The Best IRA Accounts of 2023

E*TRADE has long been a major player in the online investing market, and the company stands out amongst competitors by offering a wide range of investment choices with no account fees or minimum. Most trades have no commissions, and the investment options that do incur charges are transparently spelled out on E*TRADE’s website.

IRA investors can build their portfolio at E*TRADE with over 6,500 mutual funds and over 50,000 bond and CD choices. The provider’s online trading platform was one of the first of its kind and remains an accessible and user-friendly tool for investors of all experience levels.

It’s easy to see why Wealthfront is one of the top robo-advisors in the country. The online platform is easy to use even if you’re brand new to investing, but experienced investors will enjoy the high level of customization you can apply to your IRA portfolio.

Wealthfront allows investors to build their own portfolio with hundreds of investment options or choose a premade portfolio that’s crafted and managed by Wealthfront’s financial experts. This flexibility, combined with a standard management fee and an unusually low account minimum of $500, make Wealthfront our overall best choice for an IRA robo-advisor.

If you’re opening an IRA for the first time, consider getting an account at Fidelity Investments. Fidelity’s IRA comes with no account or advisory fees and over 10,000 funds to choose from. The brokerage even offers the Fidelity ZERO® line of index funds, which have no expense ratio.

First-time retirement investors will appreciate the range of free online resources and tools Fidelity offers. These resources include retirement planning tools, calculators, reporting features, investment analysis and chatbot support. You can even take virtual courses with Fidelity’s Learning Center to master the basics of trading.

As one of the biggest IRA providers in the country, Charles Schwab is known for its 24/7 customer service and providing IRAs with no fees and no commission on most online trades. Schwab’s online trading platform, StreetSmart Edge®, offers investors customizable layouts, trading tools and cutting-edge research offerings.

Investors can use Schwab’s wide range of investment options to craft a portfolio for their financial needs, such as mutual funds, annuities, money market funds, stocks, bonds, options, futures and margin loans. The brokerage also offers over two dozen low-cost ETFs with expense ratios as low as 0.03%.

Charles Schwab’s robo-advisor platform, Schwab Intelligent Portfolios®, distinguishes itself from other robo-advisors by charging no advisory or management fees. Investors who want the convenience of a robo-advisor without the expensive fees might prefer this service, provided you can meet the $5,000 account minimum.

When you open an IRA with Schwab Intelligent Portfolios®, you’ll answer a questionnaire about your risk tolerance and goals and choose from six risk profiles and three investment strategies. Schwab’s robo-advising algorithms use your responses to create a diversified portfolio of ETFs that perfectly matches your needs.

Investors can open a Betterment IRA account with any amount of cash, making it the only robo-advisor we considered that has no account minimum. Betterment’s advisory fees are average at 0.25% for the basic plan, which includes digital-only investment advice.

Beginner investors opening an IRA for the first time might appreciate the guided, hands-off approach that Betterment offers. The robo-advisor provides a few curated portfolios to choose from, all of which can be adjusted for risk tolerance.

Experienced investors might prefer the straightforward approach of Vanguard’s simple trading platform. Vanguard IRA owners can build their portfolios with stocks, bonds, options, ETFs and over a hundred no-transaction-fee Vanguard mutual funds. Many of Vanguard’s mutual and index funds carry a below-average expense ratio, making them an affordable investment option.

This brokerage might be best suited for investors who already have significant funds to contribute to an IRA. While there’s no minimum required to open an IRA account, many Vanguard mutual funds require a minimum investment of $3,000.