These 4 Brokers Will Pay You To Rollover Your IRA

The business of managing retirement accounts has become so competitive that we’re seeing an uptick in IRA rollover promotions. Not only are investment brokers offering gifts to those who open new accounts with them, but there’s fierce competition for existing IRA accounts, particularly those with larger balances.

For this reason, many brokerage firms are prepared to pay substantial cash bonuses—as well as other perks—in order to lure your business from your current IRA trustee over to them.

In addition, many are also offering a direct reimbursement of any transfer fees charged by your current broker in order to release the account. Reimbursements typically run between $100 and $200, which is generous, since transfer-out fees typically fall somewhere between $50 and $150.

But it doesn’t stop with cash bonuses and transfer fee reimbursements. Many are also dangling generous free trade offers that sweeten the pot even more.

If you have an existing IRA account, and you’ve been thinking about transferring it over to another broker, now is a good time to do so. Some of the bonus offers are running into the thousands of dollars.

Check out these six brokers will pay you to transfer your IRA into one of their accounts.

Firstrade

Firstrade is currently offering to pay up to $200 in transfer fees charged by your current broker.

Based on the amount that you transfer to Firstrade, you’ll also be entitled to the following free commission offer:

• $100 in free trade commissions, with no minimum deposit
• $500 in free trade commissions, with a minimum transfer balance of $500
• $1,000 in free trade commissions, with a minimum transfer balance of $5,000

That means that even with $100 in free trade commissions, you’ll be able to make as many as 20 commission free trades. At $500 in commission free trades, you can make up to 100 trades. And at $1,000 in free trade commissions, you can make 200 free trades.

Firstrade also offers a base rate trading commission of $4.95.

Lending Club IRA

Lending Club isn’t an investment brokerage firm, but a peer-to-peer (P2) lending platform in which you invest in the loans taken by borrowers on the platform.

P2P investing is becoming increasingly popular because it offers higher rates of return than what you can get on other fixed rate investments. Lending Club also offers IRA accounts.

In order to be eligible for the Lending Club IRA cash bonus you must make a deposit of at least $5,000. From there, they are offering a tiered bonus program.

That program looks like this:

• $150 cash bonus with a transfer of between $5,000 and $9,999
• $300 cash bonus with a transfer of between $10,000 and $24,999
• $750 cash bonus with a transfer of between $25,000 and $49,999
• $1,500 cash bonus with a transfer of between $50,000 and $99,999
• $3,000 cash bonus with a transfer of $100,000 or more

Even though Lending Club isn’t an investment brokerage firm, a cash bonus of up to $3,000 and an opportunity to earn double-digit returns on your money is a powerful incentive to check out the Lending Club IRA.

Merrill Edge

Merrill Edge is currently offering a cash bonus of up to $600, plus up to 300 commission-free equity trades within the first 90 days of opening the account.

The tiered cash bonus offer looks like this:

• $100 cash bonus on the transfer of $20,000 – $49,999
• $150 cash bonus on the transfer of $50,000 – $99,999
• $250 cash bonus on the transfer of $100,000 – $199,000
• $600 cash bonus on the transfer of $200,000 or more

Merrill Edge charges a normal commission rate of $6.95 per trade.

Bonus: Blooom

While blooom isn’t a broker, they will manage your IRA for you. They’ll start by analyzing your IRA for free, and once you pay your $120 yearly fee, they’ll go through and rebalance your portfolio whenever necessary, saving you a ton of time.

Plus, you won’t have to move your money around at all. Blooom will manage your account from wherever it is.

Summary

If you’re already thinking of transferring your IRA to another broker, don’t hesitate. With many brokers who will pay you to transfer your IRA, you could receive incentives totaling thousands of dollars, just for moving money that you already have.

Read more:

• Best Place To Open An IRA
• SEP IRA: A Powerful Savings Tool For The Self-Employed