Quick Guide:
Precious Metals IRA's

4 metals, 4 benefits, 5 steps to diversify your portfolio.

A Precious Metals IRA is a retirement account that allows you to diversify into metals like gold and silver. This helps you to protect your nest egg from inflation, currency devaluation, and fluctuation from other investments.

4 Types of Precious Metals

The IRS currently allows four different precious metals as investments in an IRA, as long as they are in the form of bars and coins with certain specifications.

1. Gold – For all of recorded history, gold has been esteemed as a precious metal used in a wide range of applications: from jewelry through electronics to coinage through investments. Unlike fiat currency, gold has undeniable intrinsic value and remains the most popular precious metal for investments.
2. Silver – Gold’s more affordable sibling, silver, has its own set of industrial applications that sustain its ongoing demand.
3. Platinum – Platinum is a very rare metal with high demand in both economic and automotive applications. Experts tout platinum as a leader in long-term value.
4. Palladium– Palladium is another rare metal that is highly sought-after in dental, environmental, and even jewelry applications. The acute shortage for this metal combined with rapidly increasing demand bodes well for its future performance.

4 Benefits of Diversifying

There are at least four benefits to diversifying your retirement savings with the purchase of precious metals.

1. Safe haven – A safe haven is a type of asset that is more likely to be protected or even profit during times of economic hardship. The historical performance of precious metals like gold has shown prices to endure or even grow when the dollar fails, earning them “safe haven” status.
2. Hedge against inflation – If inflation were to occur, the purchasing power of a single dollar would be reduced. Precious metals such as gold are not subject to the same fluctuations in value that currencies experience, with metals markets acting independently.
3. Retain value – Because precious metals have intrinsic value—they can be used directly in very specific applications—they retain their value over time. Currencies are ultimately just pieces of paper, and so they are far more vulnerable to swings in value and waves of panic during times of economic trouble.
4. Can perform when the dollar fails – When the U.S. dollar’s value starts to be reduced, the value of precious metals like gold and silver tends to increase—which can help stabilize a retirement portfolio.

How We Help: 5 Easy Steps

With 5 steps, your Precious Metals Specialist can help you move your retirement account into a Precious Metals IRA, without any tax penalties or implications.

1. Start your account and pick your funding source(s).

In order to start your precious metals IRA, you will need to consider how you will fund this account. This decision will include whether you will transfer an IRA or roll over a 401(k) into a new self-directed IRA (SDIRA), within which you will then purchase your precious metals.

Eligible retirement accounts can be moved into your Precious Metals IRA with no penalties, just like with a conventional retirement account. You may even opt to move portions of your existing retirement accounts over into your new one. In this step, you will also decide how much you would like to place into your SDIRA to start.

Some of the accounts from which you can roll over into a Precious Metals IRA include:

• Traditional IRA
• Roth IRA
• SEP IRA
• SIMPLE IRA
• Eligible 401(k), 403(b), 457, and other retirement plans

Please note, Electrum Gold has a minimum purchase amount of $10,000, so your new IRA must be funded with at least this much money.

You will have a Precious Metals Specialist assigned to you who will be on hand to help you review accounts to transfer over and answer any questions you might have.

2. Choose your precious metals.

At this point, you will review your precious metals options and decide which ones you want to buy—and how much of each.

As noted above, there are four precious metals that you can buy within your IRA:

• Gold
• Silver
• Platinum
• Palladium

You will need to adhere to IRS guidelines in order to maximize your tax benefits by purchasing these metals through an IRA, but that primarily involves having your custodian complete the paperwork for transactions and your depository physically storing the precious metals.

3. Make your purchase.

Your Precious Metals Specialist will review your order with you and get your final confirmation to proceed.

4. Your precious metals are stored in an insured depository.

As part of the account set-up process, your Precious Metals Specialist will walk you through a list of options for storing your precious metals.

We most commonly work with the leading depositories including Brink’s Global Service and Delaware Depository, which offers insurance of up to $1 billion.

5. See how your IRA performs.