Choosing your Gold IRA company is the first step to opening your IRA. If you decide to invest in a precious metals IRA, you should do so conservatively. Depending on your financial situation, most experts recommend investing no more than 5 to 10% of your retirement savings in precious metals. Acceptable products that meet these criteria include Canadian Maple Leaf coins, Australian Koala investment coins, and PAMP Suisse bars.
The IRS also allows American Eagle coins even though they don’t meet the 99.5% purity standard for gold. You can’t currently hold rare or collectible coins, Swiss francs, British government bonds, and German marks in a self-governing IRA. If you want to hold physical gold in an IRA, the first step is to open a self-directed IRA (SDIRA), which you manage directly with a custodian bank. Surprisingly, a gold IRA doesn’t just have to hold gold, you don’t have to hold any gold in one at all.
Many of the leading gold IRA companies have similar fee structures, but they can vary by a few hundred dollars per year. You’ll also need to choose a precious metals dealer who will make the actual gold purchases for your IRA (your custodian may be able to recommend one for you). You want to choose a Gold IRA company that is transparent, easy to set fees, and has a good reputation. Given that you can also hold silver coins or gold bars, platinum, and palladium in a gold IRA, the correct term is technically “precious metal IRA.”
However, instead of holding paper assets such as stocks and bonds, the Gold IRA is intended to hold physical gold bars, i.e. coins or bars made from gold and other approved precious metals, including silver, platinum, and palladium. Making a mistake, even if it happens accidentally, can be very costly. So it’s worth knowing what the IRS will and won’t let the IRS do with your Gold IRA. When you talk to a gold IRA company for the first time, make sure you know whether you’re going to extend or transfer an existing IRA or 401 (k), or whether you’re setting up a new IRA with cash. Consult reputable outside sources or a fee-based financial planner for investment advice if you’re not sure whether a gold IRA is right for you.
If you’re not sure whether a gold IRA or physical gold is best for you, check out my article that explains the differences as well. A gold IRA company will help you set up your account and sell you the gold (or silver) coins or bars that fund it. You can transfer all or part of the balance to fund a Gold IRA with no tax liability, as long as you complete the rollover within 60 days. Opening a self-directed IRA and investing in precious metals is a bit more complicated than opening a traditional IRA or Roth IRA.
To comply with the many regulations surrounding gold IRAs, you can’t store your gold at home or in a safe deposit box. Before you initiate the transfer, it’s important to calculate how much of your existing retirement savings you’d like to invest in your new Gold IRA.
