roth ira

It depends. What are you planning to hold in your IRA, and are you planning to make frequent transactions (say, a monthly fund purchase as you get paid), or just dump something in once a year? Consider what you are actually planning to buy, and compare the transaction fees at the different brokerages. For the frequent-small-investments strategy, it's better to bypass the fund supermarket and invest directly with the fund, as many of them have an "automatic investment plan" in which they waive the usual account minimums as well as all transaction fees.

-Sandra the cynic

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It depends a lot. What sort of things do you want to put in it? If mutual funds from a particular company, it can save you money to open it with them. If you're planning on purchasing stocks or ETFs, then it's wise to look at the transaction fees for those.

As far as TD Ameritrade, they aren't too bad as far as the Roth itself. There's no ongoing expenses, I believe. Be aware that their free trade deals don't apply to IRA accounts.

Brian

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FWIW, I have Roth IRA accounts at both TDA and at E*Trade.

TDA often corrects itself several times in the tax season, sometimes as late as 4/14 and the online portal doesn't track a lot of information about your investments, forcing you to either add it manually or tracking it separately.

E*Trade is much better at this, but it's been hit hard by the recent sub-prime crisis (even though I wonder about how TDA was affected by it). But I still recommend it over TDA.

Note that I've only mentioned service, because the costs and offerings are very similar.

However, I've never tried Scott Trade nor OptionsHouse among the discount brokers. And I personally don't see any advantage in the larger brokers.

HTH

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It really depends on the individual's needs. My newer Roth is with Wells Fargo, because I have the linked PMA checking account and a regular brokerage account, with enough assets that I get the 100 free transactions (stock/ETF trades and mutual funds) per account. For someone just starting out, that's not going to matter.

Just too short of a question without all the rest of the financial details.

Brian

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I've also had experience with E-Trade and TDA (well actually TD Waterhouse and Datek), as well as Scottrade. I continue to like E-Trade the best, mostly based on service.

-Will

william dot trice at ngc dot com

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Soem of that may have to do with the investments you have in the account, not necessarily the brokerage in question.

FWIW, I wasn't impressed with TDA. I've been very happy with both E-Trade and Fidelity.

Over the years, Fido's sent me corrected tax docs, too, but as I said, I don't blame Fido for that. (Though they did get the corrections to me far earlier than 4/14 - that's crazy late.)