ShareBuilder

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ShareBuilder
Type	Private
Founded	1998
Headquarters	Bellevue, Washington
Key people	Jeff Seely, CEO and President A. Daniel Greenshields, CFO
Industry	Financial Services

ShareBuilder is a United States online stock brokerage firm founded in 1996 (as NetStock Direct). It encourages recurring, automatic purchases of shares of stock and exchange-traded funds. All transactions occur online and are entirely at the discretion of the account holder, thus it is an execution-only service. The company does not have brokerage sales representatives or advisors. Account holders can use ShareBuilder's online research tools to investigate stocks, similar to other online brokerages such as TD Ameritrade and Fidelity. In 2005, ShareBuilder began offering 401K plans to small businesses. On November 19, 2007, ShareBuilder Corporation was purchased by ING Direct for $220 million USD.^[1]

1 Account Types
2 Account Operation
3 International
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Account Types

The following are the basic types of accounts available with ShareBuilder:

Individual Account: An account for one adult.
Joint Account: An account shared by two adults.
Traditional/Rollover IRA: One of the IRA options available to prepare for retirement.
Roth or Conversion IRA: One IRA option to help prepare for retirement (Must meet eligibility requirements set by the IRS)
ShareBuilder ESA (Education Savings Account): Created to help pay for the education of the beneficiary of the account.
Custodial Account: Account created by an adult, for the benefit of a minor.

[edit] Account Operation

The account holder can apply any amount of money desired toward buying stock or ETFs, purchasing either whole shares or fractional amounts. ShareBuilder does not require minimum account balances, allowing people to invest small amount of money. Using the automated tools an account holder can set a specific dollar amount to invest at a given interval into direct stocks or ETFs. The brokerage fee for real-time investments formerly ranged from $11.95 to $15.95, but after the ING purchase, it dropped to $9.95.

Sharebuilder also allows "automatic investments" every Tuesday for rates as low as $1.00 each. This is under the Advantage pricing program: for a fee of $20 per month, the account holder can make up to 20 automatic Tuesday purchases at no additional cost. Under the Standard pricing program, the account holder pays $12 per month^[clarify] and is entitled to make up to 6 automatic Tuesday purchases for no additional cost. The Basic pricing program comes with no monthly charge, and allows the account holder to make an automatic Tuesday purchase for $4. An account holder can change pricing programs from month to month: for example, an account holder who would like to invest a windfall of $10,000, spread among 6 stocks, could select the Standard program and pay $12 for 6 stock purchases; then, if he or she expected not to purchase any more stocks in the near future, he or she could switch to the Basic program and there would be no additional charge.

The automatic investment program can be updated as late as 5 pm ET on Monday prior to a Tuesday morning purchase, so it is possible for an account holder to pay no monthly fee and enter a $4 purchase on Monday afternoon after the market closes that will be executed first thing Tuesday morning. However, the only way to sell a stock or ETF is through a real-time trade.

ShareBuilder also offers basic option trading strategies such as buying calls or puts and writing covered calls.

[edit] International

ShareBuilder licensed its brand to the HBOS Group in the UK. The stockbroker subsidiary, Halifax Share Dealing, offers taxable and Individual Savings Account execution-only accounts with automatic investment facilities under the ShareBuilder brand.