Best place to open up an IRA/Roth IRA

[Guest m_desai]

Other than TD Waterhouse, does anyone know any other brokerage house(s) that charges the least fees in terms of up-front fees to open the IRA/Roth IRA

account, yearly maintenance fees, and any transfer fees?

[John G]

I don't know if fees should be the primary factor is deciding upon a custodian... customer service, investment options, web presence, analysis, commission schedule are all important.

On fees: Zero is a common number these days because (1) many brokerages like Etrade and Datek dropped fees to attract accounts, (2) some brokerages drop fees if IRA {or other} assets exceed 5 or 10 K (example NDB@10k, Schwab@10k-all accts), and (3) a few brokerages will drop fees if you just ask or have other lines of business with them. Use the WWW as a fast source of data on fees.