What Are Typical Fees to Manage an IRA?
An Individual Retirement Account, or IRA, can be an excellent way to save for retirement; however, there may be fees you should be aware of.
These fees can add up quickly, eating away at your retirement balance over time. You may be able to reduce costs by opting for low-cost services such as robo-advisors or target date retirement funds.
Fees for Investments
Fees associated with an IRA can make a substantial impactful on how much money will be available at retirement. For instance, investing $25,000 at an annual fee of 1% and getting 11% returns each year would leave you with over $500,000. Conversely, paying that same amount and only earning 9% returns per year would leave only $386,000.
Mutual and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) typically incur investment management fees that are included as part of a fund’s expense ratio, with active management fees often outpacing passively managed ones.
Typically, funds with lower expense ratios tend to perform better. Furthermore, it’s wise to remember that IRA account-level fees and trading commissions have come under intense scrutiny over time; any providers charging more than what has become the new normal should be avoided.
Fees for Advisory Services
As well as investment fees and trading commissions, some financial firms charge advisory services fees when managing an IRA account. This so-called wrap fee can take an unfavorable toll on retirement savings over time; fortunately, however, traditional IRA accounts offer tax savings due to being pre-tax.
Fees charged by firms like Meryl Lynch, Charles Schwab and eTrade tend to range up to $100 annually for managing an IRA or brokerage account – an unnecessary cost in a long term investment account.
If you are working with a human advisor, be sure to inquire into their fee structure and value-add to your account. If they provide vague answers that don’t answer directly or at all, this could be a red flag and it might be best to seek another advisor instead of using higher cost alternatives like Betterment which charges one flat rate of 0.25 percent to manage all portfolios while offering valuable services like tax loss harvesting and automatic rebalancing.
Fees for Administrative Services
Fees associated with an Individual Retirement Account can seem like minor details, but they add up over time. Every penny counts when it comes to retirement accounts!
Individuals can reduce IRA fees by choosing low-cost custodian providers, avoiding high trade and investment costs and creating the ideal asset allocation strategy.
Fees associated with mutual funds and ETFs can also be kept to a minimum by choosing low-cost index funds as your core portfolio holding. These professionally managed funds have relatively fewer holdings to save you money on fees and taxes.
If you’re ready to outsource some of your retirement account management, robo-advisors such as Betterment may be worth exploring as an option. With one flat fee of 0.25 percent, Betterment will handle everything from tax loss harvesting and automated rebalancing, to human advisor access for 1 percent assets under management (though this fee can be waived if contributing $100,000+ to Betterment).
Fees for Online Brokerage Services
Like brokerages, IRA providers make money through commissions when you make purchases and sales in your account. Some providers charge a flat monthly fee while others take a percentage of your account balance as management or advisory fees; human advisors typically incur higher costs than robo-advisors when managing accounts.
When investing in mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, fees known as expense ratios may also apply; fortunately these fees have decreased over time.
Many retirement account providers, including online brokers, robo-advisors and custodial services such as Vanguard offer low or no maintenance and custodial fees for individual retirement accounts (IRAs). But before investing, it is important to fully comprehend its total cost – excessive fees can eat into returns, decreasing your chance of enjoying a comfortable retirement. To minimize these fees and maximize returns, opt for low-cost providers with access to index investments at lower costs; additionally try and avoid fees charged for opening accounts and moving investments from other providers – this way will minimize fees as well.
Categorised in: Blog