Merrill Edge

Merrill Edge is a large online brokerage platform that was founded in 2010, two years after Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch.

Boglehead-style investing at Merrill Edge
The building blocks of Boglehead-style investing are low-expense-ratio index mutual funds and/or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Vanguard Group fans would suggest that Vanguard has the best and most complete lineup of such funds, and that the most convenient place to hold Vanguard mutual funds is directly at Vanguard. Thus, the Bogleheads forum and Wiki tends to be Vanguard-oriented. But, investing according to the Boglehead philosophy certainly does not require you to invest at Vanguard nor use Vanguard products. Here are some notes on how to do it at Merrill Edge.

The information below is up-to-date as of January 7, 2016. Writers have striven for accuracy, but investors should verify information before taking action.

Tools for Boglehead-style investing

 * Merrill Edge provides 30 cost-free ETF or equity trades a month to customers who have $25k or more in Bank of America deposit accounts, or $25k or more cash balance at Merrill Edge. If you qualify for this, then the easiest approach would be to use low-cost index ETFs from Vanguard, iShares, etc.
 * Assuming you do not qualify for cost-free ETFs, it is up to you to evaluate whether the ETF trading fee is worth the cost (depending on the amount you want to invest, and the duration), vs. the NTF (no transaction fee) mutual funds listed below.
 * In order to avoid the $39.95 short-term mutual fund trading fee, no shares may be sold for at least 90days once a customer purchases a NTF mutual fund.

Notes:

 * Vanguard expense ratios are available at the fund's website under "( Fees & Minimums)". Use the provided link for the latest information.
 * Not all bond style & duration permutations have a NTF fund available at Merrill Edge.

Merrill Edge tips, links, and general orientation
Whereas the default account at Vanguard is a mutual fund account, in which you can only buy Vanguard mutual funds (all other products require a separate Vanguard Brokerage Service account), the default account at Merrill EdgE is a brokerage account. You can buy mutual funds from various fund families, ETFs, individual stocks, bonds, and brokered certificate of deposits (CDs) all within the same Merrill Edge. As of March 2012:


 * Merrill Edge's full fee schedule is here.