Best Free, No Fee IRA Accounts

Below are top online brokerage firms and banks 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.

Table below lists best companies for no fee IRA account. It also contains the types of IRAs the firms offer, investment commissions charged, and products you could invest.

Investing Fees	IRA Types	Investments Offered	IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $4.95 Mutual Funds: $9.95 Options: $4.95 plus $0.65 per contract	Roth IRA Traditional IRA Rollover IRA SIMPLE IRA SEP IRA Coverdell Education Savings Account (ESA)	Stocks Options Mutual Funds Bonds Forex CDs ETFs	Ally Invest IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $6.95 Mutual Funds: $49.99 Options: $6.95 plus $0.75 per contract	Traditional IRA Roth IRA Rollover IRA SEP IRA SIMPLE IRA Individual 401k (for small business)	Stocks Options Mutual Funds Bonds ETFs Futures Forex	TD Ameritrade IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $6.95 Mutual Funds: $19.99 Options: $6.95 plus $0.75 per contract	Rollover IRA Traditional IRA Roth IRA IRA for Minors Complete™ IRA Beneficiary IRA SEP IRA SIMPLE IRA Individual 401(k) Money Purchase Profit Sharing Investment-Only Non Custodial	Stocks Options Mutual Funds Bonds Futures ETFs	Etrade IRA Review
Stocks, ETFs: $0 Mutual Funds: $0 Options: $0 plus $0 per contract	Traditional IRA ROTH IRA SEP IRA SIMPLE IRA Rollover IRA Profit Sharing Plan Money Purchase Plan	Stocks Options Mutual Funds Bonds CDs ETFs	Firstrade IRA Review

Free IRA Accounts

In 2018 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 E*Trade and TD Ameritrade. Both have easy and fast online account opening process. Their commissions and minimum initial amounts are inline with competitors.

E*Trade

Along with no fee IRA accounts, E*Trade offers only 28 branches nationwide, so it’s geared to the strictly online user. The basic trading fee is $6.95 per transaction, though if you place more than 10 trades a month, your fee drops to $4.95. The minimum deposit is $500 for taxable accounts but for IRA's it is $0. You can trade bonds for a $1 each.

There is no cost for trading NL, NTF mutual funds. Otherwise, the fee is $19.99 plus whatever load or fee the mutual fund provider extracts. Your IRA will also have to shell out 25 bucks if you remove an excess contribution, recharacterize a contribution or take an early distribution -- that is, before age 59 1/2.

With E*Trade no fee IRA you can access about 7,600 mutual funds, of which 1,100 are no load NTF (no commission to buy or sell). The broker offers a high-tech trading platform that a must for the active trader.

Etrade Free IRA Offer

At E*TRADE, get $6.95 trades + 65₵ per options contract.

TD Ameritrade

TD Ameritrade is another popular retirement accounts provider and offers 100% no fee IRA's. There are no fees for opening or closing an individual retirement account (ROTH, traditional, or self-employed IRA's) 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 $6.95. The brokerage offers 296 commission-free ETFs. 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 lets you access more than 13,000 mutual funds, of which 2,600 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. TD Ameritrade devotes a section of its website to comprehensive retirement planning. The broker offers a promotional offer of up to $600 bonus to open a no fee IRA account.

TD Ameritrade Free IRA Offer

Trade free for 60 days + get up to $600.

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
Capital One Investing	$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	$10 per month minimum commission requirement to avoid $10 monthly fee (rises to $20 monthly if account balance is less than $2,000)	$7.50 quarterly fee for IRA accounts ($30 per year)
Just2trade	$0	No	$50 annual fee (waived for accounts with over $10,000.00 in assets and at least 40 trades)
Lightspeed Trading	$25	Minimum monthly commission for accounts under $5,000 is $25	$30 annual IRA fee
Merrill Edge	$0	No	No
Motif Investing	$0	No	No
Sogotrade	$0	No	$35 annual IRA fee
TradeStation	$0	No	$35 annual IRA fee
USAA	$0	No	No
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.