Best IRA Accounts of 2024 – Our Top Picks

The average American in their 30s saves half the amount they should for retirement. Or, to put it another way, they should follow the rule of thumb of many financial experts and save 1-2 times their annual salary so they can retire comfortably by age 67.
For example, a 35-year-old earning $45,000 yearly should have up to $90,000 in their retirement accounts.
That’s a lofty goal, but it can be accomplished by contributing regularly to a 401(k) retirement plan at work. If that isn’t enough, you can also fund an Individual Retirement Account, or IRA, that you open individually.
An IRA won’t have the matching contribution that some employers offer in a 401(k), but an IRA will have more investment options, such as individual stocks and bonds. An IRA can also diversify your tax advantages.
Many companies sell IRAs without charging commissions or requiring a minimum account balance. Most are sold by investment brokerages with which you may already be doing business, and most are online brokers with automated investing platforms.

Overview of the best IRA account providers

Here are nine of the best traditional and Roth IRA account providers we’ve found, highlighting what they do best.
Company
Best for
Charles Schwab
Large selection
Betterment
Automated investments
Fidelity
If you need help managing an account
Vanguard
Buy and hold
E*Trade
Mobile app
Ally Invest
Ally Bank customers
Bank of America
In-person service
Wealthfront
Robot-advisor benefits

Best IRA account providers

The first thing to know about IRAs is that they should supplement an employer-sponsored retirement plan. If your employer matches all or part of your 401(k) contributions, it’s essentially free money you’re being given for retirement savings. Don’t let that gift slip through your fingers by skipping a 401(k) and going straight to an IRA.
There are four types of IRAs, but we focus on two main types: The traditional IRA and Roth IRA. We won’t go into the weeds of how they work, but the basics to know about each are:
  • Traditional IRA: You may receive tax breaks now since contributions grow tax-deferred, and you’re taxed when you take money out at retirement.
  • Roth IRA: No immediate tax breaks since qualified withdrawals at retirement are tax-free.
If you expect to be taxed at a higher rate when you begin making withdrawals in retirement, then a Roth IRA may be best for you because the tax benefits happen later. While traditional IRAs require paying taxes on the money taken out at retirement, those taxes may still be low because people usually have lower incomes when not working.
Here are the nine best IRA providers we’ve found.

Charles Schwab

Most IRA providers don’t charge fees for making online trades, including Charles Schwab. That doesn’t mean you want to become a day trader with your retirement fund since buying and holding is a smart way to avoid the ups and downs of the stock market.
Charles Schwab is a great place to open an IRA because it has a large selection of no-transaction-fee mutual funds with low or no minimums. That will diversify your portfolio without having to pay fees.
The company is also well known for providing excellent research on investment options, giving investors online planning tools to research and compare mutual funds. It has a mutual fund screener to compare funds easily, including information such as:
  • Fund performance
  • Holdings
  • Morningstar rating
  • Experts’ top mutual funds picks for each quarter
  • Fees
It also offers hundreds of socially responsible funds to invest in and helps investors find funds to meet a target retirement date or provide a monthly income.

Betterment

Betterment is a robo-advisor. They collect information from clients about their financial goals and situations through an online survey and use the data to offer advice.
Betterment automates investments by using deposits to rebalance a customer’s portfolio. This is meant to keep your IRA on track and save you money on taxes.
As the company explains it, this portfolio rebalancing is needed because stocks generally rise faster than bonds, so a stock portion of a portfolio will be out of proportion and can expose an investor to more risk. Betterment deals with this portfolio drift by automatically rebalancing to a target allocation set by the customer. Investments are bought or sold to level the risk.
Betterment charges an annual fee of 0.25% on a retirement account balance. For every $10,000 invested, that equals $25 per year. No fees are charged for a $0 balance. It doesn’t charge additional trade or transaction fees.

Fidelity

Fidelity is known for its low fees, and as a trading platform, it doesn’t charge trading fees or other account fees for a basic Roth or a traditional IRA.
However, it charges an advisory fee on two types of IRAs: "Fidelity Go” and “Fidelity Personalized Planning and Advice” IRAs. The fee depends on the balance. The Go account is free for less than $25,000 in assets but then rises to 0.35% per year for $25,000 and higher.
The other plan charges a 0.50% annual advisory fee, though Fidelity says no other fees are charged.
One advantage of the two higher-level plans is that instead of being on your own to choose and manage investments, Fidelity does that work for you with your goals and risk tolerance taken into account. Extra personal assistance is also offered.

Vanguard

If you’re a long-term investor who believes buying and holding stocks is the best way to wealth (and you should be with an IRA), then Vanguard makes this easy.
Vanguard founder Jack Bogle created the first index mutual fund in 1976 as a low-cost way for individuals to invest. The company has been synonymous with low-cost investing ever since.
It has commission-free ETF trades, more than 3,200 no-transaction-fee mutual funds, and tons of other types of funds to keep your IRA money in. It also joined the broker price revolution in late 2019 and dropped its trading fees from $7 to $0.
Vanguard's prices can't be beaten when buying mutual funds, ETFs, or exchange-traded funds. Its average expense ratio is 0.08%. According to Morningstar, an investment research firm, the average expense ratio across all mutual funds and ETFs is 0.37%. Savings with Vanguard can put thousands of dollars in your pocket over 30 years of investing.
Vanguard charges 0.25-1% of the transaction to discourage short-term, speculative trading on some mutual funds. Also, it charges a $20 annual account service fee for all brokerage accounts and IRAs, though it can be waived by signing up for electronic statements.

E*Trade

Checking your IRA balance every day or multiple times a day probably isn’t good for your well-being. It may encourage you to trade often if the markets drop, causing you to sell low and buy high.
However, if you’re anxious to see how your IRA is doing while you’re out to lunch, an excellent mobile app at E*Trade makes it easy. It can be used on Apple and Android devices, including tablets and an Apple Watch.
The app may be most useful to day traders, but even boring old IRAs that you contribute to regularly and don’t trade often can be viewed and researched. Remember, you have much more control over an IRA than you do the investments in a 401(k), so you may want to research your investment options in-depth. This doesn’t mean you must trade often in an IRA, but your investments should be well-researched.

Ally Invest

Ally Invest is good for low-cost trading, including IRAs, but its biggest benefit may be for its Ally Bank customers.
The company's investment arm is tightly integrated with the banking side, making it easy to buy stocks and ETFs if you have an Ally bank account. The company’s mobile app allows quick bank transfers and auto-updating quotes in a few seconds so that you can buy stocks for an IRA by knowing their immediate prices and transferring money quickly and easily.
You can move money around the Ally services you use, and investors can move cash out of the investment to pay personal loans. IRA investments, however, shouldn’t be used for such expenses because they’ll likely come with a tax penalty if you’re not near retirement age.

Bank of America

Some financial institutions we reviewed have physical offices where you can speak with certified financial planners. New investors can get customer support, financial planning, educational resources, retirement planning, and investment accounts.
Bank of America has 4,300 branches in the U.S. Most if not all, remain open, as far as we can find.
That gives newbie investors a lot of places to get persona-to-person help in opening an IRA, funding it, and choosing investments. You can also go online to do this, but it can give you peace of mind knowing that you can walk into a bank and get help if needed.
The investment IRAs at Bank of America are offered through Merrill Edge, which Bank of America owns.

Wealthfront

Wealthfront is a robo-advisor, though that shouldn’t be a worry. Like Betterment, it also automatically rebalances investments so you’re not too heavily weighted in one area. For hands-off investors, which IRAs are best for, Wealthfront makes investing easy.
It has a simple online calculator to help determine which type of IRA is best for you. It considers your filing status, income, age, and if you already have a 401(k) or traditional IRA.
The company says its software keeps your portfolio globally diversified to buffer you against downturns and seeks ways to reduce your tax bill through tax-loss harvesting.
Its advisory fee is the same as Betterments at 0.25% annually, though Wealthfront requires a $500 account minimum deposit.

Best IRA providers summary

Note that under “trading fees,” these can be higher than listed here because some companies charge management, annual, or other fees. For example, transaction fees for making a stock trade at Charles Schwab can range from zero if done online to $5 for an automated phone trade or $25 for assistance from a financial advisor. Each company should offer a detailed pricing guide that may include other investor fees.
Company
Commission
Account minimum
Trading fees
Key feature
Charles Schwab
0
$0
$0-$25
Large selection
Betterment
0.25%
$0
$0
Auto rebalancing
Fidelity
0-0.50%
$0
$0
Pay for extra help
Vanguard
0
$0
$0
Low expense ratio
E*Trade
0
$0
$0
Mobile app
Ally Invest
0
$0
$0
Ally Bank integration
Bank of America
0
$0
$0
Physical branches
Wealthfront
0.25%
$500
$0
Robot-advisor

FAQs

What is a Rollover IRA?

One type of IRA we didn’t review is a Rollover IRA, which you will likely see advertised by brokerage firms such as the ones above. They’d like you to place all of your money in their accounts, and a Rollover IRA is another way to do that.
A Rollover IRA is an account where you move funds from your old employer-sponsored retirement plan into an IRA. It keeps the tax-deferred status of your retirement assets without paying taxes or early withdrawal penalties from the transfer.
When you leave an employer with a 401(k) retirement plan, there are four things you can do with it:
  • Rollover to an IRA
  • Rollover to a new employer’s plan
  • Leave in your former employer’s 401(k) plan
  • Cash-out
Putting it in an IRA can lower your administrative fees, simplify your finances by putting your money in one place, and give you more investment choices.

What are the contribution limits?

How much money you can put in a retirement account is regulated by the Internal Revenue Service, and sometimes it changes.
In 2024, the limit on annual contributions to a traditional or Roth IRA is $7,000.
People 50 and older can make additional “catch-up” contributions of $1,000 for a total limit of $8,000.

How do I avoid fees with an IRA?

Thanks to a move by brokerage firms in 2019 to drop stock trading fees to zero, instead of paying $7 or so per trade, it can be tempting to trade in and out of mutual funds, specific stocks, and other investments because you won’t pay a fee to do it.
There are many reasons not to do that, mainly starting with having a long-term view of your retirement savings.
But you can if you want to be a day trader or just a monthly trader with your IRA. But some fees may still pop up.
Many brokerages charge for assistance from a broker to make a trade. So if you can’t do it online, expect to pay $25 or so for professional help. Some companies charge a percentage commission on your account balance, so you’ll pay some amount per year whether you trade often or not.
There may also be fees if you want to buy foreign stocks. Doing that in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) market can cost $50 in a foreign transaction fee just for an online order. Get a broker’s help, and it goes up to $75.
The best way to avoid fees is to make regular contributions to a low-fee mutual fund, leave it, and forget about it. We don’t mean forgetting it entirely but checking it at least once a year and adjusting it if necessary.

Why you should open an IRA

Few people save as much as they should for retirement. An IRA is one way to get there, but you may only want to open one if you’re already maxing out a 401(k) plan at work.
A 401(k) contribution is sometimes matched by employers, which is free money from your employer so you can save more for retirement.
But if your employer doesn’t offer a match, or it doesn’t offer a retirement plan, or you work for yourself, an IRA is a great way to save for the day when you won’t work anymore. You can take the tax savings now with a traditional IRA or later with a Roth IRA.
An IRA is also a good idea if you haven’t started saving yet and are past your 20s or 30s. The older you are, the more money you’ll need to save for retirement. Someone in their 30s may only need twice their annual salary in retirement accounts, but older people will need more to catch up.
Saving 15% of your income in your 30s for retirement is a good goal, but someone in their 40s may need to save four times their annual salary.

The bottom line

Opening a Roth or traditional IRA isn’t difficult, and it should encourage you to save more for retirement.
Researching what to invest in requires a little work, but a good mutual fund is easy to find. Almost every brokerage firm or bank we’ve recommended has great educational tools on its websites to help IRA holders pick investments that meet their risk tolerance level.
Whether you’re just starting to save for retirement or you’ve maxed out your employer’s plan, opening an IRA can be a smart way to save for your future.

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