Best IRA Accounts of December 2024

Note: Some of the IRA promotions above won’t apply for first-time depositors due to IRA contribution limits of $7,000 in 2024 and 2025 ($8,000 for those 50 or older). We’ve included promotions with low deposit requirements where available. You may be eligible for the IRA promotion if you're rolling over your existing IRA balance from another provider or account. If you're rolling over a 401(k), check to be sure the promotion will apply to you as rules can vary.

Our Nerdy perspective

More about why we picked these as the best brokers for IRAs

Best overall: Fidelity

It's no surprise Fidelity tops our list — the brokers' name is nearly synonymous with retirement investing and IRAs, and the company services many workplace retirement plans. In fact, that's an advantage that isn't factored into our analysis, but it may be factored into your decision about which IRA account to choose: If you have a 401(k) or other plan at work that's administered by Fidelity, opening an IRA under the same roof may be an easy decision. But Fidelity also stands out for other reasons — the company's website offers innovative tools and expertise to help you in your retirement planning, and it has a wide mutual fund selection, including several of its own index funds that charge no fees.

Best for self-employment IRAs: Charles Schwab

Like Fidelity, Charles Schwab is one of the leading providers of retirement accounts, including workplace plans, such as 401(k)s, so it's no surprise that it stands out for IRAs. The company offers a variety of different types of IRA accounts, including self-employed plans such as SEP and SIMPLE IRAs. Schwab stands out for having helpful retirement planning tools — including educational content and calculators — and a large selection of mutual funds. It earns five stars in our analysis across three categories that we heavily consider in our methodology: number of no-transaction-fee mutual funds, number of low-expense-ratio funds and number of low-minimum funds. That makes it easy and inexpensive for retirement investors to start an IRA.

Best advisor access: SoFi

SoFi may not have all the bells and whistles of some of the other brokers, but if you're looking for a low-cost broker and access to financial advisors, SoFi is the place to start. SoFi is unique in that it offers complimentary access to certified financial planners — a perk that often comes with a hefty price tag elsewhere. In addition to its advisor access, SoFi also offers a 1% match on your IRA contributions up to the contribution limit. If you're planning on contributing to an IRA, you might as well get paid to do it.

Best match: Robinhood

If you're looking for an excellent platform and an IRA match, Robinhood may be a good fit for you. Robinhood offers a 1% IRA match, but through Robinhood Gold, you can get a 3% match. Minus the $60 Robinhood Gold annual fee, you're still netting a $150 bonus just for contributing to your retirement account. Robinhood also offers a high rate on uninvested cash and crypto trading.

Best for advanced traders: Interactive Brokers

We'll be honest and say our testers were surprised by how well Interactive Brokers scored when it comes to its IRA accounts — the broker is known for catering to active traders. But there are plenty of investors who want to trade in their IRA accounts — and there can be tax benefits for doing so — and Interactive Brokers deserves a spot on this list for its mutual fund offering alone. The broker has one of the largest mutual fund selections available, and our testers found the user experience of opening an account surprisingly smooth, even for novice investors.

More about why we picked these as the best robo-advisors for IRAs

Best overall: Fidelity Go

Like the active investing version of Fidelity, the robo-advisor is also an excellent choice. Fidelity Go offers free portfolio management on balances under $25,000. That's a great perk, especially because most robo-advisors tend not to favor investors with lower balances due to their fee structure. Fidelity Go also has no investment expense ratios (investment fund fees that portfolios at nearly every other robo-advisor will carry) and human oversight of your portfolio allocations.

Best free portfolio management: Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios

Charles Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is Charles Schwab's robo-advisor, which offers portfolio management at no cost. That means it will manage your IRA investments for free, alongside all the features that helped Schwab make our list, like standout retirement planning tools. The service also ranked #2 in our scoring of the best robo-advisors for IRA accounts, so you're not compromising on service. Note that Intelligent Portfolios does have a $5,000 minimum.

Best match: Acorns

Acorns is a low-cost robo-advisor with one big perk for IRA investors: A 1% to 3% match on your contributions. A Silver plan costs $72 a year. If you contribute $7,000 to your IRA — the current annual contribution limit for those under 50 — you would get a $70 investment match. That would essentially wipe out your account fee. Premium subscriptions cost $144 per year. But with Premium's 3% match, you'd earn $210, completely erasing the annual fee, and putting an extra $66 in your pocket. Acorns also gives you cash back at select retailers and a high interest rate on checking and savings accounts at some service tiers.

Best advisor access: SoFi Automated Investing

SoFi makes our list of best robo-advisors because they offer complimentary access to certified financial planners, so there's a lifeline if you have a financial question. And SoFi gives IRA investors a 1% matching contribution. Those are two perks that, combined, you won't find elsewhere.

Best for portfolio diversification: Wealthfront

Wealthfront is a solid choice for a robo-advisor. The company offers an impressive number of portfolio options, including the ability to purchase individual stocks and an automated bond portfolio that will appeal to IRA investors who are getting closer to (or who are in) retirement. Wealthfront's online tools, including its retirement planning and goal tools, really impressed our testers.

Best for new IRA investors: Betterment

Betterment has for years ranked highly in our analysis of robo-advisors, and it's no surprise they show up here. But they're a strong choice for low-balance or new IRA investors for two reasons: One, they have no account minimum (though you can't begin investing until you've deposited $10 or more). And two, they purchase fractional shares, which means even small amounts of money will immediately get invested — you won't have to wait until you've deposited enough to purchase a full share of an investment. The service does charge a different fee structure for balances under $25,000 — $4 a month instead of 0.25% of invested assets.

What's the best IRA according to Reddit?

We analyzed nearly 700 Reddit comments and upvotes to determine which IRA providers Reddit users liked best. Reddit users and NerdWallet's IRA account reviewers agree: Fidelity is a clear winner.

More than 36% of Reddit users who contributed to IRA-focused Reddit threads said that Fidelity was their preferred IRA provider. Vanguard came in second at nearly 30% and Schwab came in third at 28.5%. Robinhood came in last with only eight comments and upvotes.

How do you choose an IRA account?

Picking the best IRA account will depend a bit on what matters most to you. Below, we detail some criteria to keep in mind:

Low-cost investments: For long-term retirement savings success, make sure high fees don’t eat into your investment returns. Open your IRA at a broker or robo-advisor that offers low-cost investments. For many retirement investors, a smart investment is a low-cost mutual fund. Investing in a handful of mutual funds is an easy way to own a diversified portfolio, because each mutual fund invests in dozens, hundreds or even thousands of companies. With mutual funds, one of the main fees to focus on is the expense ratio. Ideally, you’re investing in mutual funds with an expense ratio of less than about 0.5%.

Low fees: While you’re keeping an eye on expense ratios, also keep other fees in mind. If you’re a do-it-yourself investor who plans to open an IRA at a broker, make sure you pick a broker with no trading commissions (or a high number of commission-free ETFs and no-transaction-fee mutual funds) and low transfer and other fees.

Investment help: If you want guidance picking investments, a robo-advisor probably is a better choice for you than a broker. All robo-advisors offer either ready-to-go investment portfolios or provide some help picking investments.

Customer support: Make sure the broker or robo-advisor offers customer support that meets your needs, whether that’s live chat, telephone support or access to human financial planners.

How do you open an IRA?

It’s a simple process: You can open an IRA online, at any broker or robo-advisor (though we’re partial to the ones above, for the reasons we outlined). It takes about 15 minutes, and you’ll need to provide some personal information, including your name, birthdate, mailing address and Social Security number. Here’s our guide to opening an IRA, which also includes information about how to fund and invest the account.

Can you lose money in an IRA?

It is possible for an IRA account to lose value and even drop to zero (though that's unlikely). The key to sidestepping this risk is to make sure your investments are diversified. That means investing in a variety of companies — of different sizes and in different industries and locations — and in both stocks and bonds. That way, when any one slice of your investments faces trouble, the others are there to keep your overall portfolio on a steady course.

The easiest path to a diversified portfolio is with mutual funds and exchange-traded funds. One single fund can invest in thousands of companies, making it a simple one-stop shop for investment diversification.

How do you invest an IRA?

Unlike savings accounts, IRAs don’t pay a set interest rate or return. Once you’ve put money into the account, you need to select investments; otherwise, your money will sit in cash, which isn’t ideal for a long-term goal like retirement. Most IRA providers offer a wide range of investment options, including individual stocks, bonds and mutual funds. If that sounds out of your league, you can open your IRA at a robo-advisor, which will manage your investments for you for a small fee. The robo-advisors on this page are listed under the heading for hands-off investors — investors who want a robo-advisor to invest the IRA account for them.

Which bank has the best IRA?

You might have noticed we don’t include any bank IRA accounts in our roundup of the best IRAs. Generally, an investment broker or robo-advisor is a better option than a bank for an IRA account, because for a long-term goal like retirement, you want to tap into the power of the stock market to grow your money.

Bank IRAs generally offer access to savings products such as certificates of deposit. CDs are savings products that guarantee a rate of return as long as you leave your money in for a specific period of time. Historically, stock market returns average about 10% per year. CD rates are typically much lower. Yes, the stock market comes with the risk that, in any given year, your account may lose value — but investors who leave their money in the market, even through those down days, generally enjoy hefty gains over time.