I set up an EIRA for my god-daughter this year, and went through the same thing. Vanguard was not offering an EIRA (BOO! HISS!), so I couldn't go that route. My broker (ScotTrade) doesn't offer them either. I ended up going to Waterhouse. They aren't a deep discounter (I think the fee is $12/trade), but they set me up with an EIRA with a $500 deposit. From what I understand, since the maximum you (singlely or collectively) can contribute to an EIRA is $500, the brokerages will waive the minimum account balance for that particular account.

I will note that there was some trouble getting the account set up. I live in Seattle, and my god-daughter is in Farmerville, Louisiana. The office here in Seattle had to send all the paperwork to New Orleans to get the account set up, and there were some problems there. But so far, I've had no other problems with Waterhouse or this account.

CJHutch