You can start accepting distributions without having penalties imposed on you by your IRA after you’re 59½ years old. 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. IRA rules for precious metals include some tax breaks, but that also means that there are limits to when you can access your Gold IRA assets.
All Gold IRA rollovers follow the same rules as converting to a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. If you’re not sure whether a gold IRA or a silver IRA is right for you, contact a fee-based financial planner who isn’t affiliated with a gold IRA company to determine whether it would be a good addition to your portfolio. Or, if you have a traditional retirement savings account and want to increase your exposure to gold, read here how you can buy a gold ETF, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of gold. IRS rules allow funding a Gold IRA with funds from another IRA, 401 (k), 403 (b), 457 (b), or Thrift Savings Plan.
One important rule to know about storing physical gold in an IRA is that your precious metals MUST be stored at an approved depository institution such as the Delaware Depository Service Company or Brink’s Global Services, not in your home or in a safe. You can’t add gold or precious metals to your Gold IRA yourself, even if you already own IRA-eligible metals or plan to buy them for investment purposes. If that doesn’t matter to you, there are other ways to add exposure to precious metals to your retirement portfolio, such as buying stocks in gold mining companies. In practical terms, this means that the minimum account accounts with many gold IRA companies would require to invest much more than the 5% or less that financial advisors generally recommend investing in precious metals, which could put your nest egg at too high risk.
Unfortunately, most Gold IRA companies don’t have a good record of fee transparency on their websites, so finding out the details may require a phone call or two. For more information on what to look for when choosing a Gold IRA company, check out Money’s Guide to the Best Gold IRA Companies. Many of the custodians and brokers that open established IRAs that invest in traditional assets are unable to open and operate an SDIRA, including a gold IRA. The rules for withdrawals (selling the gold for cash) depend on whether the gold IRA is a traditional or a Roth IRA.
Most IRA companies may buy back gold, but be aware that the price at which they buy gold is lower than the price at which they sell gold. It should be emphasized that a gold IRA is only necessary if an investor wants to invest in physical gold bars, coins and gold bars. Unlike gold ETFs or gold company stocks, a precious metal IRA allows you to hold the physical precious metals in accordance with IRS regulations.
