Merrill Lynch and Merrill Edge ACAT fees for full, partial, IRA assets, brokerage account transfer out. Merrill Edge transfer fee.

Merrill Edge ACAT Fees

Merrill Edge's ACAT fee is $49.95 for a full account transfer. Partial account transfers are no charge.

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Merrill Edge Account Closing Fee

Merrill Edge has no fee to close taxable accounts. Learn How to close Merrill Edge account.

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Merrill Edge vs TIAA vs Ally: The Faceoff

Merrill Edge, Ally Invest, and TIAA CREF are three broker-dealers with some similarities, but a lot of differences. This article will compare and contrast the three and see if one is the best choice.

Services

The Cost of Trading

Ally charges $0 for stock and ETF trades. Option contracts cost 50¢. Placing a trade with a live broker costs $20.

Merrill Edge traders pay $0 for equity trades. Options are 65¢ per contract. Placing a trade over the phone with a live agent costs an extra $23.

At TIAA, all stock, options and ETF trades cost $0. The broker’s clients pay $35 for automated phone orders, while using a live associate costs $55.

All three brokerage firms impose no on-going fees such as annual, low-balance, or inactivity charges. They also have no minimum opening deposit requirement for taxable accounts.

Ally is the best broker here.

Mutual and Exchange-Traded Funds

TIAA’s mutual fund search tool generates more than 7,200 products. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to look explicitly for no-transaction-fee, no-load securities. There are 290 funds managed by TIAA. The broker charges $50 for any fund sold in less than 180 days. Transaction-fee funds cost $50 as well.

Ally Invest offers 12,000 mutual funds. Every fund at Ally is $0 to trade. The broker’s screener returns slightly less than 1,700 no-load funds.

Merrill Edge has the smaller selection here, with under 5,000 funds. Roughly 800 have neither load nor transaction fee. Non-NTF funds cost $19.95. The broker imposes a short-term trade charge of $39.95.

This category is awarded to Ally Invest.

Customer Service

Merrill Edge has customer service representatives available over the phone around the clock while Ally Invest offer 7am-10pm ET, 7 days a week service. The Ally Invest website has a convenient on-line chat function, and Merrill also recently added a chat function, although it isn’t online as frequently as Ally’s. Both Ally Invest and Merrill Edge have international phone numbers for customers outside the U.S.

TIAA provides customer support from 8:00 am until 10:00 pm, EST, during the week. There is also a Saturday session from 9:00 am until 6:00 pm. While Sunday hours are not available, the broker does have a 24/7 automated phone system. TIAA has a global phone number and Spanish-speaking associates.

TIAA has approximately 30 brick-and-mortar locations throughout the United States. Ally Invest has none. Merrill Edge has no customer service locations, although it does have financial advisors in many Bank of America locations.

It’s a three-way tie in this category.

Trading Tools

TIAA clients can buy and sell securities on the broker’s website. The broker does not provide a desktop platform, although it does have a trade bar on its website. Orders cannot be placed on it, however. There is also a free TIAA mobile app, but it is very elementary and slow. The brokerage house also has a platform for Apple Watch.

Merrill Edge has a much better website with more information, but yet it is still quite simple to navigate. A far more sophisticated trade bar, compared to TIAA, sits at the bottom of the Merrill website. Charting on the Merrill site is also more advanced compared to TIAA’s software. Frequent traders at Merrill Edge have access to an advanced desktop platform.

Merrill also has a much better mobile app than TIAA. Merrill’s has mobile check deposit, bill pay, and funds transfer. Financial news is available in article format, and there is an app for Apple Watch.

Ally Invest customers have a simple trade bar and a basic browser-based trading system called Ally Invest LIVE. There is no desktop software, however, and here it fails to measure up to Merrill Edge. Nevertheless, LIVE does have many useful functions, including charting and option chains.

The regular Ally Financial mobile app is what both banking and investment clients use to access their accounts. The brokerage side has watchlists, account information, charting, and option chains. There is no video news, but articles are available. Ally Invest has a platform for both Android and Apple wristwatches.

Merrill Edge and Ally Invest are winners here.

Merrill Edge vs TIAA vs Ally Invest: Which is Better?

Ally won three categories, Merrill Edge was victorious once, TIAA failed to score, and there was one three-way tie. Ally Invest is the winner of our survey. Despite the results, Merrill Edge is a decent broker for investors who need advanced technology, and TIAA is a good firm for clients who need managed account services.

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