Gold IRA the Basics: Everything you need to know about a Gold IRA
Curious if a Gold IRA is right for you? You may have prepared for your retirement by setting up a qualified retirement account, such as an IRA or a 401(k), but even if those accounts contain substantial amounts, you might still worry because you don’t know what the future will bring for your portfolio.
That’s why you should prepare yourself for any situation that could put your savings at risk. Today’s financial climate is characterized by weakening economies across the world, financial uncertainty, historically high levels of debt, international conflicts. And inflation, and these are all factors you must consider when deciding how to save money for your retirement.
Historically, physical gold and silver have hedged against volatility associated with the dollar. You can diversify your savings with physical precious metals via a self-directed IRA. This is where Gold Alliance can help you.
What is a Gold IRA?
A Gold IRA is a self-directed IRA that contains physical gold and/or other precious metals. The 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act allows Americans to own and maximize the benefits of physical precious metals in a self-directed IRA by rolling over amounts from their qualified accounts into this plan without any taxes taken or penalties.
Opening a Gold Alliance Precious Metals IRA allows you to protect the purchasing power of your hard-earned retirement savings by combining the power of tax-advantaged growth with the benefits that come from owning physical gold and silver bullion and coins.
What are the benefits of owning physical gold and silver in an IRA?
True diversification
Your biggest enemy when saving for the long term, like building your savings inside your IRA or 401(k), is losses that will take you years to recoup. Therefore, portfolio stability is key to success.
Stability is achieved with true diversification, which means your savings contain assets that are uncorrelated or inversely correlated with each other: When some assets go down in value, others go up in a balancing see-saw effect.
Physical precious metals, such as gold and silver, are mostly uncorrelated with stocks and bonds, which make up most Americans’ savings. Physical metals typically rise in value when traditional financial assets go down, thereby allowing the diversification that paper assets usually cannot provide.
Having only stocks and bonds in your retirement accounts is not true diversification as these assets may go down together in a financial crisis. Diversifying with tangible assets that have a proven track record, like gold and silver, may provide your portfolio with stability in the good and bad times.
Protection against inflation
Dollar-denominated assets, like stocks and bonds, depend on our currency system, our government, and the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s monetary policies of printing trillions of dollars create inflation, which erodes the purchasing power of the dollar and dollar-denominated assets. These policies, however, cannot decrease the intrinsic value of physical gold and silver, which means precious metals may help defend your savings against inflation, and they have a history of doing exactly that. Gold has been the best-returning asset in all 7 inflationary periods in the last two decades.
Protection against recessions and financial crises
Physical gold and silver have a historic track record of defending savings against economic uncertainty when our nation faced economic hardship, such as the oil embargo of 1973, the Great Recession, or the effects of the pandemic. During those times, when traditional paper assets and digital assets declined, precious metals not only stabilized savings but also helped them grow substantially.
Gold is a physical, tangible asset
An often overlooked benefit of owning physical precious metals is the security in having an asset you can physically hold. In today’s technological era, banks and other financial institutions may be less secure than they used to be, which means your mainstream assets, such as bank savings, stock portfolios, or other digital assets, are at a higher risk of being compromised or hacked. Doesn’t it make perfect sense to have a portion of your portfolio in physical gold and silver — real and tangible assets you can store completely inaccessible to the banking system?
Gold has no third-party risk
One of the main reasons Americans consider holding physical gold in a Gold IRA as the best hedge against inflation, financial crises, and economic uncertainty is the fact that it has absolutely no third-party risk. Physical gold has no debt or promise attached to it. Once you own it, it’s 100% yours. It’s a real, tangible asset that no one can take away from you.
Unlike stocks, the successful performance of gold does not rely on the decisions of a board of directors, and no CEO can embezzle it away from you. On top of that, gold is highly liquid and can be converted back to cash quickly.
You can hope that your stocks will appreciate, that the economy will thrive, and that your assets are secure online. You can rely on your portion of gold when those fail.
Acquiring and holding physical gold and silver in an IRA is a straightforward process
With Gold Alliance, holding physical gold and silver in an IRA is a breeze. Our mission is to help our clients through the ownership of physical precious metals, so when you choose Gold Alliance as your provider of premium gold and silver products and services, you’ll benefit from our outstanding personalized service, which we have perfected over years of business.
We want happy clients, and we know that this means that you understand what gold and silver can do for you and that you understand the process for both buying and selling.
When opening a Precious Metals IRA with us, you will experience our simple and easy process:
- We will help you complete the paperwork required for our qualified IRA custodian to open your self-directed IRA account under your name and sole control.
- In as little as 3 days, you can fund your new self-directed IRA account. Simply approve the transfer of funds you choose from your existing IRA, 401(k), or other qualifying retirement plan to your new account.
- You’re now ready to acquire physical gold and silver for your new Precious Metals IRA and enjoy the protection it gives to your retirement savings.
We have designed the three-step process to be fast and easy, and one of our team members will always be just a phone call, email, or text away to assist you throughout the process to ensure a great, worry-free experience.
How your Gold IRA is administered with a specialized custodian
The law requires that every IRA is administered by a custodian. At Gold Alliance, we work only with IRA custodians who specialize in self-directed IRAs, which are the only type of retirement account that lets you hold precious metals. To ensure the highest security and the best experience, we have chosen to recommend Preferred Trust, Equity Trust, and Goldstar Trust as custodians. We are convinced that working with any of these custodians will give you absolute peace of mind because they administer your IRA correctly to comply 100% with the law. Your custodian is a valuable resource, who is happy to answer your questions related to the administration of your Precious Metals IRA account, but you are, of course, always welcome to call us with any questions you may have.
Preferred Trust
Formed in 2007, Preferred Trust’s top priority is providing quick processing times, few transaction fees, personalized customer service, and the highest standard of compliance. The company serves all 50 states and administers hundreds of millions in retirement assets. Learn more at www.preferredtrustcompany.com.
Equity Trust
Equity Trust was founded in 1974. As America’s leading provider of self-directed IRAs, it manages more than $25 billion in assets and serves all 50 states. Read more at www.trustetc.com.
Goldstar Trust
Goldstar Trust’s parent company, Happy State Bank, was founded in 1908. Today, Goldstar Trust is the custodian of more than 37,500 self-directed IRAs, and the company has an A+ rating with the BBB. Learn more at www.goldstartrust.com.
How Are Your Precious Metals Stored in a Gold IRA?
When you purchase gold and silver from Gold Alliance, it will be stored under your IRA account and in your name in a secure, non-government depository approved and regulated to do so by the IRS. Your precious metals will be fully insured, safe from creditors, and geographically removed from financial and political centers for safekeeping. There are several options for you to choose from for locations in the US, and there is even one location outside the US.
Which depository is recommended for Gold IRAs?
We recommend the Delaware Depository. Delaware Depository is covered by insurance through London Underwriters (a Florida LLC), and it’s an IRS-compliant (IRC – 408n) depository for IRA assets. Physical precious metals held at Delaware Depository are fully allocated and held off-balance sheet. The company is free of debt, with no lending, pledging, or encumbering of bullion, so your precious metals will be safe from creditors. Its fortified, access-controlled facilities cover 72,000 square feet and feature state-of-the-art security systems and Class 3 vaults.
Delaware Depository offers comprehensive inventory controls and reporting systems, and it’s geographically separate from major political and financial centers.
With Delaware Depository, your custodian and you communicate directly with the vault, not through a middleman. You can even visit your gold and silver held there.
