Our posts on the best bank account bonuses and best credit card bonuses are some of the most popular on the site, recently I’ve been trying to post more brokerage bonuses as I know some people use these to make some extra money and it helps them grow their investments. This post will be for the best brokerage bonuses, I’m relatively new to these so I’d welcome your input on bonuses we might have missed and any relevant important information you think should be included. Unlike other sites we don’t use affiliate links for brokerage bonuses so you can ensure you’re getting the best possible deal, rather than the one that pays us the most.
Contents
- 1 Webull Up To $18,000 IRA Bonus
- 2 Wells Fargo $2,500 Premier Bonus
- 3 Robinhood – 3% IRA Bonus, No Limit
- 4 Citi Wealth Management – Up To $3,500
- 5 M1 Finance – $10,000
- 6 Merrill – $3,000
- 7 WeBull – $5,100
- 8 Schwab – $101
- 9 Schwab – Up to $1,000
- 10 Schwab – Up to $2,500
- 11 Streetbeat – $1,020
- 12 Interactive Brokers – Up To $1,000
- 13 SoFi – Up To $5,000
- 14 Chase Self Directed – $700
- 15 SoFi – $75
- 16 Fidelity – $100 Bonus
- 17 TradeUP – Up To 5 Free Stocks
- 18 Smaller Bonuses – No Requirement
- 19 Bonuses Not Listed
- 20 Post History
Webull Up To $18,000 IRA Bonus
Requires receiving a referral or giving a referral to get 3x the bonus.
Wells Fargo $2,500 Premier Bonus
Requires $250,000 in cash or investments. Must open checking Premier checking account; $250,000 requirement can be done with the brokerage. Must be opened in a Wells Fargo branch. Account also has a $35 month fee, waived if you have $250,00 balance.
Robinhood – 3% IRA Bonus, No Limit
Excellent brokerage bonus with literally no maximum bonus.
- Read our full post
- Deposits must be maintained for five years after account opening
There’s also a similar 1% bonus from Robinhood for IRA transfers and 401k rollovers with no maximum. And also a similar 1% bonus offer for IRA contributions. Those have a 5-year hold requirement.
Citi Wealth Management – Up To $3,500
Huge bonus and it works for self directed accounts, main issue is that account set up is all manual and extremely slow.
- Read our full post
- Deposits must be maintained for three months after account opening (but you can fund within two months of account opening meaning funds can be in there for roughly ~1 month)
M1 Finance – $10,000
M1 Finance has a bonus of up to $10,000 with deposit of $2M. There are also lower tiers, e.g. $1,000 with $250k or $2,000 with $500k and more.
Merrill – $3,000
Bank of America and Merrill have a bonus of $1,000 with $250,000 asset transfer or $3,000 with $500,000 asset transfer. Only valid for new Bank of America customers who open new checking account and connect with a Merrill advisor on the phone who will apply the offer.
WeBull – $5,100
Highest $5,100 tier requires $1M in assets transferred. There are other tiers as well, such as $1,300 with $100k in transfered assets.
Schwab – $101
The Schwab Starter Kit offer gives $101 in the S&P to new customers who deposit $50 within 30 days.
Schwab – Up to $1,000
This offer is for new Schwab members who get referred from a friend; ask a friend who is an existing Schwab member. Largest bonus of $1,000 requires an investment of $500,000+.
- Read our full post
- Deposit must be maintained for one year
Schwab – Up to $2,500
This offer is for new or existing Schwab members. $2,500 bonus requires $1m in assets transferred; there are lower tiers as well.
- Read our full post
- Deposit must be maintained for one year
Streetbeat – $1,020
Funds need to be in account for six months.
Interactive Brokers – Up To $1,000
Direct link to offer
Promotion is a bit confusing as it’s not that clear when/how long the funds need to be in your account for. You also get the bonus in the form of interactive brokers shares and these can’t be sold for one year.
SoFi – Up To $5,000
This is the largest bonus we’ve seen, but does require $2MM+ to get the full $5,000. There are other tiers as well. Assets must remain for 180 days.
Chase Self Directed – $700
Highest tier requires $250,000+ investment. Must be maintained for 90 days.
SoFi – $75
Swagbucks is offering $75 when opening a new SoFi Invest account and funding with $100.
Fidelity – $100 Bonus
 One of the easiest brokerage bonuses to do, but has been as high as $150 in the past. Works on a Cash Management account or an investing account, including an IRA account.
TradeUP – Up To 5 Free Stocks
Requires a deposit or transfer of $5,000+
Smaller Bonuses – No Requirement
There are a number of smaller brokerages that offer sign up bonuses with no deposit requirement. The bonuses are much smaller, but might still be worth picking up for some people.
Acorns – $23
$13.50 is from Swagbucks, other $10 is from Acorns.
- Read our full review
- No deposit requirement
Robinhood – Free Stock & $50 Rakuten
You only get a free stock worth $3-$150, but better than nothing and Robinhood offers commission free trading. You can now sign up via Rakuten and get $50 or 5,000 points as well.
- Read our full post
- No deposit requirement
Webull – Four Free Stocks
Basically the same as Robinhood, you get four stocks stock valued between $3 and $1,000.
- Read our full post
- No deposit required
Firstrade – Free Stock
Same as the above offers.
- Read our full post
- No deposit required
Bonuses Not Listed
Below are some brokerage bonuses we don’t want listed under the ‘best brokerage bonuses’, we are including them here so that readers know they have been intentionally left out and why.
- Betterment 30,000 American Airlines bonus. Bonus is relatively small and you need betterment to manage your funds, not worth doing with the fees involved.
- Personal Capital. Current referral bonus is $20-$50 Amazon gift card, but we’ve seen bonuses as high as $100 in the past.
Post History
- [2/28/24] Added Schwab $2,500 brokerage bonus
- [12/17/23] Removed Fidelity Bloom – $86 Bonus
- [11/22/23] Added Webull Up To $18,000 IRA Bonus
- [10/27/23] Added Robinhood 1% bonus with no limit
- [10/23/23] Added WeBull $5,000 bonus
- [10/15/23] Added BofA/Merrill $3,000 bonus
- [10/11/23] Removed eTtrade
- [10/11/23] Removed TD Ameritrade – Up To $1,000
- [10/11/23] Removed Axos – $250
- [6/2/23] Removed Merrill Edge Brokerage: Up To $1,000 Cash Bonus Signup Bonus for Moving Over your Investments
- [5/6/23] Added M1 Finance – Up To $15,000
- [4/20/23] Added $50 Rakuten bonus for Robinhood signup
- [2/20/23]Â Added Wells Fargo Premier $2,5000 bonus
- [2/15/23] Added Axos $250 bonus
- [1/13/23] Updated Chase Self-Directed from $625 to $700
- [12/4/22] Updated Stash from $50 to $110
- [11/20/22] Updated Fidelity bonus from $100 to $150
- [10/29/22] Removed M1 Finance – Up To $5,000
- [8/3/22] Added Robinhood $600 bonus
- [7/28/22] Added Chase YouInvest – Up To $625 Bonus
- [7/25/22] Added Fidelity Bloom – $86 Bonus
- [3/4/22] Updated Schwab Starter Kit Offer from $50 to $101
- [2/14/22] Added Streetbeat – $1,020
- [2/13/22] Added Titan – $100 – No Requirements
- [1/30/22] Added Merrill Edge – Up To $1,000
- [1/24/22] Added TD Ameritrade $1,000 Bonus
- [1/24/22] Removed Axos Bank $150 Bonus
- [12/7/21] Added Axos Bank $150 Bonus
- [11/11/21] Added Axos Bank $100 Bonus
- [11/11/21] Added M1 Finance $500
- [10/24/21] Added Tastyworks $500 Bonus
- [10/19/21] Added Fidelity $100 Bonus
- [10/19/21] Removed Fidelity $50 Bonus
- [10/8/21] Added Fidelity $50 Bonus
- [10/8/21] Removed Fidelity $100 Bonus
- [4/17/21] Removed Merrill Edge – Up To $900
- [4/10/21] Removed SoFi Invest – Invest $1,000+, Get $50 Bonus
- [4/7/21] Added Popular Bank: Up To $1,000 Brokerage Bonus FL, NJ, NY
- [3/19/21] Removed Dough – Free Stock
- [2/4/21] Added SoFi Invest – Up To $2,500
- [1/13/21] Added TradeStation – Deposit $500, Get $100
- [11/25/20] Removed Chase YouInvest – Up To $725 Bonus
- [8/18/20] Citi Wealth Management – Up To $3,500
- [8/9/20] Removed TD Ameritrade – Up To $1,500
- [8/4/20] Added Interactive Brokers – Up To $1,000
- [5/2/20] Removed PNC Invest – Up To $1,500
- [5/1/20] Added M1 Finance – Up To $2,500
- [4/19/20] Added TradeStation – Up To $2,500
- [2/7/20] Added Dough – Free Stock
- [2/2/20] Removed M1 Finance – Up to $2,500
- [1/16/20] Added TradeUP – $50 + Free Stocks
- [1/9/2020] Added Stash Invest – $50
- [1/5/2020] Removed Tastyworks – $250 Bonus
- [12/31/19] Added Tastyworks – $250 Bonus
- [12/20/19] Added Firstrade – Free Stock
- [10/5/19] Added Merrill Edge – Up To $900
- [10/2/19] Added SoFi Invest – Invest $100+, Get $50 Bonus
- [10/1/19] Removed Coin Brokerage – $50
- [8/13/19] Removed SoFi Invest – $25
- [8/3/19] Added SoFi Invest – $25
- [07/30/19] Added Coinbase – $50
- [07/07/19] Removed PNC – Up To $1,500
- [06/-3/19]: Removed Ellevest Online Investing $50 Signup Offer via Referral + $50 Referral
- [06/02/19]: Added PNC Investments: Invest $20k-$500k And Get A $50-$1,500 Bonus
ETrade bonus was reupped: https://us.etrade.com/what-we-offer/how-it-works/promo
Weak as usual.
Should link to the current M1 promo: https://m1.com/transfer/promo-20k/
$100,000 – $249,999
$250
$250,000 – $499,999
$1,000
$500,000 – $999,999
$2,000
$1,000,000 – $1,999,999
$4,000
$2,000,000 – $4,999,999
$10,000
$5,000,000 – $6,999,999
$15,000
$7,000,000+
$20,000
The bonuses I’ve looked at aren’t available for trusts. Are there any that are?
The Schwab up to $2500 bonus is available for trusts.
This list contains mostly expired or weak bonuses. I’ll make it easy for everyone. The best IRA bonus is the Robinhood 3%. The best taxable bonus is Tastytrade which is not mentioned here though there is a post about it. Nobody else comes close to either of those.
RH is 5 year hold, though. I’d rather do several short-term bonuses per year than tie up funds for 5 years. I don’t need the funds in Roth IRA anytime soon, but don’t like the idea that something could happen and I’d lose the one big bonus from RH. Whereas with doing multiple bonuses with shorter time periods, the bonus is locked in regardless of what happens. Also think that over 5 years of doing other bonuses, the total will be greater than the 3% bonus.
Brokerges bonuses, especially from the major firms and in retirement accounts, have been drying up. You may or may not be able to get 0.5% – 1% a year for the next five years by constantly switching. I suspect that most people, including me, don’t like the uncertainty and time investment of constantly switching brokerages when it’s questionable that would beat the return of Robinhood.
There are additional reasons to expect the Robinhood bonus to beat the alternate strategy of frequently switching brokerages.
First, the Robinhood bonus is paid as soon as the transfer is received and can be invested. So your strategy would have to beat the Robinhood bonus which might be a 4.5% return at the end of 5 years.
Second, the Robinhood bonus is paid as a flat percent while the vast majority of other bonuses are tiered. Thus, you’ll get a lot less percentage wise if you aren’t near the bottom of the tier. In fact, I split my IRA into two to stay close to the bottom of a bonus tier. Now I am moving 100% of both into Robinhood. And I am looking forward to not moving for five years!
Sure, I can see how it’s reasonable to do the RH bonus and just be done with transferring IRA around for 5 years.
For reference, which IRA offers have you done in the past?
Hmm, the tiered tastytrade bonus has a 12 month hold and is like 2% APY at best.
The competition is not 5% savings account but other brokerage bonuses. Which bonus is better than tastytrade? Getting 1 – 2% for a 12 month hold is as good as it gets.
You’re right, and I guess you can buy some low risk ETFs or whatever if you did want to compare to a HYSA.
Hey the fidelity bonus is saying that there are no special offers available at this time. With the t&c page stating the offer expired on 12/11/2023
Any updates to this page?
E*Trade bonus, up to $1000, expires 2/29/24:
https://us.etrade.com/what-we-offer/how-it-works/promo
Got that here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/etrade-up-to-3500-brokerage-referral-bonus-25000-1000000-required/
Why is BMO smart portfolio not listed for their upto 1K bonus?
https://www.bmo.com/en-us/main/personal/investments-and-retirement/smart-portfolio/
Terms – https://www.bmo.com/pdf/smart-portfolio-cash-offer-terms-and-conditions.pdf?ecid=va-SmartPortfolioTerms2022INV4-MWBMO26
It would be so great to give this page a refresh. The following are expired or have different offers available:
Webull $18k expired
M1 $10k expired
Merrill expired (new offer – up to $3k Open a qualifying checking account and make a minimum deposit across Bank of America banking and/or Merrill investing accounts)
Webull $5,100 expired
Streetbeat expired
BMO Wealth Management has a Smart Portfolio bonus of up to $1,000 for accounts opened by April 30, 2024
https://www.bmo.com/en-us/main/personal/investments-and-retirement/smart-portfolio/
Thanks, but the fees ruin things – “Advisory fees of 0.60% of your account balance + $4/month platform fee”
Not to mention, reading through the terms, it looks like we might have to invest as cash (into their pre-selected portfolio, somewhat like M1), rather than ACATS/in-kind