Wells Fargo Offers Free Stock, Fund Trades

Wells Fargo customers who have at least $25,000 in assets and/or loans can now make up to 100 free stock and no-load mutual fund trades a year, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. However, only 10% of a home mortgage can be counted toward the loan portion. Trades numbering above 100 a year will cost $5.95 apiece.

“This is our go-forward pricing. This is not a one-time offer,” said Jeff Cornman, vice president of brokerage client solutions at Well Fargo. As to why the bank is incurring these costs, Cornman said it is hoping this will solidify customer relations. “We don’t look at things in a single line of business approach. We look at the entire customer relationship,” he said. “When we reward the relationship, clients are happier [and] they stay with us longer.”

Bank of America began offering free trades last year, but has only extended the offer to some states, and it doesn’t include no-load funds.

While fees on stock trades have fallen, those on mutual funds have remained fairly high. Fidelity, for example, charges $75, TD Ameritrade and Charles Schwab charge about $50, Vanguard and Muriel Siebert charge $35, E*Trade $20 and Scottrade $17.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.