How do I pick between rollover IRA providers when they all advertise no fees?

By Kaz · Published 28 September 2026 · How this site checks figures

Summary

Compare the costs a $0 account fee leaves out: the yearly fee if the firm manages the IRA for you, the charge for transferring or closing the IRA later, and the expense ratios of the funds you hold inside it. Behind those sit the four points the Department of Labor expects a financial firm to weigh before it recommends a rollover: the option of not rolling over at all, the fees and expenses of both the plan and the IRA, whether your employer pays some of the plan's administrative costs, and the services and investments each side offers. FINRA already bars broker-dealers from calling an IRA "free" or "no fee" when the account or its investments carry costs.

Ten brokers on the two costs the ads skip

Two costs rarely appear in a rollover ad: the yearly fee if you let the firm manage the IRA, and what the firm charges when you leave. The table puts both side by side for ten brokers, from each firm's own pricing or help page checked October 6, 2026.

Broker	Managed (robo) IRA fee, as published	Full transfer out	Separate IRA closing fee	Leaving a $50,000 IRA
Fidelity	Fidelity Go: $0 under $25,000, 0.35% at $25,000 and above	$0	$0	$0
Wealthfront	0.25%	$0	None listed	$0
Schwab	Intelligent Portfolios: no advisory fee, $5,000 minimum	$50	None listed	$50
Merrill Edge (self-directed)	Not checked	$49.95	$49.95	$49.95 to $99.90
E*TRADE	Not checked	$75	None listed	$75
Betterment	Digital: 0.25%	$75	None listed	$75
Vanguard	Digital Advisor: 0.20% gross for index portfolios	$100	Same $100	$100
Robinhood	Not checked	$100	None listed	$100
SoFi	Automated Investing: 0.25%	$100	$100 when the balance drops below $100	$100 to $200
M1	No advisory fee "through December 2027"	$100	$100	$200

"Not checked" and "None listed" mean the page didn't give a figure, not that the charge is zero. A self-directed IRA at these firms carries no advisory fee; the funds you buy inside it charge their own expense ratios either way. The robo-advisor fees in dollars has the notes behind the managed column, including Schwab's cash allocation, and the transfer-out fees at each broker has the footnotes behind the last three columns.

Example: a $50,000 IRA in a 0.25% managed account pays $125 a year in advisory fees, or $625 over five years before any growth. The largest one-time exit cost in the table is $200, at M1, so over five years the managed fee is the bigger of the two costs by more than three times.

Two firms in the table pay a 1% match on rollovers that has to stay five years: Robinhood on self-directed IRAs, and SoFi on rollovers made by check deposit. Leaving early costs the match on top of the transfer fee, so read the match terms together with the last column: Robinhood's IRA match terms, SoFi's rollover match terms. The match against a lower expense ratio works out when 1% stops covering a fee gap.

The written reasons you're owed

A firm that recommends a rollover under PTE 2020-02 must document and give you, in writing, the specific reasons the move is in your best interest. The DOL's FAQ lists the factors that go into that analysis, and says they "include but are not limited to" the four above. If you won't share your plan's information, the firm is expected to estimate expenses, asset values, risk, and returns from public sources such as the plan's most recent Form 5500, and to write down the assumptions it used. The FAQ also says the disclosure "cannot be merely a 'check-the-box' activity."

Keeping "stay in the old plan" in the running is part of the test the rule sets for the firm, so the firm's written reasons are expected to weigh it against the IRA.

What the ads leave out

FINRA requires rollover marketing to be balanced by a discussion of the other options and how they compare to the IRA, "particularly with regard to fees." The fees least likely to be in the ad are the SEC's list of brokerage charges for trading platforms, account maintenance, inactivity, falling below a minimum balance, account transfers, account closings, and wire transfers. The SEC also suggests asking which share class of a fund is the lowest-cost one available and how to qualify for it.

Leaving later. The SEC's advice on switching firms is to think about the fees for closing or transferring the account and any tax consequences. The provider you pick now is the one whose transfer and closing fees apply if you ever move again.

Sources

Written by Kaz, an independent publisher.
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