Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
can be funded with physical gold and silver, yet
very few investors are aware of this fact. They are
exempt from all capital gains taxes, so if your
investments perform well over a long period of time,
it can result in huge savings.
Diversifying your retirement
portfolio with precious metals is fundamentally
required if you properly understand asset allocation
(see the
Ibbotson study). Additionally precious
metals normally rise during periods of unsettling
events such as wars, terrorism, inflation,
deflation, downturns in the stock market and the US
dollar. Precious metals usually yield large profits
in these circumstances.
What is unique about this plan is
that you can take physical possession of the
actual gold or silver when you make your withdrawals.
That’s correct! You can cash out in real
honest-to-goodness gold and silver instead of fiat
dollars. This is the most important feature of
all. Down the road, in this generational bull
market in gold and silver, the odds are in your
favor that you will want and need the physicals when
it’s time to access your investment.
Once you decide that you want to
include precious metals in your retirement planning,
you need to determine how much you want to invest.
How much depends on your annual contribution, your
personal goals and your individual investment
philosophy. Factors to consider are your age, total
assets and risk tolerance.
Very few institutions are set up to
handle the precious metals component of retirement
plans. One of the leaders in the field is GoldStar
Trust Company. GoldStar Trust Company for investors
who want IRAs that will accept precious metals.
GoldStar serves as custodian for approximately
20,000 self-directed IRAs with assets in excess of
$700 million.
GoldStar is not a coin dealer, but it
will work with dealers who buy and sell precious
metal coins and bullion for your IRA on your
instructions.
Establishing an IRA with GoldStar Trust Company
Setting up a self-directed IRA with
GoldStar is easy. I will be discussing this at the
Money Show in Las Vegas in May. Afterwards there
are only three steps to follow.
1. Submit the paperwork.
2. Fund the account.
3. Direct your broker which precious metals to buy.
The metals are stored at HSBC Bank
USA’s New York precious metals depository, which is
one of the world’s largest and is used by COMEX and
other major commodities exchanges. Annual storage
fees are charged at a flat fee of $90 per year
regardless of the size of the account.
Steps #1 and #2 involves completing
the proper forms to transfer the funds to GoldStar.
Normally, the funds are transferred directly from an
existing IRA or Qualified Retirement Plan.
In Step
#3, the IRA investor directs a dealer which precious
metals to buy.
In
my next issue I will be covering the IRA
distribution and which coins and metal qualify.
David Morgan
E-mail:
ibtimes@silver-investor.com
Mr. Morgan has followed the
silver market daily for over thirty years. Much of
this Web site,
www.silver-investor.com, is devoted to education
about the precious metals.