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Through May 31th, online brokerage Webull is once again offering a 3.5% bonus (on up to $1,000,000 in assets) when you transfer an IRA to Webull. Note that the bonus here posts slowly — 1/5 each year starting on May 1, 2025 and running through May 1, 2029 — but this could nonetheless be easy money if you have a hands-off IRA to transfer. You do need to opt in to this bonus in the Webull app before transferring and it may be targeted. YMMV. Keep in mind that this post isn’t investment advice, just an attempt to alert readers to a bonus that might be of interest — consult your financial advisor to see how it fits into your plans.
The Deal
- Webull is offering a 3.5% match by contributing or transferring funds to a Webull IRA by 5/31/24
- Direct link to this deal
Key Terms
- Offer Period: May 7, 2024 at 12:00 AM EST – May 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM EST.
- Offer Eligibility: This promotional offer (the “Offer”) is open only to individuals who have a self-directed Traditional or Roth IRA account (each an “IRA Account”) that is offered by Webull Financial LLC (“Webull”) and custodied at UMB Bank, N.A. (each such individual, an “Eligible Customer”).
- Offer Requirements: To receive a Deposit Bonus (as defined below), an Eligible Customer must, during the Offer Period, (i) complete one or more Qualifying Deposits to their IRA Account, and (ii) maintain an IRA Account balance equal to or greater than the aggregate amount of all Qualifying Deposits (excluding trading losses) until payment of the final installment of any Deposit Bonus that they are entitled to receive (such final payment date, the “Final Deposit Bonus Payment Date”).
- “Qualifying Deposit” means a deposit or transfer by an Eligible Customer to their IRA Account of any amount of funds or assets up to $1 Million held by the Eligible Customer at an institution other than Webull or any of its affiliates that settles during the Offer Period. For the avoidance of doubt, if an Eligible Customer withdraws or transfers assets from their Webull Brokerage Account or from any other account that the Eligible Customer holds with Webull or any of its affiliates and deposits or transfers all or any portion of such assets to their IRA Account during the Offer Period, such deposit or transfer will not be deemed a “Qualifying Deposit”.
- Deposit Bonus: An Eligible Customer who satisfies the Offer Requirements is eligible to receive a “Deposit Bonus” consisting of a payment to their IRA Account of an amount equal to 3.5% of the aggregate amount of all of the Eligible Customer’s Qualifying Deposits during the Offer Period. Deposit Bonuses will be paid in installments in the amounts and on the dates indicated below
- May 1, 2025: 1/5 of total bonus
- May 1, 2026: 1/5 of total bonus
- May 1, 2027: 1/5 of total bonus
- May 1, 2028: 1/5 of total bonus
- May 1, 2029: 1/5 of total bonus
- See your offer for full terms or read more terms here
Quick Thoughts
I wrote pretty extensively about the Robinbood IRA transfer bonus that ran through the end of April and I also addressed a similar Webull bonus that was available at the same time. I ultimately went with the Robinhood bonus, but I imagine this might be of interest for anyone who didn’t get a chance to take advantage of that previous bonus.
In my case, I have a Vanguard IRA type that Vanguard no longer plans to administer. I found out about their plans to transfer custodianship to another entity too late to roll it over to Robinhood for their match, so I’ll be glad to pick up a 3.5% bonus rolling it over to Webull.
Make sure to check over the fine print and understand how this offer works: the 3.5% bonus posts to your Webull brokerage account (not the IRA) in 5 increments — once annually beginning in May 2025. You won’t receive any bonus funds immediately but rather you sort of “unlock” them annually over the next 5 years.
Still, in my case, the IRA I’ll transfer is just money that’s going to sit untouched for years to come, and it was already scheduled to move to a new custodian (a name with which I wasn’t familiar), so I’ll be happy to get a small bonus out of it and manage it in an app that I already know. Keep in mind that if you withdraw money from Webull before the 5 years is up, that will reduce the amount of your bonus.
It’s also worth a note that if you’ve never used Webull, you should probably download the app and look around a bit before diving in. I’ve been using Webull for years, but not as my primary brokerage app. I find the interface a bit too “busy” for my liking. That said, I can ignore the bells and whistles since I’m maintaining a very simple retirement portfolio consisting of just a few Vanguard ETFs that I can buy or sell anywhere. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it account for me, so I won’t be bothered by the complicated charts and graphs and the various options trading / stock lending / specialized quotes and all of the other associated bells and whistles.
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According to the terms (at least from the public link below), the bonus goes into the same IRA, not a taxable brokerage account. Also the bonus has to stay for 90 days before withdrawing it.
Found a non-targeted public link: https://www.webull.com/offers-promotions/ira-transfer-promo
Did the Robin Hood 3% match get extended? Still up on their site and I don’t see end date: https://robinhood.com/us/en/about/retirement/
Let’s say you want to keep it just till the first bonus in 11 months. If you maximize the deposit of 1 million, you will get $7000. That’s better than the $4000-5000 other places give you for 1 million. If you do it with a traditional IRA rather than Roth, you might not care that they deposit the bonus outside the IRA because it would have been taxable anyway (eventually).
Just to help people with the math (cuz numb3rz iz hard) …
This isn’t a 3.5 percent upfront bonus. It’s much more like a .7 percent annual bonus paid out at the end of each of the first 5 years.
That’s not nothing. But the way they word the promotion is unnecessarily sketchy imo.
.7pct is down in the range where things like fees and trade pricing shens (free commissions aren’t free) might make a material difference.
And it’s got complicated wording regarding “qualifying deposit” that bears close examination.
I definitely will look into pursuing this. But this isn’t the no-brainer the 3.5% teaser might make it sound like.