I have just done extensive research between Schwab, Fidelity, Security Trust, Smith Barney, and Ameritrade.
I went with Ameritrade because they charge NO initiation fee, NO annual maintenance fee, and $8 on-line trades. The full service brokers were around $30 per year with it being waived after either $10k or $30 was in the account, and per trade costs were from $30 to the standard % of trade calculation.
Security Trust, which was the first one I looked at, charges .5% with a $500 annual MINIMUM. The only benefit I could see was that you get the first 50 trades free. If you trade a lot, and you are comparing to the full service brokers, it might make sense, but not when you compare to the online trading firms.
This was important to me because I will probably be a much more agressive trader in my IRA account since you don't have to pay any cap gains tax every time you sell for a profit.
As a sidenote, I am opening a traditional IRA at Ameritrade this week (before 4/15). I will then convert it to a Roth the following week. I can then still put $2000 into a new Roth in 1998.
I also already have a brokerage account at Ameritrade, but that didn't influence the quoted costs at all. I did not check any of the other online trading firms
Michael |
