Where is the best place to open an IRA?

I use Ameritrade for my wife. Can't really give a good explanation why though

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Why are they the best? Just curious, I really don't know much about any of the funds. Mine is with USAA but I just have my roth in a stock right now.

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I didn't mean to claim that there is a best, in fact I am trying to find out what the best is.
I chose these two to bring up because based off of what I have found on the internet these are the best or have the best deals. I can tell you that I don't like scottrade personal opinion.
Vanguard is supposed to have some of the lowest fees. Etrade has lower transaction cost. Tradeking might have an IRA option, and if they do I would bet they have some of the lowest fees. I do not have a USAA account but I have heard good things about the bank.

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I didn't mean to claim that there is a best, in fact I am trying to find out what the best is.

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One of the best benefits of Vanguard, in addition to very low cost funds/ETFs, is that the fund investors own the funds, not a management company, and the funds are run "at cost". They are the only mutual fund company organized in this manner. Vanguard ETFs are commission free through Vanguard Brokerage Services, and I only pay $2/trade for stock or non-VGD ETFs. They don't charge you an annual fee if you sign up for electronic delivery of documents. The brokerage platform is very bland/basic, they don't offer L-II pricing services nor technical trading info, it's more about offering the brokerage as a service to the fund holders.

Vanguard is what I use....very happy with them.

So if you open one with them do they manage it?

You pay fees...and if you opt for paperless, you don't pay much of them. You choose the mutual fund, and they manage the fund. They have a good variety of fund choices with different levels of risk based on your preferences. Like most of their competitors, you can choose all the standard options and have them either reinvest dividends or deposit them.

I have a Roth with them now as well as a medium term savings account in two different funds. I would personally stay away from their "target" funds....but maybe that is what you are looking for.

19bps for TR 2035, there is no second level of management fees. If you get to a certain dollar level you could switch to the individual funds admiral versions from a target date fund to reduce costs. 7 bps on VTI, that's almost free.

From prospectus for TR2055

Fees and Expenses
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold
shares of the Fund.
Shareholder Fees
(Fees paid directly from your investment)
Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Purchases None
Purchase Fee None
Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Reinvested Dividends None
Redemption Fee None
Account Service Fee (for fund account balances below $10,000) $20/year
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(Expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Management Expenses None
12b-1 Distribution Fee None
Other Expenses None
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses 0.19%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.19%

The costs of the underlying index funds are passed through/aggregated and represented by the 19bps. You can construct you own using ETF versions, or when you hit $10k in each underlying index fund if you choose to use mutual funds. Some may not like the fact that the TR funds don't exchange to Admiral or Signal shares automatically, but that probably is used to support the fund/rebalancing, and they would have to support multiple versions of each fund.

There is nothing wrong with TR or TD funds until one gains enough assets and desires more diversification. TR/TD funds may be the best option for noobs or people that aren't interested in investing, which a huge number of Americans aren't. 19 bps annually is still very low cost in the world of retail investment options.