You’ve decided that you want physical gold as part of your portfolio, you’ve digested this 401(k) to Gold IRA rollover guide, and you’re ready to get started. What’s next? Well, the good news is that rolling over an existing account into a Gold IRA is easy and can be completed in just a few simple steps:
- Open a Gold IRA.
- Complete your rollover.
- Purchase your gold and other precious metals.
Open A Gold Ira
This process is quick and painless. Your account executive will walk you through the custodial application, making sure to “dot the I’s and cross the T’s.” The custodian “hosts” your account and files, reports, and sends all required correspondence and statements. You are never responsible for these tasks, as the custodian does them for you. The required application information is straightforward and typically easy to find.
Once you complete a few forms and e-signatures, you will be the proud new owner of a Gold IRA account.
Complete Your Rollover
Grab a statement from your current plan, then scan it, fax it, email it, or snail mail it to your account executive. Now you can sit back and relax. The executive will forward the statement to the custodian. The account custodian will contact the administrator of your old account and facilitate the rollover.
Yes, it is that simple.
In a few days, your new account will be funded. Remember, if you had $100,000 in your old account, you would have $100,000 in the new account. There are no taxes or penalties to facilitate the Gold IRA rollover.
Purchase Gold And Other Precious Metals
Once you’ve funded your account, your account executive will walk you through the options of eligible gold coins or bars. They can also advise you on any other precious metals allowed in the Gold IRA.
The IRS provides stringent guidelines on the quality, purity, and condition of the metals that you will hold inside your retirement plan:
- Gold must be 99.5% pure.
- Coins must come from approved government mints and remain uncirculated. They must also be in perfect physical condition.
- Bars must match the same purity standard and can only be sourced from approved manufacturers.
Once you’ve decided what metals you want to own, your chosen Gold IRA company purchases, packs, insures, and ships them to your chosen depository.
The IRS regulates all approved depositories, which must meet stringent space, storage, security, administration, and reporting guidelines. The available depositories include some of the most renowned vaults in the world, such as the Delaware Depository, Brinks, JPMorgan, and HSBC Bank.
Upon their arrival, the depository will carefully inspect your metals to ensure they adhere to IRS standards and confirm that they are what they are supposed to be.
Your metals then go into your custodian’s section of the vault, where they sit safe and sound until you visit them at the depository or request physical distribution and have your metals sent to you.
