M1 Finance Review – Is it Legit? (July 2024)

Since launching in 2015, M1 Finance has cultivated a well-trusted reputation throughout the sector.

This reputation is demonstrated not only by the transparent manner in which it runs its operations but also by the number of traders it now has. More than 500,000 people now trade with M1 Finance, resulting in a total amount of assets under management that runs into billions of dollars.

Being a US-based company, M1 is regulated by the SEC and FINRA. These are some of the most integral bodies in the world of finance and help ensure full compliance that you can trust.

M1 Finance comes into its own with a range of unique investment products that are available. What makes M1 really unique is that you are investing more in creating an entire portfolio than you are in single stocks. This is done in a similar manner to competing services, but with M1 you are offered a wider selection of more than 80 different “Model Portfolios”. These are expertly curated groups of stocks, ETFs, and other assets that have been put together for you to invest in.

You will then get a completely diversified portfolio from the outset, with great flexibility to tailor it based on your personal risk levels. If you don’t want to invest in the pre-set offerings, you can also create your own portfolio with as many as 100 individual assets, such as stocks and more.

This is where the automated side of the platform then comes into play.  M1 provides the ability for your portfolio to be rebalanced and managed by the system automatically.  The goal of this is to maximize returns based on the market and your own personal needs.

There are thousands of individual stocks, ETFs, and more assets for you to add to your own customized portfolio if you opt to make it yourself. You can also choose these on a fractional basis, making the platform and investing extremely accessible to everybody.

Beyond just an investment platform, the M1 offering includes several other innovative elements.

The “Smart Transfers” feature also allows you to cap the amount that gets redirected to your M1 spend account and instead allocate it to your investment account.

That’s not all. One of the most popular features of the company is M1 Borrow. This allows you to borrow as much as 35% of your held portfolio value once you have invested over $10,000. You can borrow for any purpose, and approval is guaranteed with no credit check and a very competitive repayment rate of 3.5% variable interest.

A monthly fee of $3.00 now ensures that all M1 clients have access to all of the platform’s premium features and competitive rates. Notably, this fee is waived for users who maintain a balance above $10,000 in M1 assets at least one day during each billing cycle or an active Personal Loan.

M1 Finance represents great value regarding the commissions and fees side of the business. It does not charge any commissions on assets traded. Nor does it charge any kind of account management fees that you usually can find with other similar services.

There are effectively no trading and management fees, and no markups on the assets you choose to trade. The only fees that may be applied are on certain ETFs that charge underlying fees independently of M1 Finance.

With non-trading fees, you will note that both deposits and withdrawals are typically fee-free, with a few exceptions, like wire transfers, which cost $25. There are also minimal regulatory fees when trading and an inactivity fee of $20 if you are not active for more than 90 days.

Overall, M1 Finance offers an astonishingly good value trading environment with no minimum deposit in place and an account value of just $100 required to start trading.

You can trade with M1 Finance through its web-based desktop platform or all-encompassing mobile app.

Both platforms provide an extremely user-friendly environment with the mobile app being particularly popular and very flexible for monitoring and managing your M1 invest portfolio and your M1 Borrow and M1 Spend activities all in one place.

The platforms are very easy to use and attractively designed in a manner that makes them both simple, and effective yet with sufficient insightful detail and features like a newsfeed that will show you all the latest developments in the market.

The M1 Finance App has really taken the lead. It is a viable and attractive solution for performing any action you need with any of the company’s products, so much so that the company itself refers to it as the “Finance Super App.”

M1 Finance also performs well when it comes to providing the best in customer support. First and foremost, you can utilize the extensive range of information and detailed FAQ section on its website. This answers many of your questions at every step of the process.

If you have any other questions, the professional support team can quickly address them. They are available through email and telephone at any time when the US stock market is open. If they are not available, they will also respond to you as soon as possible.

Regarding education through the platform, M1 provides more than you may expect. It is a service that is very open to both new and experienced traders, so you will find something that will benefit you in each category.

This includes an extensive collection of articles and guides on its website that can help you get started with the service itself and pick up knowledge about trading in general. Within this, you will find many video tutorials that can also be of great help.

It is very active online and through social media, with a strong presence on many social networks. It tends to actively respond both on its own channels and others to keep traders and others well-informed. The company also curates and disseminates an email-based newsletter called “The Investor’s Mindset,” offering advice particularly aimed at longer-term investors.

Overall, M1 Finance is much more than just a traditional online stockbroker. It combines some of the best elements of this model, particularly in the low-costs, with more popular and successful elements made possible through automation.  The result is one of the most comprehensive investment platforms and financial offerings currently in the sector.

If you are looking for a trustworthy, great value, easy-to-use trading platform, and infrastructure that provides an excellent range of solutions for all types of traders, then M1 Finance should be high on your list of services to consider. If you want to check out the service directly or even open an M1 Finance account right now, you can visit its website to get started.