Long-term, rules-based investing for US-based investors. You build a target allocation (pie), contribute on a schedule, and let the platform’s dynamic rebalancing keep you near your weights. The behavioral benefit — reducing tinkering and impulse decisions — is where M1 earns its place.

M1 charges a $3/month platform fee unless you have at least $10,000 invested or an active M1 personal loan. Trading stocks and ETFs is commission-free. Additional fees include a $100 outgoing transfer fee, a $100 IRA termination fee, and a $50 inactivity fee for very small dormant accounts.

Generally no. M1 is a US-focused platform and typically does not accept non-US residents. European, UK, and other non-US investors should look at Interactive Brokers, which offers broad international eligibility, UCITS ETF access, and multi-currency accounts.

No. M1 is not a real-time trading platform. Orders are grouped into scheduled trade windows rather than executed whenever you click buy or sell. That is a hard limitation for anyone who wants limit orders, intraday timing, or tactical execution control. If any of those matter to you, M1 is the wrong platform.

A pie is M1’s name for a portfolio template. You assign a target percentage weight to each holding (a “slice”), and M1 uses those targets to guide how new cash is deployed and how rebalancing is executed. A pie can contain up to 100 slices, and slices can themselves be other pies — letting you build nested, layered allocations. M1 also offers 60+ pre-built model portfolios to use as a starting template.

$100 minimum to start investing in a standard brokerage account. $500 minimum for IRA (retirement) accounts. Fractional shares are supported from $1, so once funded you can fully deploy any contribution regardless of individual share prices.

IBKR fits better when you are based outside the US, need UCITS ETFs for EU regulatory compliance, want to hold and trade in multiple currencies, or need broader product access including options, forex, and futures. M1 and IBKR serve different investors — they are not direct substitutes. For most European investors, IBKR is the relevant choice.

M1 supports individual taxable, joint taxable, Roth IRA, traditional IRA, SEP IRA, rollover IRA, custodial (UGMA/UTMA), and trust accounts. It does not offer 529 plans, HSAs, Solo 401(k), or SIMPLE IRAs — investors who need those specific account types should look elsewhere.

No. M1 does not automatically harvest tax losses the way dedicated robo-advisors like Betterment or Wealthfront do. M1 uses tax-minimization logic when sequencing sells, which reduces tax impact on liquidations — but this is reactive, not proactive. For long-term ETF investors, the better approach is often using new cash to rebalance instead of selling, which sidesteps the issue entirely.

M1 Borrow is a portfolio line of credit that lets eligible investors borrow against their invested assets — up to 50% of portfolio value once the account reaches $2,000. It can be useful for short-term liquidity without selling investments, but it is margin borrowing. If the portfolio drops in value, borrowers may face a margin call. Use it with clear awareness of the downside risk.

M1 earns revenue through platform fees ($3/month), margin and borrowing products (M1 Borrow), interest on cash balances, securities lending, and miscellaneous account fees. Commission-free trading does not mean the business has no revenue model — it means the revenue comes from other sources. This is standard practice across most zero-commission brokers.