Merrill Edge is an online brokerage and financial services company that offers industry standard commission free investing of stocks, ETFs, and more. Merrill Edge is owned by Bank of America, which has worked hard to integrate the financial services of Merrill, with their banking services so you can have all your finances housed under one roof.

Merrill Edge does offer an advanced trading platform through the Merrill Edge Market Pro platform, as well as a couple of guided investing options making it an attractive choice for investors of all levels who want both DIY and guided investing strategies through a single platform.

The good news is that if you can think of an account type, Merrill probably has it. Available account types can be broken down into three categories.

General accounts: First, Merrill offers a variety of general accounts. These accounts includes both a standard individual and joint brokerage account for basic investing, as well as a custodial account , an estate account, and a trust account.

Retirement accounts: Second, Merrill offers IRAs. IRAs (individual retirement accounts) are designed specifically to help you save for retirement and often come with tax benefits. Merrill offers access to traditional IRAs for tax-deferred grown, Roth IRAs for tax-free growth, and rollover IRAs to rollover your existing retirement account to Merrill.
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Education accounts: Finally, Merrill does offer a couple of education accounts. A College 529 plan is offered to help you save specifically for your kids future educational expenses. You can also opt to set up a UGMA/UTMA account which is a custodial account that you can gift to your child when they are of age, and can be used for any purpose.

Merrill offers three platforms: web based, MarketPro, and a mobile app. The web based version is designed for more of an overview of all of your account information, as well as providing access to key resources. Through the web based version you can view your account information, check portfolio performance, transfer money, and trade. When you select the trade feature through the web based version, that will bring you to the MarketPro platform.

The MarketPro platform is a customizeable platform where you can execute your trades. Merrill says the platform focuses on offering high quality trade execution as they do not accept payment for order flow routed to third party market makers. The MarketPro platform can be customized up to 25 layouts using 26 customizeable windows. There are 104 technical indicators, and 25 drawing tools included in the platform.

Finally, Merrill offers a mobile app for both iOS and Android users. The mobile app offers many of the same abilites as you get on the web based platform. These include the ability to view account information, transfer or send money, research, deposit checks, and a trade feature. Each of these features are tabs you can access at the bottom of the app for quick convenience. The trade feature within the app offers many of the same features of the MarketPro platform meaning that usability is similar on both mobile and web based verisons.

Merrill does not have the largest offering of available assets when compared to other brokers. Merrill currently offers the following assets:

Overall, Merrill offers strong research and education for their clients. Merrill works with a variety of third party companies to provide research which include Morningstar, Center for Financial Research & Analysis, Lipper and S&P Global.

In addition to third party research, Merill also has a robust offering of in house education. First, you can opt to use the Idea Builder feature. The Idea Builder does exactly what it sounds like and provides investment ideas for you using available research and data. You can type in what area you want to invest in, and the Idea Builder will generate a theme of potential ideas. For example, you could type in stocks, and the idea builder would generate a theme of Warren Buffet stocks for you.

Finally, you can opt to learn more about general investing topics, as well as the specifics surrounding individual assets. Merrill offers webinars, videos, and an interactive classroom to bring you these topics, and partners with firms such as BlackRock to make sure the education is top notch.

Merrill has good customer support and offers a variety of ways to reach them including 24/7 phone support during the week, and both chat and email support. Since Merrill is owned by Bank of America, you can also schedule an in person appointment at a branch near you which can easily be set up through Merrill's website.

One final item worth noting is Merrill's planning and advice. You basically have three tiers you can choose from depending upon what you want.

Tier 1) Merrill Edge Self Directed Investing. As the name implies, this tier simply allows you to choose your own investments and take advantage of commission free investing by using all of the features we reviewed above.

Tier 2) Merrill Guided Investing. Guided investing can best be thought of as a hyrbid investing strategy that uses the technology of a robo advisor, with the human input of experts at Merrill. Essentially, you tell Merrill about yourself and your goals, and they will give you strategies that are best for you. There is a $1,000 minimum investment to get started, as well as a 0.45% annual fee.

Tier 3) Invest with an Advisor. Finally, you can opt to upgrade to the highest tier and have your own personal financial advisor. An advisor can help you create a personalized plan, and is available at any time you need them. There is a $20,000 minimum required, as well as a 0.85% annual fee.

The primary advantage of Merrill is that you can decide how much investing guidance you want to have as you use the brokerage. If you want to be a do it yourself investor, you can. If you would prefer to have a personal advisor, you can have that as well. If you want guidance somewhere in the middle, that is also an option.

Additionally, if you opt to use the self directed investing option, Merrill can end up being a very affordable choice as you can take advantage of commission free investing. Finally, as we have noted throughout the review, it is an added bonus that Bank of America integrates so seamlessly with Merrill allowing you to have everthing under one roof.

Merrill does have a couple of disadvantages. First, the brokerage does not have the most impressive or complete offering of assets for you to invest in. There is no access to crypto, futures, forex and other financial assets. Second, since Merrill does not have a full range of assets, it is not the best choice if you are an active investor who wants to invest in and trade advanced assets.

Merrill is right for you if: