Business owners with IRA

Fidelity, Merrill lynch, vanguard has super low fees but there may be someone better and others are matching.

If you are self directing your investments, I’d look at one of the low cost options including Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab. Most posters here seem to prefer Vanguard. I use Fidelity and really like it. There are a number of other options as well.

I’ve never known ML to be low on fees as they are a full service b/d and wire house. If that’s what you are lookin for, I would look for a specific broker who you like and feel comfortable with.

There have been plenty of very strong opinions re Jones expressed by numerous posters in a large number of threads. The general concern is with their fee structure.

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What are the best options? Edward Jones

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RUN AWAY FROM EJ!

First, what exactly are you displeased with? Are you looking for advice?

Second, when you say "business owner," I'm assuming you mean you are using this as your main retirement savings vehicle.

And is this IRA just a traditional IRA or a different type?

Are you a sole proprietor or a single member llc? If you are the only employee of your business there are a variety of options, all with pros and cons, that would give you greater flexibility from a savings and tax perspective than just a traditional IRA.

Find a CFP (that's Certified Financial Planner) and sit down for a chat. Don't expect anyone to beat the market for you, that just isn't happening. But a good CFP will take a look at your entire financial picture, goals you might have other than just "make money", etc.

There are also advisors who charge a fixed percentage of assets and they're generally quite good, with a solid education, etc. The problem here is that usually they will only work with people with lots of assets or a high income and therefore potential.

The Edward Jones' of the world face an interesting problem. Most of them work with people who just don't have that much to start with, so they have to charge higher fees than just 1% to make it worthwhile. Plus many of them hire sales guys and put them in a fairly quick training program, they aren't necessarily that knowledgeable. It isn't that they're trying to rip you off, it's that if you have any real assets (say, over $250k) then you have better choices. If you don't have that much you should probably just study up and get into a target retirement fund while you add to the pile.

Fortunately investing (which is only part of what advisors handle) is mostly pretty easy. Buy a target retirement fund at a major brokerage like Schwab, Fidelity or Vanguard. Be sure to reinvest dividends. Then just forget about it. Some years will be better than others, but in the long haul it's a great option that is tough to beat.