Precious Metals IRA: Self-Directed Investments To Secure Your Future

This is a tricky question. Most financial advisors will tell you to invest in mining stocks or an ETF as a way to invest in precious metals. Of course, they’ll incur stockbroker commissions on that stock purchase.

Physical precious metals are a tangible asset whether personally holding metals or in a secure IRA depository. Keep in mind that over the entire history of humanity, precious metals have never been valued at zero, unlike stocks or mutual funds.

Here’s best advice: talk with your financial advisor. But remember, they do have a vested interest in specific types of investments.

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Not at all. At Heartland, we only make our regular small profit on the sale of the metal itself. While we have working relationships with a variety of IRA custodians, we do not earn commissions, kickbacks or any other revenue from them. We maintain these relationships purely as a service to our customers who want this type of precious metal investment to protect their retirement funds.

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Yes and no. If you want precious metals in your IRA account, the answer is no. You cannot personally hold those metals, they must be held at a secure depository and audited by your IRA Custodian. We are required to deliver your precious metals directly to the Depository designated by the IRA Custodian.

If you want to personally take possession of your precious metals, you can simply place your order online with us. However, be aware that if you are planning on using previously saved retirement funds from an existing IRA or account, there may additional tax liabilities and penalties – we recommend you speak with your financial advisor AND your tax advisor first, to avoid any confusion.

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You can request that your IRA Custodian liquidate part or all of your precious metals holdings or to close your account and send you the precious metals to hold personally. However, there are tax implications that you should definitely speak with your tax advisor first. Getting the correct answer upfront is far better than learning of a mistake last minute – especially with taxes.

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At Heartland, we believe that anything is better than nothing at all. However, in order to keep our prices low and our level of service high for you, we do have to maintain a minimum order amount of $100.

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As you look through the Heartland website, you will see specific products labelled as “IRA Eligible.” You can also use the search function to locate all the available IRA eligible products we carry.

We will help you along the way, helping you select products that are eligible and make sense from an investing standpoint.

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After you have funded your IRA account and placed your order, we will work with your IRA Custodian for payment from your account. Usually this only takes a few days, so we can deliver your precious metals to the IRA Depository immediately afterwards. Delivery typically takes a 3-5 days to arrive at the Depository, where it is received and allocated into your account.

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Each precious metals Depository is a secure facility, where every coin or bar is catalogued, insured and allocated to your account. During delivery, your order will be insured and tracking numbers will be available, so you can rest assured that your products are delivered where they should be – when they should be delivered.  Your Depository can provide additional information on how your precious metals are protected while in their possession.

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Every Depository provides complete accounting and reporting, to give you complete confidence that your metals are safe and sound, right where they belong and ready for you to liquidate should you need to do so. Each customer’s allocation are fully segregated, so your metal is not commingled with any other customer’s holdings.

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Yes, once you select an IRA Custodian and open your account, you will be able to rollover or transfer your IRA funds to this account. Heartland is not directly involved in this process, but we can certainly recommend reputable IRA Custodians that we routinely work with to help you.

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Because each company has their own rules in addition to IRS mandates, this can vary. However, some IRA custodians can accomplish a new account in just a few days and have funding rolled over from your old accounts in just a few weeks.

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If you are rolling over a 401K, generally those funds will be directly released to you. In order to avoid any penalties, you will want to deposit those funds in your new IRA Custodian account within 60 days. Your tax advisor can provide additional details, so you should speak with them before you close your 401K account, so you know exactly what you need to do.

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Yes, and to obtain details on this, we recommend you speak with your financial planner or tax professional. Generally, you can have more than one IRA account, but the total maximum contribution remains fixed, no matter how many IRAs you may have open.

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This is a question for your IRA Custodian or Financial Planner and depending upon your income and specific type of accounts you have, you may have some limits.

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All Heartland orders, for IRA or other orders, are shipped free of charge. There could potentially be an additional charge to receive your order at your chosen IRA Custodian, so be sure to check your terms with your Custodian.

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Depending on the size of your IRA account, you may have some additional fees from your custodian or depository. These will be fully disclosed to you in the process of opening an account with them.

Specific IRA Custodians may have different rules and minimums, which you will discover in the account opening process.

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