What Type of IRA for Precious Metals?
Gold or Precious Metal IRAs are Self-Directed Individual Retirement Accounts that enable investors to invest in precious metals directly, expanding your investing options beyond Wall Street products.
Precious metals offer an effective hedge against inflation, currency fluctuations and geopolitical risks. Discover more about how precious metal investments work and their appeal today.
Investing in Physical Gold and Silver
Are You Concerned about Dollar Declining Value or Economic Recession Potential? A Precious Metals IRA Offers Diversified Retirement Portfolio Protection from Inflation!
Though many invest in gold IRAs to hedge against inflation, you could also choose from other precious metals like silver and platinum as investments for your IRA account. Some providers provide an expanded selection of eligible metals.
No matter what metals you select, the IRS requires them to be stored with an approved trustee or custodian. Some companies tout an exemption in US Tax Code that allows people to store precious metals at home; however, this type of investment hasn’t been reviewed by them and could violate your IRA terms. At Midas we advise clients using an IRA custodian approved by IRS such as bank, federally insured credit union, savings and loan association or another similar organization for safe storage of their precious metals IRA investments.
Preserving Your Buying Power
Precious metals IRAs offer a safe and secure alternative to paper-heavy investments like stocks and mutual funds, especially given the eroding purchasing power of the dollar. Many Americans are now opting to diversify their retirement savings portfolio with gold and silver as part of a precious metals IRA investment plan.
First step to starting an IRA-eligible metals investment: find a metals dealer offering an approved product selection. Most investors typically invest in physical gold bullion (rounds and bars), coins and bars (either rounds or bars) but silver and platinum are also possible investments. After selecting your dealer, he/she will help you select an approved depository to store precious metals that qualify. The IRS prohibits personal storage spaces like homes from housing IRA-eligible precious metals; an approved depository must also be selected when investing precious metals: in home storage areas as prohibited storage areas by law.
Investors can purchase shares of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the value of precious metals; however, holding such an ETF in their IRA could trigger tax liabilities and potentially violate rules related to collecting.
Preserving Your Taxes
A conventional IRA allows you to save pre-tax dollars for retirement while postponing tax liability until later. A self-directed precious metals IRA provides diversification through non-paper assets, like physical gold bullion coins or bars, that offer protection from economic uncertainty as well as additional tax savings opportunities.
Gold IRAs generally follow many of the same rules as traditional pre-tax, Roth and SEP IRAs, including rollover from existing retirement accounts or cash contributions. Contribution limits, early withdrawal penalties and required minimum distributions (RMD) become effective once an investor reaches age 72 (73 for traditional pre-tax IRAs) must also be observed.
However, when it comes to storing physical precious metals in an IRA you must adhere to strict IRS storage and purity requirements. IRAs can only hold gold and silver bullion products that meet a minimum purity standard of 99.5% with no more than an maximum purity requirement of 99.955%.
Preserving Your Wealth
Gold is an asset with lasting purchasing power that holds its value over time, making it a smart addition to an investment portfolio. By including gold in your retirement account, you can diversify and safeguard it against inflation or any sudden economic shifts that arise.
A Gold IRA (also referred to as Precious Metals IRA) is a type of Self-Directed IRA that allows investors to invest in physical gold and silver bullion. Like traditional IRAs, you fund these accounts using pre-tax dollars that allow tax-free withdrawal in retirement; however, unlike most IRAs a gold IRA allows physical precious metal coins and bullion as assets in its portfolio.
While some precious metals companies argue that numismatic coins should be accepted into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), the IRS only permits ownership of physical gold coins and bars as investments within an IRA. Numismatic coins tend to pay higher commission fees to gold companies than their bullion bars which represent actual spot price of gold.
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