


To comply with IRS requirements, all IRAs, including precious metals IRAs, must be in the possession of a trustee or custodian. Therefore, legally speaking, precious metals in an IRA are in the custody of the trustee or custodian, not the IRA owner. IRS Publication 590 specifies that for all IRAs, "The trustee or custodian must be a bank, a federally insured credit union, a savings and loan association, or an entity approved by the IRS to act as trustee or custodian."[6] Many trustees/custodians use civilian (private) depositories, which may be approved by various commodities exchanges, for storing IRA metals. Security features may include timed locks and automatic re-locking features, 24/7 monitoring, and motion, sound, and vibration detectors. They typically have large insurance policies, with some amounting to as much as $1 billion. There are two types of sold IRA storage permitted in depositories: non-segregated, where your assets are mixed with the assets of others; and segregated, where your assets are held separately from other people's assets. All nonbank IRA trustees must demonstrate to the IRS that they will meet Treasury standards of accounting, auditing, reporting, and asset security.

In light of our expert identified need for IRS approval, we checked to make sure our worksheet of companies were licensed to deal in gold and bullion services, as well as manage IRS-approved retirement accounts. Then, we checked with the Better Business Bureau. We only selected companies that were BBB members with a rating of “A” or higher. If they didn’t have the credentials, they did not make our list.

A Gold IRA is governed by the same tax rules as other IRAs. Your contributions into a self-directed IRA that holds gold and other precious metals can be deducted from your federal income taxes. The precious metals that you buy and hold in your Gold IRA cannot be withdrawn from the account until you reach the age of 59 1/2 years old without tax effects and a 10 percent penalty for the early withdrawal. Investors with a Gold IRA as part of their retirement portfolio must begin making mandatory minimum withdrawals at age 70 1/2 and pay taxes on those withdrawals.
Anytime you have gold backing up your investments it is beneficial. Rather, instead of your assets being in a state of flux and out of your control, you have the peace of mind that your investments are stable? Having more control of your money and your assets will bring you a peace of mind from just known that you are protected from losing your money as others have.
Here at Advantage Gold, one the top Gold IRA companies in the industry, we believe that having a self-directed IRA backed by IRS approved gold coins, bullion and bars and other approved precious metal products is a sound diversification of anyone’s retirement portfolio and a major reason someone should consider investing in gold as part of their retirement planning.

Redemptions Physical asset possesed by investory so no redemption necessary. If gold is stored in depository, metals can be redeemed at any time, including during a market crash. No delivery option available for the average investor. If you are an authorized participant (a mega-bank) or possess $12.5 million of gold, requests for redemptions can be paid out in gold or in cash.
The gold does not get delivered to you once you purchase it. The reason for this is that you can have penalties if the gold is delivered to you because that would be considered a disbursement of the IRA. Therefore, once you have decided to put some of your money toward gold, you will then have that gold delivered to a designated depository. The depository will depend on who you choose to be the custodian of your gold IRA. You will be informed when your gold reaches the depository and you will never have to worry about your gold ever being taken out of the depository or used by anyone but you.




Remember, many financial advisors and accountants are against gold and precious metal investing as they do not understand it or appreciate its relative historical value. If these advisors are losing fees due to your IRA rollover or new account creation in a gold IRA account, be especially wary of their advice against doing so if it is the direction you would like to go.

An Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) is similar to a mutual fund in that it tracks an asset or an index of assets. A gold ETF may hold various gold assets, including stocks in mining companies as well as gold reserves. Investments in Exchange-Traded Funds have soared in popularity since the turn of the century. The most popular gold ETF is SPDR Gold Shares Exchange Traded Fund, traded as “GLD”. The most popular silver ETF is traded under “SLV”.
