Opening a self-directed precious metals individual retirement account can be a relatively simple process with assistance from an experienced precious metals provider such as Lear Capital — which since 1997 has helped more than 90,000 customers make bullion and premium coin purchases and add physical precious metal assets to self-directed IRAs, according to the company’s founder and Chairman Kevin DeMeritt.
Numerous investors have chosen to incorporate physical assets such as gold and silver into a self-directed IRA, a type of retirement savings account that can contain a variety of assets.
While you can’t just include any valuables you’d like — belongings such as expensive rugs, for instance, or collectible stamps aren’t eligible, according to Internal Revenue Service guidelines — self-directed IRAs generally offer an opportunity to hold a more diversified mix of assets than a traditional IRA would allow.
In addition to the stocks, bonds, and mutual funds that are often found in traditional IRAs, you can purchase and include items ranging from real estate to certain gold coins in self-directed IRAs.
Much like more conventional IRAs, self-directed IRAs also offer tax benefits. Contributions are made on a pretax basis, and taxes are deferred until distributions are taken. If you hold physical precious metal assets in a Roth IRA, contributions are made on a post-tax basis, which essentially amounts to tax-free withdrawals.
Some investors choose to make precious metals part of a self-directed IRA due to their history of performing well, even when economic challenges have emerged. A Gallup poll found the number of Americans who feel gold is a better long-term investment than stocks and bonds nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023, growing from 15% to 26%.
“Gold has outperformed the stock market since 2000,” Kevin DeMeritt says. “Gold has an inverse relationship to stocks and other types of assets; it’s a great diversification tool. In times of war or terrorism, usually you’re going to find the markets become extremely volatile. Gold typically is going to give you more stability.”
Lauren W. is one portfolio holder who worked with Lear Capital when moving from a traditional IRA to an IRA backed by gold and silver.
“The process was painless, and Lear took care of all the details,” Lauren said in one of the Lear Capital reviews that’s been shared on Google. “I feel much better having diversified my retirement plans, and I owe it to these guys.”
Getting Started
The physical precious metals investment process involves several steps; working with a qualified provider, such as Lear Capital, can potentially make the experience easier.
Since 1997, Lear Capital has been offering guidance to help investors establish and fund self-directed IRA accounts and purchase precious metals to hold in them.
The first step is to fill out the paperwork to open an account, if you don’t already have one. After the account is set up, you can fund it three different ways.
Directly adding money from a savings or checking account is one option. You can also choose to roll over funds from an existing retirement savings account. Roth, SEP or SIMPLE IRA, 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), pension plan, or Thrift Savings Plan accounts all qualify.
If you opt for a rollover method, to prevent tax penalties from being incurred, you can either move funds via a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer — where money is moved from your current IRA provider to your new precious metals IRA provider — or have your current IRA account custodian mail a check directly to you, which you’ll then need to deposit into your self-directed IRA account within 60 days.
“If you have a 401(k) or an IRA, and you’d like to take a portion of that and move it over to a self-directed gold-backed IRA, you can do that,” Kevin DeMeritt says. “[It] takes about five, 10 minutes to put the paperwork together.”
You can then use the funds to purchase precious metals. Lear Capital offers a wide selection of coins and other items that meet IRS standards for inclusion in an IRA. Gold assets, for instance, must have an at least 0.995 gold composition.
“The government has made these rules that it has to have a fineness to it,” Kevin DeMeritt says. “If it has that quality, then you can add it to an IRA; if it does not, then you cannot — with the one exception being an American Eagle [coin], which does not have that fineness, but the government made an exception [for it].”
Once you’ve purchased the precious metals that will be held in your IRA, Lear Capital will arrange for the items to be securely sent to a storage facility such as the Delaware Depository, which backs its services with a comprehensive insurance policy underwritten by Lloyd’s of London, in accordance with IRS stipulations that require physical precious metal assets to be kept in a recognized financial institution or IRS-approved depository.
“[To] continue to get the tax benefit of that retirement account, you cannot hold those metals yourself,” Kevin DeMeritt says. “The government needs to confirm that you actually have the metals.”
Lear Capital Reviews Say Its Services Have Been Beneficial
Investors have seemed to appreciate Lear Capital’s assistance when opening and funding a precious metals-backed IRA, Kevin DeMeritt says.
“We help make sure everything’s filled out correctly [and] the process goes through in a timely manner,” he says. “Typically, you don’t want to wait around for four to six weeks to get the money transferred, and then put metals into your portfolio. We try to move as quickly as humanly possible to get that money over and get people the metals they want.”
Investors who have worked with Lear Capital have described its account executives as “very informative” and “patient and respectful,” according to Lear Capital reviews on platforms such as Trustpilot, where the company has a five-star rating, indicating excellent customer satisfaction.
“We were very pleased with the care and concern our account agent provided to us,” Jackie F. said in one of the Lear Capital reviews that has been shared on Trustpilot. “He was very helpful in explaining what would be best in regard to our current financial wishes. Everything was handled with the utmost professionalism.”
In another one of the Lear Capital reviews on Trustpilot, Jeffrey W. described the account executive he worked with from the company as “warm, helpful, patient and professional.”
“His approach to giving me the A to Z of understanding the gold and silver markets was well structured,” Jeffrey said. “Overall, Lear does a great job of breaking [the process of investing] down into simple chunks that are easy to understand and follow.”
