As a follow-up to my Coverdell ESA vs. 529 Plan comparison. I was looking for the best discount brokerage to open up a Coverdell Education Savings Account. Although you could also open an ESA at a bank for slow but steady growth, many people prefer to invest at a brokerage firm where they can invest in stocks and bonds.

Coverdell ESA information can be hard to find for many brokers. Sometimes the only way I could tell if they offered ESAs was to start an application and look to see if it was an option. Many of them consider the Coverdell ESA as an IRA and list it under Educational IRA alongside Traditional, Roth, and SEP IRAs. Therefore, when looking at the fee schedules you should assume that an IRA annual fee or IRA maintenance fee will apply to your Coverdell unless otherwise listed. Other things to look for:

• Annual maintenance fees.
• Minimum opening amount or minimum contribution size requirements.
• Investment options mutual funds, ETFs, individual bonds, etc.
• Commission costs.

Two of the biggest mutual fund companies surprisingly do not offer Coverdell ESAs: Fidelity and Vanguard. (Vanguard no longer opens new ESAs, but still services old accounts.) My guess is that the low contribution limits and thus low balances dont offer them much opportunity for profit, especially with all the additional paperwork involved for tracking contributions and withdrawals. Many mutual funds also have minimum initial investments higher than the $2,000 annual limit.

TD Ameritrade. The main reason why I picked TDA is that it provides the best available access to low-cost index ETFs due to their list of 100 commission-free ETFs which include the most popular ETFs from Vanguard, iShares, SPDR, and Powershares. This means you can build a very diversified portfolio with both no commission costs and using best-of-breed ETFs with high trading volumes. TDA also has no account maintenance fees and no minimum contribution requirements. $9.99 equity trades otherwise.

Other Worthy Options

The following brokers also offer Coverdell ESAs and have been ranked in various top broker lists from SmartMoney. Barrons. and Consumer Reports. Many people may simply choose to open an account where their other accounts already reside. In no particular order:

• Scottrade. $7 equity trades. Must open with $500. No account maintenance fees.
• E-Trade. $9.95 equity trades. Must open with $1,000. No account maintenance fees.
• Schwab. $8.95 equity trades. Schwab offers own line of low-cost index ETFs with no commission, albeit with limited volume. Must open with $1,000 or sign up for automatic monthly transfer of $100 or more. No account maintenance fees.
• TradeKing. $4.95 equity trades. No minimum to open, no account maintenance fees.
• Capital One 360 Sharebuilder. $4 scheduled window trades (not real-time). Offers dollar-based trades. No minimum to open, no account maintenance fees.