5 Best Brokers for Banking Services of 2024 (2024)

Merrill Edge, part of Bank of America, is the best broker for banking services in our annual review of stockbrokers. Whether you’re a student or an entrepreneur bringing your stock public, Bank of America and its subsidiaries offer solid resources. Aside from the industry standard $0 stock and exchange-traded fund (ETF) commissions, Merrill Edge has 3,900 retail locations and seamless universal account management. Higher- balance savers and investors will appreciate its Preferred Rewards program, which offers the best rewards of any bank broker we tested.

A bank broker provides both banking services (FDIC insured) as well as stock brokerage services (SIPC protected). This combination allows you to easily move money between accounts and consolidate your finances with a single provider. Besides investing capabilities, when you open a bank brokerage account you have the benefits of a brokerage checking account and other banking capabilities, such as money transfers and debit cards.

A brokerage account at a bank allows you to invest where you take care of traditional banking transactions, like taking out a car loan or paying bills. Financial services holding companies such as JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America can own both FDIC-insured banks and security brokers, which have different rules and different regulators than banks. Bank-owned brokers usually make it very simple to bank and invest at the same firm.

Many of the largest banks in the U.S. offer online brokerage accounts through their brokerage subsidiaries. For example, Bank of America offers online investing through Merrill Edge, Chase Bank lets you manage your portfolio at J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing, and Ally offers online investments through Ally. All of these brokers let you sign on with one login and password.

Based on our research, Bank of America has the best bank-brokerage account offering, via Merrill Edge. Merrill Edge offers $0 stock and ETF trades, excellent bank-broker universal account management, the best rewards program of the bank-brokerages we analyzed, and outstanding customer service.

Yes, a brokerage checking account typically allows you to write and deposit checks. There are a number of banks with brokerage accounts offered that provide checkwriting capabilities. Check to see if there are fees associated with how you intend to use the account.

More details: If you decide to write checks from your brokerage account, be sure to monitor your account balance to maintain a proper cash allocation. Some brokers can link your checkwriting to borrowing on margin. The good news is that you can access cash very quickly if you need it and, because your investments are collateral for the loan, the interest rates can be much lower than credit cards.

The bad news is that margin is a loan that has to be repaid. Just as it can be easy to max out a credit card, it can also be easy to spend down your investment account. Always monitor your checkwriting on a margin account. Most brokers offer instant transfers between accounts for convenience.

Think of a cash management account as a brokerage account with a debit card. The cash management feature enables you to use a debit card to spend any uninvested cash in your brokerage account. Your debit card can be used for everyday purchases such as groceries, dining, entertainment, and leisure. As always, be careful not to spend money you don’t have.

One is not better than the other; they are simply different vehicles for your money. A brokerage account is necessary for investing and trading in stocks, ETFs, options and futures, whereas a bank account is meant for handling your day-to-day saving and spending. Banks are slightly safer than brokerages because of gold-plated FDIC insurance, but the risk of a U.S.-regulated broker going under is low, and it’s even less likely you won’t be made whole in the event of a brokerage failure.

Both your brokerage account and your bank account typically carry insurance, the former through the SIPC and the latter through the FDIC. In that sense, both are safe. But investing or trading through a brokerage account carries market risk: Losses due to market movement are not protected by insurance.

Banks do not offer the ability to buy and sell stocks in checking or savings accounts. However, many large bank holding companies have a brokerage arm through which they offer online trading. For example, Bank of America offers trading through its discount brokerage, Merrill Edge, as does Chase through its wholly-owned J.P. Morgan Self-Directed Investing.

Brokerages that offer banking services often include use of a debit card with your associated banking product, such as a cash management account or checking account. Our top pick this year among brokerages with banking services is Merrill Edge, which is affiliated with Bank of America and offers B of A's full suite of bank accounts and features.

Two highly rated bank-owned brokers, Merrill Edge and E*TRADE, offer debit cards and don’t require an account at their bank. Though not owned by banks, the brokerages Fidelity, Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, Vanguard, eToro and Firstrade offer debit cards. Firstrade requires a $20,000 minimum.

No, you cannot use a debit card to buy stocks, at least not directly. Some brokers will allow you to use a debit card to fund your account with cash; then you can buy stock within the account. We don’t recommend choosing a broker based on whether it accepts debit card funds, because almost all will accept ACH deposits, which only require your checking account and routing numbers.

Here's a pricing and features comparison of the best bank brokers side by side. To compare brokers in other areas, see our online brokerage comparison tool.

On a feature by feature basis, our top five finishers this year offer a combination of the following features to their banking customers.