Merrill Edge Review 2021

Merrill Edge has low trading and non-trading fees, including commission-free stock and ETF trades. On the other hand, financing/margin rates are quite high.

How we ranked fees

We ranked Merrill Edge's fee levels as low, average or high based on how they compare to those of all reviewed brokers.

To get things rolling, let's go over some lingo related to broker fees. What you need to keep an eye on are trading fees and non-trading fees.

• Trading fees occur when you trade. These can be commissions, spreads, financing rates and conversion fees.
• Non-trading fees include charges not directly related to trading, like withdrawal fees or inactivity fees.

In the sections below, you will find the most relevant fees of Merrill Edge for each asset class. For example, in the case of stock investing the most important fees are commissions.

We also compared Merrill Edge's fees with those of two similar brokers we selected, TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab. This selection is based on objective factors such as products offered, client profile, fee structure, etc. See a more detailed rundown of Merrill Edge alternatives.

To have a clear overview of Merrill Edge, let's start with trading fees.

Merrill Edge trading fees

Merrill Edge trading fees are low for all asset classes. Merrill Edge has zero commission for stocks, ETFs and bonds. It also has a low margin rate compared to key competitors like TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab. The commission fees for mutual funds and options are competitive compared to both competitors. 

Stock fees and ETF fees

Stock and ETF commissions are non-existent at Merrill Edge. Yes, you can trade these products at no extra cost. 

It costs $30 to initiate a representative-assisted online trade. 

If you prefer stock trading on margin, you should check out Merrill Edge's margin rates.

A margin rate is charged when you trade on margin. This basically means that you borrow money or stocks from your broker to trade. You have to pay interest on this borrowed money/stock. This can be a significant proportion of your trading costs.  

Although Merrill Edge has generally high margin rates, these are still lower than its closest competitors.

Fund fees

Merrill Edge's mutual fund fees are high as the broker charges a $20 per transaction commission (buy, sell, or exchange).

The good news is that there are 839 free funds with waived transaction fees. However, for some of these, a short-term redemption fee of $40 applies if the fund is held for less than 90 days. See their fund prospectus for more details. If you would like more hands-on guidance on investing in mutual funds, a representative-assisted online transaction costs $30.

Bond fees

Merrill Edge has generally low bond fees.

Compared to competitors, TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab, it has the same $0 commission per bond trade for US government Treasury bonds. For municipal, corporate, and other government agency bonds the commission is $1 per trade ($10 minimum and $250 maximum). A representative-assisted online bond transaction costs $30.

Options fees

Merrill Edge options fees are the same as its competitors at $0.65 per contract. Sales of options are subject to an additional transaction fee between $0.01 and $0.03 per $1,000 of principal. A representative-assisted online options trade costs $30 per transaction.

Non-trading fees

Merrill Edge has low non-trading fees.

There is no inactivity fee and no account opening fee. Merrill Edge does not have a minimum initial investment for most accounts except the 529 NextGen Direct account.

Account opening at Merrill Edge is seamless and fully digital, it took us less than one day to have an open account. Only US clients are accepted.

Can you open an account?

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What is the minimum deposit at Merrill Edge?

The required Merrill Edge minimum deposit is $0  for most account types. 529 NextGen Direct requires a low, $25 deposit. In addition, if you would like to open an account to trade on margin, you need to maintain a minimum balance of $2,000.

You can also open guided accounts, which are suitable for clients preferring professional guidance in their investment decisions. The minimum deposit for these accounts is $5,000-$20,000

Account types

There are many account types you can choose from.

In this review, we have tested the Online Brokerage Account. The account opening process is different if you are already a client of Bank of America or Merrill. In our test, we did not use either a Bank of America or a Merrill account.

How to open your account

We really liked the fully digital, fast, and user-friendly account-opening process. It took less than one day to open an account without an already existing bank account. This simplicity and speed are unusual for US brokers; for instance, the account opening at Interactive Brokers is very complicated. However, it is similar to competitor firm Chase You Invest, which is also connected to a banking company and has an easy account-opening process.

So what does the process look like? At first, you have to go through a 5-step registration process, which takes roughly 20 minutes. Most of the questions are related to personal information and data, while others ask whether you would like to apply separately to trade on margin, apply for a debit card, or apply for check-writing privileges. 

During this process, you have to verify your identity and residency by entering the following:

• Whether you are a US resident
• US Phone number
• Social Security Number
• Address, marital status, date of birth
• Net worth and primary source of household income

Merrill Edge has an easy-to-use deposit and withdrawal system with a bank account connection. Unfortunately, credit/debit cards cannot be used to fund the account, and there is only USD as a base currency.

Account base currencies

At Merrill Edge, you can hold your cash only in USD.

If you have a personal bank account in a currency other than USD you will be charged a conversion fee when transferring funds.

A convenient way to save on currency conversion fees is by opening a multi-currency bank account at a digital bank. These usually offer bank accounts in several currencies with great currency exchange rates, as well as free or cheap international bank transfers. Opening an account only takes a few minutes on your phone.

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Deposit fees and options

Merrill Edge charges no deposit fees. Besides bank transfer, you can also use check payments.

A bank transfer can take several business days and you can only deposit money from accounts in your name.

Merrill Edge withdrawal fees and options

Merrill Edge charges no withdrawal fees. You can use the same options for withdrawal as for deposit.

How long does it take to withdraw money from Merrill Edge? We tested the bank transfer withdrawal and it took more than 3 business days. This is a lengthy process compared to other brokers.

Again, you can only withdraw money to accounts in your name.

How do you withdraw money from Merrill Edge?

• Log into the account
• Go to the "Accounts", then select "Transfer Money & Securities"
• Decide whether you would like to withdraw cash or securities (securities can take longer than 8 days to transfer)
• Select the withdrawal method you want to use
• For the cash banking connection withdrawal:
• Select your Merrill Edge account as "Transfer from"
• Select the account you want to withdraw the money to as "Transfer to"
• Add the amount you wish to withdraw, set the frequency
• Initiate the withdrawal

Online Bill Payment

You can also set up digital bill-payments with your Merrill Edge account.

Compare to other brokers

Merrill Edge has a user-friendly and simple trading platform, with options for secure login and for setting price alerts. However, it offers only limited customizability and the search function is not so advanced.

The web trading platform is available in English.

Look and feel

The Merrill Edge web trading platform is user-friendly and has a sleek design. However, the platform is not very customizable.

Login and security

Merrill Edge provides a safer two-step login, but it must be initiated by the user. There are security questions in order to protect the account. Overall, we consider this login safe.

Search functions

The search functions are OK. You can search by typing a company's name or an asset's ticker.

However, the search results are not fully relevant. For example, when we searched for Apple, it didn't appear immediately.

Placing orders

You can use the following order types:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Stop Limit
• Trailing Stop

To get a better understanding of these terms, read this overview of order types.

There are also order time limits you can use:

• Day
• Good-till-canceled (GTC)

Alerts and notifications

The platform allows users to set alerts and notifications. You can set an alert by going to 'Accounts' and then selecting Alerts.  

There are 4 types of alerts:

• Investment Alerts
• Account Alerts
• Security Alerts
• Market Alerts

We feel a little automation goes a long way and that it is useful to have different types of alerts to help users stay informed.

Portfolio and fee reports

Merrill Edge has clear portfolio and fee reports.  There is a section called 'Portfolio Story' which has the following reports to help understand portfolio performance:

• How's my portfolio doing?
• What's in my portfolio?
• How are my holdings doing?
• What are my gains and losses?
• What could I potentially earn?
• What do the analysts say?
• What's my investing impact?

The Portfolio Analysis function deep-dives into the diversification, the global regions, and the industries represented in your portfolio. Use Portfolio Briefing for estimates of potential earnings based on past portfolio results. 

There is a detailed fee report based on your account that can be accessed through Help & Settings and then by clicking Fees & Commissions.

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The Merrill Edge mobile app, available for iPhone and Android devices, is easy to use and provides a safe and easy login. On the other hand, the search functions could be improved.

The mobile trading platform is available in English on iPhones and Android. We tested it on iOS and noticed that the application in Apple's app store has good reviews in general. The web and mobile trading platforms are really similar to each other, but we weight simplicity and easy-handling as more important for mobile trading platforms. That is why the Merrill Edge mobile trading platform has a higher score than the web trading platform.  

The major difference compared to the web trading platform is that you can't trade bonds on the mobile trading platform. This strikes us as very unusual, but the mobile platform of competitor Chase You Invest has the same limitation.

Look and feel

The Merrill Edge mobile trading platform is well-designed and simple to use. It offers a consistent feel with the broker's web trading platform.

Login and security

Merrill Edge provides a safe login. You can log in using biometric authentication, with a fingerprint or a face ID, which is a convenient and safe feature.

Search functions

The search functions are OK. You have to enter the ticker symbol or the name of the company or asset in order to access it. Other ways to search are limited, but due to the necessity of having a simple mobile application, this seems okay. 

Placing orders

You can use the same order types on mobile as on web trading platform:

• Market
• Limit
• Stop
• Stop Limit
• Trailing Stop

There are also order time limits you can use: Day and Good-till-cancelled (GTC).

Alerts and notifications

You can set alerts and notifications on the Merrill Edge mobile platform under the Menu section. 

The types of alerts include:

• Investment Alerts
• Account Alerts
• Market Alerts
• Security Alerts

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Merrill Edge's desktop trading platform is called Merrill Edge Market Pro and it is designed for active traders. To be able to use it, you need to make at least 15 trades per quarter or hold $50,000 in your account. Due to these additional requirements, we didn't test this platform.

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Merrill Edge has a limited product portfolio that consists of stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, and bonds. Unfortunately, the product lineup covers only the US market. The broker offers a lower diversity of products in general compared to its competition.

For a US stockbroker, Merrill Edge offers a typical range of asset classes, however, it lags behind the competition in the number of products offered in each category.

Stocks and ETFs

Merrill Edge gives you access to an average number of stock markets and ETFs.

You can trade stocks listed on the NYSE (Arca), AMEX (NYSE MKT), NASDAQ, and OTC markets. You can also trade low-priced stocks or “penny stocks”.

Funds

Merrill Edge offers 3,100 mutual funds by 100 different providers.  The number of providers is quite low compared to the competition.

Bonds

Merrill Edge offers only ~8,300 bonds. Compared to TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab, this selection is significantly smaller. 

Options

Usually, we benchmark brokers by comparing how many markets they cover. It's not transparent which options exchanges are covered at Merrill Edge.

Based on the assets we found, the biggest exchanges, like CBOE or CME, are available.

Merrill Edge has diverse and user-friendly research tools, including trading ideas, fundamental data, screeners and newsfeeds. On the flip side, more sophisticated charting and analytical tools are missing on the web trading platform.

We tested the research tools provided on Merrill Edge's web trading platform as they're available to all customers without any limitations.

Most research tools are in the 'Research' section of the navigation bar where there is access to recent Market information, Screeners, Charting Tools ("Insights" section), and other resources.

Trading ideas

Merrill Edge provides trading ideas under each asset class. We found the recommendations comprehensive and complete with interesting features.

For example, we liked the fund ratings provided by Morningstar and the CFRA by S&P Global. The rating varies from 1 to 5 stars and describes a particular fund's performance relative to similar funds.

Fundamental data

Merrill Edge offers solid fundamental data on each of the available instruments. This includes ratings and reports from Morningstar and CFRA, complete with recommendations to Buy, Sell, or Hold. There are links to relevant news articles from reliable sources, information on options, historical earnings and valuation numbers, and a platform to further chart data using Recognia Technical Insight.

Merrill Edge also offers a global database provided by Bank of America's Global Research Library with reports by industry, performance, global markets, and more. This is located under the BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research link under Insights.

Charting

Merrill Edge has OK charting tools. You can use 14 technical indicators, which is low. If you would like to use sophisticated charting tools, you should apply for the Merrill Edge MarketPro.

On the other hand, there is a pattern recognition tool provided in the Technical Insight section that can help identify trends, which is useful.

News feed

Merrill Edge has a newsfeed provided by FactSet, which includes tailored news for each industry, market, or asset type.

The visuals are okay, with icons for industry and important headlines laid out in an easy-to-read fashion. The sources are reliable. Overall, we feel that more pictures or visual elements would be appreciated.

Other research tools you will enjoy

Merrill Edge offers comprehensive market information, including graphics and visualizations for each market indicator in their Market Calendar tab. There is a short summary on each indicator and a link to a pop-up with the full analysis provided by Econoday, Inc. 

Merrill Edge offers a high-quality screener tool. The numerous filters embedded into the screener help you to filter assets based on sector, market capitalization, performance, volume, etc.

More research info

You can contact Merrill Edge through phone support, the chat box, mail, or by visiting a Bank of America branch. There is also an online mailbox for document upload, but no email address for general inquiries.

You can contact Merrill Edge via:

• live chat
• telephone

Merrill Edge has a fast live chat. The relevancy of the answers was satisfactory.

Merrill Edge's phone support was fast and we got relevant answers.

We liked the 24/7 availability. The only thing we missed was email support.

Contact customer service

Merrill Edge offers many investment introductory materials for beginners as well as access to Merrill Lynch and Bank of America materials. Unfortunately, there is no demo account.

The educational materials can be accessed under the Guidance & Retirement tab. Look for Investor Education or check the general pages on how to use Merrill Edge in the Help & Settings tab under Quick Start Guide. The latter provides quick links to important pages on the web platform.

At Merrill Edge you can learn in the following ways:

• General educational videos
• Webinars
• Quality educational articles

The materials are grouped by investing experience (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced), topic, and format (Articles, Webinars & Videos, Calculators, and Courses). 

The educational courses in the Merrill Edge Investing Classroom are provided by Morningstar, and organized by asset class and by general portfolio topics like "Core vs. Noncore Investments". 

Overall, the materials are high quality, comprehensive, easy to understand, and tailored to various users.

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Merrill Edge is regulated by top-tier US regulators and its clients are protected by a high investor protection amount. On the flip side, negative balance protection is not provided.

Is Merrill Edge regulated?

Yes, it is regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). 

Is Merrill Edge safe?

To be certain, we highly advise that you check two facts:

• how you are protected if something goes wrong
• what the background of the broker is

How you are protected

This is important for you because the investor protection amount and the regulator differ from entity to entity.  With Merrill Edge this is not an issue as all customers are covered by Bank of America Securities.

The SIPC investor protection, available to Merrill Edge clients, shields investors from the loss of cash and securities in case the broker goes bust. The limit of the SIPC protection is $500,000, including $250,000 for cash.

Not all investments are protected by SIPC. In general, SIPC covers notes, stocks, bonds, mutual fund and other investment company shares, and other registered securities. It does not cover instruments such as unregistered investment contracts, unregistered limited partnerships, fixed annuity contracts, currency, and interests in gold, silver, or other commodity futures contracts or commodity options.

Merrill Edge does not provide negative balance protection. If the balance on your account goes into negative, you will not be protected.

Background

Merrill Edge was established in 2010. Its parent company, Bank of America, was established in 1998. The longer track record a broker has, the more proof we have that it has successfully survived previous financial crises.

The fact that the parent company has a banking license means that Merrill Edge is also subject to tougher regulations than other brokers. What's more, Bank of America is listed on the stock exchange, which is a big plus for safety as the bank releases financial statements regularly and transparently.

Merrill Edge's safety profile is boosted by the fact that the broker's parent company has a banking background, is listed on the stock exchange, and is regulated by top-tier regulators.

Find your safe broker

Overall, Merrill Edge is a solid, easy to use trading platform created by Bank of America, one of the US's largest banks.

We rated Merrill Edge highly due to its low fees, easy process of account-opening, and safety. 

Some of the drawbacks include limited product offerings, research capabilities, and deposit/withdrawal options.

As trading and non-trading fees are generally low, the research tools are great and the account opening is seamless, feel free to try it.

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