A gold IRA or precious metal IRA is an individual retirement account in which physical gold or other approved precious metals are stored for the benefit of the IRA account holder. It works in the same way as a regular IRA, except that it holds physical investment coins or bars instead of paper assets. In a gold IRA, you can hold real physical gold. It must comply with IRS standards and be held by the IRA trustee, not the IRA owner.
It must also be kept in an IRS-approved depository. Gold IRA rules require that you store eligible precious metals with a national depositary, bank, or IRS-approved trustee. Your custodian bank can refer you to an approved institution and process the gold transfer as part of setting up your Gold IRA. If you want to avoid the complications of investing in physical gold, you can find out how to buy a gold ETF.
These funds buy up a basket of gold-related investments, such as stocks in various gold mining companies. Some gold IRA companies describe their offerings as diverse because you can hold more than one type of precious metal in them. A gold IRA must be kept separate from a traditional retirement account, although the rules surrounding things like contribution limits and distributions remain the same. The term gold IRA refers to a specialized individual retirement account (IRA) that allows investors to hold gold as a qualified retirement plan.
The leading Gold IRA companies offer unbiased educational resources, investor information, and responsive customer support. Before you open a gold IRA, keep in mind that it’s not the only way to invest in gold with your retirement funds. IRA-eligible gold coins, bars, and coins must meet a number of requirements set out in the Internal Revenue Code in order to be stored in a self-directed IRA. A gold IRA works just like any retirement account with the added benefit of giving you more control over your investment, including physical gold coins and bars, as well as other IRS-approved silver, platinum, and palladium metals.
If you choose to fund the account with assets that are currently in another IRA, the Gold IRA company will help you manage the rollover (more on that process below). Investors with gold IRAs can hold physical metals such as gold bars or coins as well as securities related to precious metals in their portfolio. Many gold IRA companies use scare tactics or use investors’ fears of a (highly unlikely) collapse of the entire financial system and a comprehensive collapse of US gold IRAs, which will help diversify a person’s retirement account and act as a hedge against specific financial factors.
Money Reserve’s Gold Standard Precious Metals IRA program combines the traditional protection of gold and silver with the modern convenience of an IRA. Precious metals such as silver and gold, platinum and palladium are regarded as hedges against inflation and stock market volatility. Gold IRAs allow you to hold these precious metals in an individual retirement account.