charge for closing an IRA account or account transfer to a different financial institution.

Investing Fees	IRA Types	IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $0 Mutual Funds: $0 Options: $0	Traditional IRA Roth IRA Rollover IRA SIMPLE IRA SEP IRA	JP Morgan IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $0 Mutual Funds: $49.99 to buy, $0 to sell	Traditional IRA Roth IRA Rollover IRA SEP IRA SIMPLE IRA Individual 401k (for small business)	TD Ameritrade IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $0 Mutual Funds: $0 Options: $0	Traditional IRA ROTH IRA SEP IRA SIMPLE IRA Rollover IRA Profit Sharing Plan Money Purchase Plan	Firstrade IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $0 Mutual Funds: na Options: $0	Roth IRA Traditional IRA Rollover IRA	Robinhood IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $0 Mutual Funds: na Options: $0	Traditional IRA ROTH IRA Rollover IRA SEP IRA SIMPLE IRA	Webull IRA Review

Free IRA Accounts

In 2023 there is no need to pay maintenance and inactivity fees for an IRA account. The two big players in the "no-fee IRA marketplace" are Webull and TD Ameritrade. Both have easy and fast online account opening process. Their commissions for stocks and ETFs are $0, and they have no minimum initial deposit requirement.

Free IRA Account

Webull

Webull does not offer branches nationwide, so it’s geared to the strictly online user. The stock trading fee is $0. The minimum deposit is $0 for taxable accounts and for IRAs. You can trade options and crypto-currencies with the same $0 commission.

At Webull, there is no cost for trading exchange traded funds. Your IRA will also have no fees if you remove an excess contribution, recharacterize a contribution or take an early distribution -- that is, before age 59 1/2.

With Webull no fee IRA, you have access to over 5,000 stocks. The broker offers a high-tech trading platform and an excellent mobile app that will please even an active trader.

Webull Free IRA Offer

12 FREE stocks valued $34-$30,600 give-away at Webull.

TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade is another popular retirement accounts provider and offers 100% no fee IRAs. There are no fees for opening or closing an individual retirement account (ROTH, traditional, or self-employed IRAs) as well as no annual or monthly maintenance or inactivity charges.

TD Ameritrade has 450 retail branches - that's by far the highest number among online brokers. You can place stock and ETF online trades for $0. TD Ameritrade doesn’t require a minimum deposit unless you are trading options or on margin, in which case the ante is $2,000.

TD Ameritrade ROTH IRA

TD Ameritrade lets you access more than 13,000 mutual funds, of which 4,200 are free to trade. You don’t pay a commission unless the mutual fund is not part of the NTF universe, in which case you’ll pay a $49.99 fee to buy but $0 to sell. TD Ameritrade devotes a section of its website to comprehensive retirement planning.

TD Ameritrade Free IRA Offer

$0 commissions + transfer fee reimbursement.

Annual IRA Fees Charged by Brokerage Firms

Brokerage	Setup IRA Fee	Inactivity Fee	Annual IRA Fee
Ally Invest	$0	No	No
TD Ameritrade	$0	No	No
Charles Schwab	$0	No	No
Choicetrade	$25	$15 quarterly fee if customer makes less than five trades in a calendar quarter	$50 annual IRA fee, $25 IRA setup fee
Etrade	$0	No	No
Fidelity	$0	No	Simple IRA: $350 per plan collected annually from the employer; or $25 per participant collected annually from participants' accounts. HSA: $48, waived in some instances. $12 annual Low Balance Fee for each noncore Fidelity mutual fund if balance is under $2,000.
Firstrade	$0	No	No
Interactive Brokers	$0	No	$30 annual IRA fee
JP Morgan	$0	No	No
Lightspeed Trading	$25	Minimum monthly commission for accounts under $5,000 is $25	$30 annual IRA fee
Merrill Edge	$0	No	No
Robinhood	na	na	na
Sogotrade	$0	No	$35 annual IRA fee
TradeStation	$0	No	$35 annual IRA fee
Vanguard	$0	No	$20 annual maintenance fee for regular accounts with balance less than $50,000. Annual IRA fees: $25 for SIMPLE IRA, $15 for 403(b)(7), $20 for Individual 401(k)/Roth 401(k) plans, $20 for 529 plan
Wellstrade	$0	No	$25 Minimum Balance Fee, if account is less than $5,000; $30 monthly service fee if PMA Package has less than $50,000 in all accounts

Brokerage Maintenance, Setup and Annual IRA Fees

Every year IRA setup fees at discount brokerage companies are becoming more and more rare. Only a few brokers now charge these - a dramatic drop from 10 years ago. With that trend, in a few years IRA setup fees will become completely extinct.

Getting a no-fee IRA account (no annual and setup fees), while important, should not be the only factor when choosing a company where to open an individual retirement account. Other parameters, such as commissions, other fees, products offered, retirement education and calculators, investment research and customer support are at least as important.

About the Author

Chad Morris is a financial writer with more than 20 years experience as both an English teacher and an avid trader. When he isn’t writing expert content for Brokerage-Review.com, Chad can usually be found managing his portfolio or building a new home computer.