As the nation considers the results the last decade of federal spending and the historic quantitative easing introduced by the Federal Reserve, more and more investors are looking for safe-havens for their long term savings and retirement money. Many investors are concerned about what will happen to the future of their 401K, IRA, or other tax-sheltered account. Fortunately for gold/silver buyers, there’s good news. Current rules allow investors to put almost any kind of tax-deferred money into physical gold and silver. Not just a gold ETF or fancy trading account that represents “virtual” gold or silver, but you can actually own physical gold/silver coins (or bars) in your retirement accounts.
Here’s how it works. Let’s say you have an IRA with $50,000 in it, and you don’t like the risk of the stock market or the pathetic returns offered by savings and money market accounts. You can transfer that IRA money into a special Precious Metals IRA Account and use the $50,000 to buy physical gold or silver bullion. The funds are spent by your IRA custodian to purchase the bullion on your behalf, and then the bullion is stored in a secure vault in a US-based depository in your name. Those coins will sit there on the shelf in that vault with your name on them until you choose to take a disbursement from your IRA. That disbursement will be governed by all the normal rules on eligibility (including age, qualified expenses, etc.).
The good news is that if things ever get really bad and you’d like to take physical possession of your gold/silver yourself, you can tell the depository to ship you your coins/bars (subject to any appropriate penalties and take an early distributions). It’s just like taking a cash distribution from your IRA, except instead of getting a check in the mail, the coins are shipped directly from the depository straight to your door within a couple days of your request. Pretty simple!
Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about buying gold and silver through an IRA. Many dealers charge you way too much for your IRA, and they hope you won’t know the difference. And it’s hard to find the truth, since some IRA dealers have offered enormous incentives to “independent” reviewers to write “reviews” of their company, and those reviewers will receive huge reimbursements for sending customers to that dealer.
Here’s an example of one company that claims to pay referring websites or “reviewers” an affiliate fee of 3%. (Click here.)
The amount that the dealer profits on the transaction is in addition to all of these affiliate commissions! This represents a markup of approximately 5 times what more competitive dealers like Cornerstone charge.
So do your own research, and review truly independent sites like GoldDealerReviews.com that actually solicit customer feedback rather than “independent” reviewers that are paid by the company they are reviewing.
Cornerstone has relationships with the industry's top IRA custodians to help you purchase, receive and store your precious metals in a secure, insured storage facility. Depending on which custodian you choose, you will also pick a 3rd-party secure storage facility to store your metals at. Popular options include Delaware Depository Service Company, Dakota Depository, and Idaho Armored Vaults. Storage fees will vary based on your custodian and account size, but usually range from 0.1-0.5% of the value of your account per year.
Fund your new IRA account. You can fund your new IRA account with a check or bank wire from your personal funds, or you can rollover funds from your existing IRA account.
Once your new IRA Precious Metals account is funded, place an order with Cornerstone Bullion for any IRA-approved precious metals you would like to buy! Cornerstone will work with your custodian to facilitate the prompt payment and shipping of your order. That’s it! You are done, and your IRA is now backed by physical precious metals.
Traditional IRAs
Roth IRAs
401K Plans
* Contact an approved custodian for details on your individual account situation
Gold – 99.5% |
Silver- 99.0% |
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American Eagle coins* | American Eagle coins |
American Buffalo coins | Canadian Maple Leaf coins |
Canadian Maple Leaf coins | 1 Oz Silver Rounds |
Australian Kangaroo & Nugget coins | Silver Bars (various sized) |
Austrian Philharmonic coins | Australian Kookaburra coins |
Britannia Bullion coins (2013 or newer) | Austrian Philharmonic & Mexican Libertad coins |
Gold Bars (various sized) | Britannia Bullion coins (2013 or newer) |
Platinum – 99.95% |
Palladium – 99.95% |
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American Eagle coins | Bars and rounds meeting minimum fineness requirements |
Australian Koala coins | |
Canadian Maple Leaf coins | |
Isle of Man Noble coins |