IRA Fees: Which Ones to Pay and How to Avoid the Rest

Most IRA fees are avoidable. In 2026, Schwab lists $0 to open or maintain a traditional, Roth, or rollover IRA. Schwab, Fidelity, and Merrill Edge also list $0 online stock and ETF trades. But you can’t escape the expense ratio on the funds you buy. So your job is to keep that number small and skip every account, trade, and sales fee.

Personal Profitability may earn a commission from partner links on this page, at no cost to you. Partners don’t decide what we recommend or where it ranks. Fees are each company’s as of 2026-10-31. Confirm them on the company’s site before you open an account.

A reader named Yvonne sent me the question behind this post. She opened a traditional IRA at Merrill Edge in September 2013 with a $5,500 deposit. Then Merrill sent her a notice that her annual account fee would jump from $65 to $100. Nobody had mentioned a yearly fee when she opened the account. She asked if that was normal. It wasn’t then, and it isn’t now.

What is an IRA?

An IRA is an individual retirement account with tax breaks a regular brokerage account doesn’t get. With a traditional IRA, you may deduct contributions now and pay tax when you withdraw. With a Roth IRA, you contribute after-tax money, and qualified withdrawals in retirement come out tax-free. For 2026, the IRS set the IRA contribution limit at $7,500, plus a $1,100 catch-up if you’re 50 or older.

Inside the IRA, you can hold stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, or cash. Most people pick a target date fund or an S&P 500 index fund and leave the money alone for decades. That long timeline is why IRA fees matter so much. Every dollar you pay in fees also stops compounding for you. Our guide on how to start an IRA or Roth IRA walks through opening one.

What types of IRA fees can you pay?

You can run into five kinds of IRA fees. Two come from your broker, and two come from the funds you buy. The fifth comes from anyone you pay to manage the money.

Fee	Who charges the fee	Typical cost in 2026	Can you avoid the fee?
Account maintenance fee	Your broker	$0 at Schwab for IRAs	Yes, pick a broker with no IRA fee
Trade commission	Your broker	$0 for online stock and ETF trades at Schwab, Fidelity, and Merrill Edge	Yes, trade online
Fund expense ratio	The fund	A percent of your balance every year	No, but you can keep it low
Sales load and 12b-1 fee	The fund	A percent of what you invest or hold	Yes, buy no-load index funds and ETFs
Advisory fee	An advisor or robo-advisor	A percent of assets, for example 0.89% at Empower Personal Strategy	Yes, if you manage the account yourself

Account maintenance fees

An account maintenance fee is a flat charge your broker takes to keep the IRA open, like Yvonne’s $100 a year. You shouldn’t pay one in 2026. Schwab’s pricing page lists $0 opening and maintenance fees and a $0 minimum for traditional, Roth, and rollover IRAs.

On a small balance, a flat fee does the most damage. Yvonne’s $100 a year came to almost 2% of her $5,500 deposit, before her funds charged anything. So if your statement shows an annual IRA fee, ask your broker to waive it or move the account.

Fund expense ratios

The expense ratio is the yearly cost of owning a fund. In fact, it’s the one IRA fee nobody can avoid. The SEC defines it as the percentage of a fund’s assets that pays its operating expenses, including management fees, 12b-1 fees, and other expenses. The fund takes it out of your returns, so you never see a bill.

The gap grows fast. For example, a fund with a 1% expense ratio costs you $100 a year on every $10,000 you hold. Meanwhile, a broad index fund at a few hundredths of a percent costs a few dollars. For comparison, Empower says the average ETF expense ratio in its Personal Strategy portfolios runs 0.06%.

Sales loads and 12b-1 fees

Some mutual funds add a sales load when you buy or sell, plus a yearly 12b-1 fee. The SEC explains that 12b-1 fees come out of fund assets to pay for marketing, selling, and sometimes shareholder services. In other words, you pay for the fund’s advertising. I’ve never owned a fund with a load or a 12b-1 fee, and you don’t need one either. No-load index funds and ETFs skip both.

Trade commissions

Trade commissions used to run $5 to $10 or more per trade, and they’re mostly gone. Schwab, Fidelity, and Merrill Edge all list $0 for online stock and ETF trades. Still, watch for broker-assisted trades by phone, which Schwab prices at a $25 service charge.

Advisory fees

If you pay someone to manage your IRA, you’ll pay a yearly percentage of your balance. For example, Empower charges 0.89% a year for its Personal Strategy service, with a $100,000 minimum. That’s $890 on every $100,000. That fee buys a custom portfolio, tax help, and financial planning. If you’d rather hold one target date fund and leave it alone, you can skip the advisory fee entirely.

Transfer and closing fees

Some brokers charge you to leave. Merrill Edge lists a $49.95 closeout fee and a $49.95 full account transfer fee on self-directed retirement accounts. So before you move an IRA, ask the new broker whether it will cover the outgoing transfer fee. Then start the transfer from the new broker, not the old one, so the money never touches your bank account.

How to check your IRA fees

You can find every IRA fee in about 15 minutes. Follow these steps:

1. Open your broker’s pricing page and look for an annual IRA, maintenance, or custodial fee.
2. Next, look up each fund you own and write down the expense ratio, any sales load, and any 12b-1 fee.
3. Then check your last statement for advisory or wrap fees.
4. Finally, add the fees up as dollars per year, not percentages, so you can see what you pay.

You can also use a free tool for the math. I use the Fee Analyzer in the free Empower Personal Dashboard to check fund fees across my IRAs, 401(k)s, and brokerage accounts. My first scan showed I was overpaying. So I moved into Vanguard and Schwab index funds and cut more than $300 a year in fees.

My advice to Yvonne

Yvonne, move your IRA to a broker that charges no annual IRA fee. Then put the money in a low-cost index fund or target date fund. Schwab and Fidelity both fit. At $100 a year, the fee alone would cost you $3,000 over 30 years. That’s before you count the growth those dollars would have earned. For more ways to cut costs, read how I save money on my investments and our guide to how the stock market works.

Frequently asked questions about IRA fees

Have a question about your own money? Send me a note through the contact form, and I may answer it in a future post.

I first published this post on August 11, 2014, and last updated it on October 31, 2026.