Old IRA transfered to Sterling Trust?

ttown

I have an old IRA I'm considering transfering the funds to Sterling Trust to buy physical PM's from Bullion Direct. Any one have any experiance or thoughts on these two companies. Sterling claim they store the physical PM's in the at Filelitrade in Delware. Thanks for any helpful input.

jmski52

The original justification for an IRA was to defer payment of taxes on investment gains until you resided in a lower tax bracket when you retire. The Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year, and my antennae tell me that is only the beginning. If income taxes are going to go up, it negates the original justification for even having an IRA.

Metals storage off-site and management fees for a bullion IRA are expensive and the paperwork is onerous. Plus, you can't get your hands on your own metal, and the government can still "see" what's in your account. With the talk about the government imposing a 5% surtax on private retirement accounts in order to help fund social security (welcome to socialism 101), it's a marginal exercise at best, imo.

I may be worth figuring out how the tax on the gain (at today's rates) and how the 10% penalty on the gain in an IRA compare to taking the funds out and having the peace of mind in getting them under your own management.

derryb

A bullion IRA is not a good idea for a number of reasons. Among them:

1.You have to purchase bullion from a dealer that will deposit them with your custodian. This could result in not getting the best price.
2. You cannot deposit your personally held bullion.
3. Continuing administration and storage fees.
4. Although you have physical bullion you do not have possession of it.
5. You can't sell before retirement age without a penalty. Possibility market could be lower by then.
6. Possible future changes to federal tax laws concerning precious metals could negatively impact your holdings.

If you want your IRA in metals, I suggest you open an IRA account with a discount broker (I use Scottrade and am very satisfied) and transfer your funds (do not take possession of the funds) to the new IRA. You pay no penalty or taxes doing so. You can even take some of the transfer in cash to you if you are willing to pay the 10% penalty and the taxes on the additional income. Invest in mining stocks and metals ETFs (there are a number of them such as PHYS, PALL, GDXJ, SIL). You can trade in and out of them at any time and pay no penalty or taxes as long as you leave the funds in the account. I have doubled both my IRA and my brother's IRA in the past 14 months doing this. I have also been successful with ETF VXX that follows ups and downs of DJIA. You can have multiple IRAs and can follow my advice with a portion of your existing IRA. You can even take some cash in the transfer and put that into physical metals but you will pay a 10% penalty (at tax time) plus income taxes on the amount you kept for yourself.

Managing your own investments requires a lot of reading. Internet makes the supply of info endless. You also need to develop thick skin and learn not to freak out on down days.

Here's a link to a good ETF info database.

ETF funds

jmski52

If you want your IRA in metals, I suggest you open an IRA account with a discount broker (I use Scottrade and am very satisfied) and transfer your funds (do not take possession of the funds) to the new IRA. You pay no penalty or taxes doing so. You can even take some of the transfer in cash to you if you are willing to pay the 10% penalty and the taxes on the additional income. Invest in mining stocks and metals ETFs (there are a number of them such as PHYS, PALL, GDXJ, SIL). You can trade in and out of them at any time and pay no penalty or taxes as long as you leave the funds in the account.

If you don't want to close your retirement account, the above is a good option.

ttown

This is an old IRA from an old employeer. This is one roll over idea and storage fees / yr charge is $200 which my funds now have loads. Bullion direct charges 1% buy or sell. That's not out of line IMO. I was hoping someone had looked or had one of these. This account is taxed derferred I've got 4 of these and have done roll-overs before. I wait and see what happens to IRA's before I just jump and cash out I really didn't need information on IRA's but was looking for others ways to invest in physical. Thanks anyway.

derryb

I seriously considered it and after a lot of research decided against a bullion IRA for some of the reasons I posted above. Bottom line: you are locked in on a product until retirement age and pay some fees to be there. If you've got IRA money you want to see grow, reconsider my above advice. I wouldn't have offered it if I had made it work for me. good luck.

gsa1fan

CU member ~ coynclecter use to talk about his Sterling account all the time. I have not seen him around recently though.

ttown

<< <i>I seriously considered it and after a lot of research decided against a bullion IRA for some of the reasons I posted above. Bottom line: you are locked in on a product until retirement age and pay some fees to be there. If you've got IRA money you want to see grow, reconsider my above advice. I wouldn't have offered it if I had made it work for me. good luck. >>



I'm not sure how your locked into anyting at all. You can always transfer it back to a brokers account in the future and there will come a time that is the place to be. Of course my goal is to retain capitol, I've saved hard for 35 years.