3 Steps to Starting a Gold IRA

Starting on a new gold IRA does not require a complicated process. In fact, you can easily create a new gold Individual Retirement Account in just a few simple steps. Because gold is believed to be a safe type of investment — since the price of gold does not tend to decrease dramatically even during the stock market’s weakest period — more and more conservative investors find this kind of investment very reliable.

This type of IRA was approved through the 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act, which allows certain precious metals like gold, silver, and platinum to be added to an IRA. The gold IRA is, however, closely monitored by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). There are certain rules and regulations that need to be followed by IRA investors so as to avoid engaging in prohibited transactions.

Here are the necessary steps to starting a gold IRA:

1. Choose the type of gold-silver IRA plan that would best suit your investment needs. Both the traditional and Roth IRA are accepting gold as an investment, so you may wish to talk with your financial adviser to decide which investment vehicle is appropriate for your particular situation. You will likely want to choose an account that is managed by an experienced custodian, especially when it comes to dealing with gold.
2. Submit the required documents and file the necessary paperwork. Pay the annual storage fee, which is usually less than 1% of the total gold assets. This is mandatory because the gold has to be safely kept in an approved depository, which must not be in the same place as the custodian. Also, make sure that you know what other annual fees need to be settled, like insurance from theft, etc.
3. Once the gold IRA has been set up fully, you can start making contributions via a rollover or transfer from another IRA, or through an annual contribution. Once the cash is settled in your IRA, decide whether to buy gold coins or gold mining stocks. Then you may instruct the custodian to purchase this for you. Remember that you are not allowed to contribute pre-owned gold coins or bullions.

The IRS prohibits collectible coins and metals as IRA investments, except for US minted coins which have less subjective investment value standards.

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