Buying Fractional Shares of Stock on Wellstrade
You cannot directly buy a fractional share of stock (such as Berkshire Hathaway or Google) on Wellstrade or any of its traditional
competitors such as TD Ameritrade, Fidelity, or Schwab. However, you can invest in partial shares of stocks by using a $0-commission brokerage firm called
Public.com.
Open Public Account
Free stock bonus! Stock, ETF, partial shares trades with $0 fees.
Open Public Account
Wells Fargo
WellsTrade is Wells Fargo’s on-line discount broker. The financial giant also offers managed account services and investment advice through Wells Fargo Advisors.
Stock and ETF trades at WellsTrade cost $0.
Using a live broker at WellsTrade tacks on an additional $25. Option contracts are 75 cents each and assignments and exercises cost $25 plus the stock commission.
Although WellsTrade doesn’t provide any commission-free ETF’s, the broker does offer a large selection of mutual funds. There are more than 9,500 funds, with more than 2,000 having neither load nor transaction fee.
Envision
Wells Fargo has a unique program called Envision that is available to all customers, which is definitely worth checking out. Envision is a
retirement planning and goal setting program that assists customers in setting and reaching their financial goals. With this program a customer
meets with an advisor and brings all of their financial data together. IRA’s, 401k’s, brokerage and bank accounts can be
factored in. Then the customer discusses with the financial advisor what their financial goals are. Do they have children to put through college,
parents to care for, disabled children, retirement and other factors that are individual to the customer. The advisor then inputs the data about
where they are today and projects what their investments needs are.
After the initial meeting the advisor then meets with the customer a few times a year to adjust the projections based on the
customer’s needs, changes in the market, or life events that can change the customer’s priorities. This assists the advisor in establishing an
investment strategy that will meet the needs of the customer, as well as assisting the customer in clarifying and reaching their financial goals.
Services
Wells Fargo IRA offers some simple research tools, newsletters, and basic investing advice. The content here is merely serviceable, as competitors
like Etrade, Fidelity Investments, or Charles Schwab have more complete tools for research and knowledge. Customer service also fails to stand out, which
isn’t a surprise at a giant bank like Wells Fargo. There is the traditional slog of phone menus and customer service representatives in order to
get anything done.
Transfers are relatively simple and can be done in a variety of ways. The easiest, keeping with the theme, is for existing Wells Fargo customers to transfer money in.
Wells Fargo’s website is a generation old and thus lacks the richness of features of
Ally Invest or
TD Ameritrade, but nonetheless provides the essential information that an investor might seek.
Conclusion
We can't come up with any scenario why one would want to open retirement account at Wells Fargo unless a customer is set to keep all accounts
at one company and has enough money to avoid the fees. For everyone else there are
better options for IRA out there, with no fees and much
lower commissions.
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