Best Online Brokers for Fund Investors

When Dave Nasser had his account at TD Waterhouse, one rule really got him miffed: To get that day's price on a no-load mutual fund, you needed to place your order by 2 p.m. He switched back to Schwab, where for most funds the order time is 4 p.m. Meanwhile, Joe Raby is thinking of moving accounts from Schwab because of the high fees it imposes when he sells a mutual fund within six months of buying it.

Seemingly minor rules like these matter much more to investors who buy mutual funds through their online brokers than whether a broker offers, say, 800 funds vs. 900.

To identify the best online brokers for mutual fund investing, I focused on these meaningful details, along with factors like fund selection. ...