Is Your IRA Provider Ripping You Off?
You'll gather assets in your retirement savings accounts for decades, and over that time, even small expenses get magnified by the long time window. A 1% annual expense ratio over 40 years of retirement saving will reduce your final retirement account balances by almost 20%, according to estimates from a Center for Retirement Research brief.
Fees are how the financial industry makes much of its profits, so you can expect to find at least a few of them in even the cheapest IRA. The trick is not to eliminate fees entirely but to find ways to reduce them, without losing features and services that you really want. Below are some of the fees you can expect to see for your retirement accounts.
IRA providers traditionally charged an annual custodial fee, also sometimes called an account service fee, as the price of having an IRA. However, most big brokers now waive this fee if you meet some fairly basic requirements (i.e. if you agree to receive statements and other brokerage documents in electronic form). If you're still paying this fee, find out if your broker will waive it -- and if they won't, consider moving to one who will.
Source: Fool.com
