[Fee Being Added] [Expired] M1 Finance Investing Review, Plus Up to $10,000 Brokerage Bonus and $250 Referral Bonus

Update 3/17/24: Starting May 15, a $3 monthly platform fee will apply to clients with less than $10,000 in M1 assets or without an active Personal Loan. Each billing cycle will last 30 days—meeting platform requirements* at least one day during each cycle will ensure this fee is waived for you. Hat tip to reader Davis

Update 12/15/23: Referral bonus now $250, but requires a $10,000 deposit. Hat tip to ShawntheShawn (No referrals in the comments below)

Update 8/15/23: $15k tier is back, added below

[Below is a guest post from reader A M.]

M1 Finance Introduction

M1 Finance is an investing service with a unique approach: fractional share investing of a “pie” of stocks and/or ETFs (funds consisting of many stocks, like ticker VGT) of your choosing, for no fee. Think of it as making your very own ETF in a way, with no expense ratio (except if you add actual ETFs to it, which have their own expense ratios). M1 has been around for at least a year, and has a fairly active subreddit and a thorough help section with detailed articles on all of the things I will cover below. I’ll then explain the $100-$2,500 brokerage transfer bonus and the current $20 referral bonus for January 2020.

First, the pie. Your entire portfolio is considered your “pie.” When you set up your “pie,” you can break it up into “slices,” each of which you can allocate from taking up 1% all the way to 100% of total dollar value of your pie (you can have a maximum of 100 slices, then, and minimum of just 1). Each slice can be a stock or an ETF, and basically every stock and almost every ETF is available at the same expense ratio as you would find anywhere else (no additional fees from M1 finance). As a neat little feature, your slices can themselves be “pies” with those smaller pies having slices of their own. For instance: Your portfolio pie contains two “slices” that are actually pies called “CAR STOCKS” and “TECH STOCKS.” The “CAR STOCKS” slice can contain TSLA as well as, say, KARS, which is an ETF. Your “TECH STOCKS” one can also have any number of slices with either ETFs or stocks within it, allocated from 1% all the way up to 100%.

Importantly, your “pie” represents your target portfolio. When you schedule an investment into your pie, you invest into your “pie” as it’s set up by you at that very moment. You can change the pie and all of the slices within it at any time — this would mean you are just changing the target allocation of all the slices. It does NOT mean that you’d instantly be selling off any stocks — this only happens when you choose to “rebalance” one of your pies and both sell and buy to get all of the slices at your target allocations. If you increase the target allocation of TSLA, M1 will of course buy TSLA in the allocation you set for it. And, of course, if the value of TSLA rises and it consists of less of your pie than the target percent, M1 will buy more of it for you to bring it up to the target allocation. M1 shows via color-coded and differently sized slices what both your target pie and your current allocations look like in both the app and the website, both of which have essentially the same functionality.

The rest of the app is pretty straightforward as a sort of mix between a robo-advisor that can autoinvest for you during one set trading window daily at 9 AM and a Robinhood type pick and choose stocks and ETFs app. Poke around and it’s pretty easy to pick up how it all works. One note: If you intend to use a pie you make pie as a “slice” in your portfolio, then you make that pie beforehand in the “Research” tab under “My Pies” and then add it to your actual pie as a slice under the “Invest” tab.

For the help section with detailed articles, see: https://support.m1finance.com/hc/en-us. The subreddit is r/m1finance. Also see the full fee schedule here, notably a $50 fee for accounts with less than $50 in them which go inactive for 90 days.

Brokerage Bonus

Direct Link to offer | Another link

The brokerage bonus essentially involves transferring your assets, starting at minimum of $100,000, over to M1. Here are the current bonus tiers, and of course do consider doing the referral bonus (see below) when opening for the brokerage bonus.
  • $100,000 – $249,999 for $250 bonus
  • $250,000 – $499,999 for $1,000 bonus
  • $500,000 – $999,999 for $2,000 bonus
  • $1,000,000 – $1,999,999 for $4,000 bonus
  • $2,000,000 – $5,000,000 for $10,000 bonus
  • $5,000,000  and higher for $15,000 bonus

Note, there is a $100 fee to transfer out your funds.

Referral Bonus

Referral bonus is now $100 for each party. Basic steps from the website for opening with referral:

  • Create an account using your friend’s unique referral link
  • Fund your account with $5,000 within 30 calendar days of signing up
  • Get $100 each in 7-14 business days
“Refer and earn” under your name in top right hand corner of M1 shows referrals you’ve made.

Post History

  • Update 6/29/23: Bonus extended through 9/30/23. They’ve removed the $15k tier; all other tiers up to $10,000 remain. New Direct Link (There’s also a similar promo for rollover retirement plans – Direct Link)
  • Update 5/6/23: They’ve added bonus tiers of up to $15,000 now. They’ve also sweetened some of the tier bonuses. Bonuses are valid through June 17, 2023. I believe everything in the post below is now up to date, please let me know if you see anything that needs fixing.
  • Update 1/8/23: Referral bonus is now $100.
  • Update 4/10/22: Referral bonus is now $10 instead of $50.
  • Update 1/5/22: Updated the brokerage bonus tiers, notably the $500 might for $50k might be interesting to some. The $50/$50 referral bonus is still going as well, no referrals in the comments below, go here instead. (hat tip to reader Avi)
  • Update 11/7/21: Referral bonus back up to $50 now.
  • Update 9/8/21: Referral bonus is now $30
  • Update 7/8/21: Referral bonus is now $50 for each party (link). You can also leave and find referral links on this dedicated page by following the rules outlined there. Hat tip to reader Peek
  • Update 1/6/21: They changed the brokerage bonus tiers, and also added a higher $3,500 $4,375 tier. Updated below. Bonus seems to be available in some cases to existing customers who transfer over new assets as well. Also referral bonus increased to $30/$30 through 2/28/21.  (ht reader Xatos)
  • Update 10/7/20: Brokerage bonuses have been increased by 25% (up to $3,250) for October. Hat tip to reader SamL
  • Update 9/1/20: Referral bonus back up to $20.
  • Update 5/1/20: Offer is back for the month of May. Though the referral bonus is down to $10 for each the referrer and the new customer (down from $20 in January).

Final Thoughts

Thanks to reader A M for submitting this guest post. We’ll add this to our list of brokerage bonuses. Feel free to comment below with your thoughts on M1 Finance. You can also leave and find referral links on this dedicated page by following the rules outlined there.
    Chuck
  • On March 17, 2024, 23:50
Tags: brokerage bonuses

View Comments (540)

  • I sold my stocks and zeroed out my investing and checking accounts last October, and it looks like M1 Finance automatically closed out the accounts at a zero balance. My online dashboard and login are still there, though. According to the emails they sent out, since I no longer have any active accounts with them, I won't be charged anything monthly.

    I received referral bonuses for the brokerage account and a checking bonus from them previously. Never had their credit card. P1-P3 had Apple, Amazon and Google stocks untouched from 2018 that made us a decent chunk of profit from their sales.

    My accounts were frozen at one point due to some fraudulent/unauthorized activity, but I was easily able to unlock my accounts over live chat with a selfie upload. I only signed up for their M1 Plus program for the checking bonus with a free trial, but I'm not sure I got much of a benefit out of it other than the bonus.

    From the email:

    Your M1 profile is currently inactive.** If you have no funds on M1, you will not be charged. If you want to activate your account and take advantage of these benefits, please log in and set up your account.
    **An inactive M1 profile means you have no open M1 accounts in your M1 profile.

  • I opened 1/26 and completed the requirements. I never got the bonus so I reached out to support last week. Just like the comments below Support asked for the referrer's email to credit both accounts. I opened through a discord link and that person wouldn't answer. So I provided a friend's email that has an active account.
    They got back stating I didn't open through a referral link.
    I did record the application but Idk how to decrypt it. If I can get it I'll file a CFPB complaint. Hopefully it works better than it did for - @guest_1821439

    • Always better to open using an active poster's referral link. Lots of people on DoC with links who are online every day :)

      • I have used a fair share of DoC links but, good point. The referrer is fairly active in the discord (with a paywall) and I tagged him in chat as well as private messages. He might just be trolling me. @guest_1792385

  • I was reading over the fee announcement email and there seems to be two conflicting statements in how to avoid the fee:

    "Starting May 15, a $3 monthly platform fee will apply to clients with less than $10,000 in M1 assets or without an active Personal Loan. Each billing cycle will last 30 days—meeting platform requirements* at least one day during each cycle will ensure this fee is waived for you."

    --this looks like if you have $10k in assets for at least ONE day in the billing cycle the fee is waived

    In the fine print: *You will be charged the $3 Monthly Platform Fee if at any point during the 30 days prior to program launch your total aggregate M1 Earn and Invest balances do not equal or exceed $10,000 or you do not have an active M1 Personal Loan.

    -this looks like if you DO NOT have $10k in assets EVERY DAY for at least 30 days before the program launch you will be charged $3

    Is this confusing anyone else or am I not reading this right?

  • Regarding the new promotion tiers on their website, I’m interested in the $250 for $50k tier. What is not clear is how long the funds must remain in the account. The terms state that the deposit must be made within 14 days and that the bonus is deposited after 6 months, but it does not state if the funds must be kept in the account the entire time. Does anyone know?

    Link: https://m1.com/new-customer-deposit-1/

    • The total aggregate Deposited Value1 made to an M1 taxable investment account within the first fourteen (14) calendar days of New User Sign-up Date must remain equal to, or greater than, the value after the net deposit was made (minus any losses due to trading, market volatility or margin debit balances) until the Pay-out Date. Reallocation of any funds transferred externally, or internally to any other M1 services (e.g., M1 Spend), prior to the Pay-out Date will disqualify you from this Promotion. M1 reserves the right to revoke the Promotional Credit2 cash deposit if the total aggregate transferred Deposited Value1 is not retained in your M1 taxable investment account until the Pay-out Date. @guest_1827103

    • I don't think it's anything new, same platform they are just changing the fee structure. I hate the change but with the fees to get out I'll be staying with them until I have enough assets to get Fidelity to forgive the fee. I do like their platform but I have doubts it will survive this change.

  • Looking for someone's email of M1 who opened the account before Jan 31 2024, when the bonus was $250. If you can send me your account email to gosocks5bcejz.at.gmail.com it will benefit both of us, remember, it has to be opened before Jan 2024

  • I used someone's referral link on the old thread (don't remember which one) for the $250 bonus back in early February when it was still valid. I met the requirements, but didn’t have the bonus post so I followed up and now they’re asking for the email of the referrer to approve it. Since they’re manually crediting the $250 to both me and the referrer, I’m assuming it doesn’t matter who’s email I put down, only that they have a currently open M1 account associated with it. I opened a burner email at m1referralissues (at) maildrop.cc so if someone can provide me a valid email, I’m betting there’s a free $250 in it for both of us. Figure I should ask ASAP since I'm guessing a lot of people will be closing their M1 accounts now that they going to start charging a fee.

    • @guest_1821439 Did this end up working for you?
      I got referred in discord and the dude won't answer lol.

      • Sorry for the late reply, it did not end up working for me, though not because I think the referral was bad, only because M1's interpretation of the promotion terms did not have me funding the account fully in time.

  • So prepping for May-01... How's the closing go? Can it be done over chat? How long do trades take to settle before withdrawing?

  • Cue the outrage at the $3 monthly fee but I think this a brilliant move on their part to weed out the cheapskates (like myself) that only want the account for lucrative referrals.

    • Mmm thats a long gamble. I feel they may find out most of their user base are cheapskates (also like myself)... and most folks with plans on keeping $10k+ in a brokerage are going to be at Fidelity or Schwab. And although I do really like their app/web interface, not worth $3/mo, and not enticing/established enough to keep $10k with them or open a retirement account.

      I hope they don't crater too bad though.

    • I have a nephew with probably $800 invested with M1 who never got a sign-up or referral bonus. He's going to get hit pretty hard by this $36/year fee. ACATing his investments out would cost $100. So basically he has to liquidate his investments and move elsewhere. Pretty sour deal.

    • Outrage is a bit strong, but I am peeved bc I thought I had M+ until September. They could have at least honored it rather than instituting a blanket fee for everyone. Will be closing as well.

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