A decade or so ago, one of the big factors in terms of deciding where to open an IRA was the quality of investment options available through each brokerage firm. Now, however, you can create a low-cost, diversified portfolio just about anywhere using ETFs.
That leaves you with four primary things to consider when selecting a brokerage firm:
- Account minimums (if you’re just starting out),
- Account fees,
- Commissions per trade, and
- Quality of customer service and online interface.
That last one is rather hard to quantify, and different people care about different things anyway. The first three factors, however, can be put in a nice little chart for easy comparison. 
Discount Brokerages (Sorted by Cost)
| Account Minimum for IRA | Annual IRA Fee | Commission per Trade | Dividend Reinvestment | |
| OptionsHouse | $1,000 | none | $3.95 | ?? |
| TradeKing | none | none | $4.95 | free* |
| Scottrade | $500 | none | $7.00 | $7.00/trade |
| Vanguard | none | none | $7.00 | free |
| tradeMONSTER | none | none | $7.50 | free |
| Fidelity | none | none | $7.95 | free |
| Schwab | $1,000 | none | $8.95 | free |
| ShareBuilder | none | none | $9.95 | free |
| Etrade | none | none | $9.99 | free |
| TD Ameritrade | $500 | none | $9.99 | free |
| optionsXpress | none | none | $14.95 | ?? |
*TradeKing’s dividend reinvestment program for stocks/ETFs only works for whole shares. They do not allow for the purchase of fractional shares.
Special Deals
If you open an account at OptionsHouse with at least $1,000, you can get a free one-year subscription to the Wall Street Journal Online. To make sure you get the free offer, be sure to use the promo code “WSJFREE” when you open your IRA.
Vanguard, Schwab, Fidelity, and TD Ameritrade each allow for commission-free trades of certain ETFs.
Hope that helps. Good luck with your new IRA!
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