Best IRA Accounts for 2026
After hours of analysis, we found that the best IRA accounts offer a large selection of low-cost mutual funds and ETFs, helpful retirement planning tools, educational guidance and strong customer support.The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments.
When choosing an IRA, you'll want to consider factors like investment selection, retirement planning tools, customer service and educational resources.
Recently, brokers have also started offering something new worth watching: a match program similar to what you see in some workplace 401(k)s. While a match alone isn't enough reason to choose one broker over another, getting some free cash to pad your retirement fund with is certainly a nice perk.
With that in mind, we dug into the details to find which brokers offer the best IRA accounts and where a few brokers really excel over others.
How involved you want to be in the investing process also affects which IRA works for you. We've split our picks into two categories.
You choose your investments.
With a self-directed IRA, you buy and manage your own investments. You have full control over your portfolio and can avoid paying a management fee.
Your investments are chosen for you.
If you don't want to manage your own portfolio, a robo-advisor will do the work for you. It builds you a portfolio based on your timeline and risk tolerance, usually for a fee.
Continue reading to learn more about our DIY picks, or jump ahead to read about the best IRAs for automated investing.
Best IRAs for DIY investing
Best IRA account overall: Charles Schwab
Best IRA match: Robinhood
Best for holistic retirement planning: Fidelity
Best for access to financial advisors: SoFi®
Best educational resources: E*TRADE
Best investment selection: Interactive Brokers
Company | NerdWallet rating | Fees | IRA Match | Promotion | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Best for IRA match | 4.5/5 | $0 | 1% match on contributions (3% for Gold members) | 1% match on eligible contributions up to IRA contribution limits. | Learn moreon Robinhood's website |
Learn moreon Robinhood's website | |||||
Learn moreon Robinhood's website | |||||
Best for holistic retirement planning | 5.0/5 | $0 no account fees to open a Fidelity retail IRA | None | None no promotion available at this time | Learn moreon Fidelity's website |
Learn moreon Fidelity's website | |||||
Learn moreon Fidelity's website | |||||
Best educational content | 4.6/5 | $0 per trade. Other fees apply. | None | Get up to $10,000 when you open and fund a new eligible E*TRADE retirement account. Terms apply. | Learn moreon E*TRADE's website |
Learn moreon E*TRADE's website | |||||
Learn moreon E*TRADE's website | |||||
Best for advisor access | 4.6/5 | $0 per trade | 1% on contributions and 401(k) rollovers | Get a 1% Match on contributions to a SoFi non-retirement Active Invest account. | Learn moreon SoFi Invest®'s website |
Learn moreon SoFi Invest®'s website | |||||
Learn moreon SoFi Invest®'s website | |||||
Best Online Broker for IRA Investors | 4.9/5 | $0 per online equity trade | None | Up to $500 when you make a qualifying net deposit. | Learn moreon Charles Schwab's website |
Learn moreon Charles Schwab's website | |||||
Learn moreon Charles Schwab's website | |||||
Charles Schwab
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 IRA accounts, including self-employed plans such as SEP and SIMPLE IRAs.
Schwab stands out for its helpful retirement-planning tools — including educational content and calculators — and its 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 any retirement investor to start an IRA.
Charles Schwab is one of the best overall IRA providers, with high-quality customer service, no account minimum and low fees. The company offers a large selection of no-transaction-fee funds, gives users access to extensive research and charges no commission for stock, options and ETF trades.
Fidelity
It's no surprise Fidelity is on our list — the broker's 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. Doing so means you can monitor your entire retirement portfolio from a single app.
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 0% expense ratios. These free index funds are only available to Fidelity customers, and it's one of only two brokers on this list that offer such a product (the other is E*TRADE).
Many investors are familiar with Fidelity as a provider of 401(k) plans — the broker is one of the biggest names in employee retirement accounts. It can be convenient to also have an IRA under the same roof, because you'll be able to seamlessly view all account balances in one place. But even for those who don't have a 401(k) with Fidelity, the company offers access to low-cost retirement investments (including no-fee, no-minimum index funds) and innovative tools to help you plan for retirement and check in on your progress.
SoFi Active Investing
SoFi may not have all the bells and whistles of some other brokers, but if you're looking for a low-cost broker and access to a financial advisor, SoFi is a good place to start. SoFi is unique in that it offers access to certified financial planners — a perk that often comes with a hefty price tag elsewhere. All SoFi members get one complimentary meeting; SoFi Plus members — a premium offering that is $10 a month — can schedule as many as they need. If you utilize that feature regularly, that $10 fee is likely worth it. But the service also comes with other perks, including loan discounts.
SoFi Active Investing's $0 trading commission, fractional shares and $0 account minimum are attractive to new investors. More advanced investors will appreciate the company's wide mutual fund selection and IPO access.
Robinhood
Robinhood currently has the best IRA match among brokers, which makes sense, considering it was the first to offer a 401(k)-style match on IRAs. While the free version of Robinhood offers a 1% match, Robinhood Gold ($5 per month, or $50 annually) gives you a 3% match. Minus the $60 you're paying annually for Robinhood Gold at the monthly rate, you're still netting a $165 bonus (based on the $7,500 annual contribution limit) just for contributing the maximum amount to your retirement account.
Robinhood also offers a high rate on uninvested cash (currently 3.35%) and one of the best crypto platforms found on a traditional (that is, not crypto-specific) investing platform.
Robinhood shook up the IRA market with its 1% match on contributions — an offer that is typically only available through employer retirement plans. While some competitors have since added similar offers, it is still relatively rare among IRA providers.
Interactive Brokers
We'll be honest: our testers were surprised by how well Interactive Brokers scored for its IRA accounts, as the broker is traditionally 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. Interactive Brokers also 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.
And beyond its massive mutual fund library, investors can deploy advanced strategies within an IBKR IRA, such as short covered calls, long or short futures contracts, currency trades and advanced options spreads. To be sure, this isn't for most IRA investors, who are looking for a long-term, hands-off investment vehicle. But for those who are comfortable with these strategies, IBKR, as is usually the case when we're talking about advanced platforms, likely has what you need.
Don't let the name fool you: IBKR Lite offers commission-free stock trading (including international trade capabilities), more than 21,000 no-transaction-fee mutual funds, and a full-featured platform.
E*TRADE
E*TRADE has a wide range of IRAs available, including traditional, Roth, SEP, SIMPLE, beneficiary and estate beneficiary IRAs. Pair this with E*TRADE's excellent educational resources (including a large bank of retirement planning tools and articles) and the target date funds available, and the platform has most everything you'd need to set yourself up for retirement saving.
For years, we've been big fans of E*TRADE's educational content for two main reasons. First, it's extremely broad and consistent. Peruse the library, and you'll find multiple live webinars or on-demand recordings every week. You can check out upcoming events here. And second, the quality of these events is very strong, and the presenters are impressive. For example, we tuned in to the webinar, "Mapping out your retirement income plan," hosted by Morgan Stanley's Vice President of Digital Direct and Senior Strategist for Investor Education at E*TRADE, and were genuinely surprised that they were giving this level of insight away for free.
It's good to remember, too, that E*TRADE is owned by Morgan Stanley, one of the world's largest financial institutions. So with E*TRADE, you're getting more than just an app; you're getting the experience and resources of an investment bank with somewhere around $2 trillion in assets under management, and there's a lot of confidence that can come with parking your money with an institution like that.
Retirement investors will find a lot to love about E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley's IRA offering, which offers no fees for stock and ETF trades, a large line-up of no-trading-fee mutual funds and an extensive library of retirement advice and tools.
Best IRAs for automated investing
Best robo-advisor for IRAs overall: Schwab Intelligent Portfolios
Best robo-advisor for an IRA match: SoFi Robo Investing
Company | NerdWallet rating | Account minimum | IRA Match | Promotion | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Best Robo-Advisor for IRA Investors  Schwab Intelligent Portfolios®Reviewed in: Oct. 2025Period considered:Aug. - Oct. 2025 | 5.0/5 Reviewed in: Oct. 2025Period considered:Aug. - Oct. 2025 | $5,000 | None | None no promotion available at this time | |
4.4/5 Reviewed in: Oct. 2025Period considered:Aug. - Oct. 2025 | $50 | 1% on contributions and 401(k) rollovers | None no promotion available at this time. | ||
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios stands out for IRA investors because it's free, meaning there is no fee for getting your investments managed for you. Intelligent Portfolios also offers several types of IRAs (including traditional, Roth, Rollovers, Inherited, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs), tons of customizable portfolios and 24/7 customer support. The downside? The platform doesn't offer an IRA match the way some other robos do.
Unpaid non-client promotion
Schwab Intelligent Portfolios is unique in charging zero management fee, but the advisor's portfolios tend to hold a larger cash allocation than other robo-advisors (meaning a good chunk of your money isn't invested). The account minimum, at $5,000, is fairly high, but Schwab has some of the best customer service in the business.
SoFi Robo Investing
SoFi's robo-advisor offering makes our list as the best robo-advisor for an IRA match. SoFi offers a 1% match on both rollovers and contributions. As with SoFi Active Investing, you'll also get access to a financial advisor (with unlimited access if you have SoFi Plus). The management fee is 0.25%, which is fairly standard among most robo-advisors.
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Paid non-client promotion
A low management fee that includes one meeting with a financial advisor makes SoFi Robo Investing a solid choice for beginning and younger investors.
Frequently asked questions
What are the benefits of an IRA?
IRA accounts offer significant tax benefits over traditional savings and brokerage accounts. As long as your money stays in an IRA, you’ll owe no tax on your investment earnings — that means you have a bigger nest egg to compound and grow each year. In contrast, with a traditional brokerage account, taxes may eat into your savings every year, depending on how you invest.
Am I eligible to save on taxes with an IRA?
Anyone can open a traditional IRA — there are no income limits — but if you’re also covered by a workplace retirement plan like a 401(k), the amount of your contribution that you can deduct on your tax return may be phased down or eliminated based on your income.
Can I lose all my money in an IRA?
While unlikely, it is possible for an IRA account to lose value and, potentially, drop to zero. That’s much likelier to happen if you invest in a single company stock. 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.
What do you mean by "invest the account"?
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 — usually for a small fee.
How easily can I access that money?
This is a retirement account, so the money is intended to stay put until age 59 ½ or later. That said, traditional IRA withdrawal rules are stricter than Roth IRA withdrawal rules: With a traditional IRA, you may be taxed and hit with a 10% early withdrawal penalty if you pull money out before age 59 ½. There are a few exceptions. With a Roth IRA, you can pull your contributions out at any time — remember, you’ve already paid taxes on them. You may be taxed or penalized on early distributions of investment earnings, however.
Our editorial methodology
How do we review brokers and robo-advisors?
All NerdWallet reviews and lists of the best investing products are created by our editorial team of full-time writers and editors, independent of any business relationships. In this case, our investing team's comprehensive review process evaluates and ranks the largest U.S. brokers and robo-advisors. Our aim is to provide an independent, balanced assessment of investment accounts to help arm you with information to make sound, informed judgements on which ones will best meet your needs. We adhere to strict guidelines for editorial integrity.
We collect data directly from providers through detailed questionnaires, and conduct first-hand testing and observation through provider demonstrations. The questionnaire answers, combined with demonstrations, interviews of personnel at the providers and our specialists’ hands-on research, fuel our proprietary assessment process that scores each provider’s performance across more than 20 factors. The final output produces star ratings from poor (one star) to excellent (five stars).
For more details about the categories considered when rating providers and our processes, read our full broker ratings methodology and our full robo-advisor ratings methodology