Can I Use an Existing Retirement Account to Fund a Precious Metal IRA?

If you have a retirement plan from a previous employer or if you retire or change jobs, you can transfer funds from your employer's plans, such as a 401 (k), 403 (b), 457 (b) or TSP plan, to a self-directed IRA to buy precious metals. The simplest way to move funds from your 401k account to your new gold IRA is to make a direct transfer. After setting up a gold IRA, just contact the administrator of your 401k plan, the person who is your trustee of that account, and tell them to transfer the amount of funds you want to invest in your gold IRA to the custodian trustee of your gold IRA. You will receive a custodian trustee for your gold IRA as part of the account setup process.

Your gold IRA trustee can provide you with all the information you need to give to your 401k plan administrator to facilitate the transfer of funds. First, as mentioned, a precious metals IRA gives you access to holding physical gold and silver, in the form of ingots (ingots or rounds of gold) or coins. Custodians also work with several suppliers, such as SchiffGold, to offer and facilitate specific and permitted investments in precious metals under the internal tax code. In any case, remember that precious metals and precious metal funds should add some sparkle to your retirement funds, not become your entire investment strategy. Opening a self-directed IRA and investing in precious metals is a bit more complicated than opening a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA.

Starting in 1998, the IRS granted investors the opportunity to hold a wide range of coins and precious metal ingots in individual IRAs. Some providers in the gold IRA industry have been intensively advertising “IRAs with home delivery”. The IRA depositary will manage the payments and the dealer will send your precious metals to the warehouse. If you want an asset with the highest potential for financial returns, then precious metals aren't it. Check out American Bullion Gold's complimentary IRA guide, which gathers information and images to inform you about the ownership of gold and other precious metals.

In the case of a reinvestment, the current IRA depositary will give you the money you want to withdraw and then you will have 60 days to deposit the funds into your new gold IRA account. In other words, no reliable financial advisor would recommend that you invest all your assets in precious metals. Whenever you want to make additional purchases of precious metals for your IRA, simply send what's known as a “buying instruction letter” to your custodian trustee, telling them what to buy, where to buy it, and at what price. However, there are specially designed precious metal IRAs that allow you to invest for retirement using gold, palladium, silver, and other valuable metals. If you want to be more easily exposed to these investments without having to open a special type of IRA or find custodians, agents and custodians, consider investing in securities such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that track indices or prices of precious metals.

A gold IRA is a type of retirement account that allows you to invest in gold and other precious metals. These minimum withdrawals can be more complicated, since you'll be forced to make them at intervals equal to those of the complete pieces of precious metals you own, and individual precious metals can be retailed at thousands of dollars per ounce.