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GoldCo Company Review
Brokerage services are available through GoldCo for Gold and Silver IRAs funded with precious metals. The company helps its clients to roll over a traditional retirement account into a Gold IRA. When the client is ready to begin taking distributions, the company will buy back the silver and gold or sell them in the metals market. The full name of the firm is GoldCo Precious Metals.
The headquarters are based out of Woodland Hills, California and were established in 2006. GoldCo was founded specifically to offer self-directed IRAs funded with precious metals including gold, silver, palladium and platinum. Accounts can also be funded with a combination of these metals as opposed to a more traditional investment such as stocks and bonds. Prior to 1997, this type of investment was not possible.
When the Taxpayer Relief Act passed, exceptions were made to the rule regarding collectibles for selected types of bullion and qualifying coins. GoldCo serves clients as a precious metals broker in addition to working with the IRA custodians and creating new IRA accounts for clients. Rollover services are offered to clients interested in transferring 401ks or IRAs from other institutions or companies.
These accounts are rolled over to self-directed Gold or Silver IRAs. Many consumers are interested in investing in this type of IRA due to volatility in the bond and stock markets. Gold IRAs are also appealing to consumers interested in tangible investments as opposed to more traditional investments. The brokerage services offered by GoldCo for IRAs funded with precious metals meet the rules of the IRS.
According to the IRAInvesting.com official review, the company does not provide services for storage or custodianship, but they will provide clients with assistance to set up these services through recommended vendors. GoldCo has achieved both substantial growth and national recognition. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, GoldCo was included on the Inc. Magazine list of the 5000 private companies with the fastest growth in the country.
In 2017, Goldco achieved $89.5 million in revenue and a 676.77 percent growth rate. This is one of many reasons the typical GoldCo company review is good.
What is a Gold IRA
Many individuals do not understand what is a Gold IRA. A Gold IRA is an individual retirement account enabling precious metals or physical gold to be held by the investor. This is not possible with a traditional IRA. A self-directed account is necessary for gold or silver to be held in an IRA. A custodian administers the account and is responsible for the storage of the metals. Precious Metal, Silver and Gold IRA work in a similar fashion to a traditional individual retirement account.
The same distribution rules and contribution limits are applicable. This difference is consumers can hold physical assets including approved precious metals such as gold bars and coins and physical bullion as opposed to stocks and bonds. Gold IRAs can also be used to store shares of gold production and mining companies or gold stocks, gold ETFs to track gold indexes and gold mutual funds investing in stocks, bullion or both.
Consumers interested in holding physical gold through a Precious Metals IRA must first open an SDIRA or self-directed IRA. This type of account is managed directly through a custodian. The custodian must be approved by the Internal Revenue Service. Custodians can be a brokerage, trust company or bank. Although many mutual fund companies and financial services offer traditional IRAs, they do not handle self-directed IRAs.
The consumer must then choose a dealer in precious metals to purchase gold for an IRA. Custodians often make recommendations. The investment options are not the same with every custodian. A self-directed IRA can be established as either a Roth IRA providing distributions tax-free or a traditional IRA with all contributions tax-deductible. Once an IRA is opened, contributions must be made to fund the account.
There are contribution limits in place. Funding can also be through a rollover using a qualified plan including a 401k, 403b or 457. The next step is selecting the precious metals to hold in the account. The transactions are then completed by the metals dealer and custodian on behalf of the client. Not all precious metals qualify for a self-directed IRA. All metals are required to meet the weight and purity standards established by the IRS.
The metals must then be stored in an insured depository with IRS approval. When purchasing coins, there are limitations. Specific government mints must issue the bullion coins. There are several advantages to a Gold IRA including tax benefits. Consumers receive some of the same tax advantages as with a standard IRA. Self-directed IRA contributions are tax-deductible.
Roth accounts with qualified withdrawals are tax-free. For the long term, holding gold is ideal for an IRA. In most cases, the assets remain in storage until the individual is ready for retirement. Greater control is achieved because these types of accounts are always self-directed. This means the holdings are managed directly and all investment decisions are made by the holder of the account.
Gold IRAs offer good investment options for those interested in retirement account diversification. Gold and silver also offer a hedge against traditional financial assets including stocks and currency. The recommendation of many financial experts is to keep five to 10 percent gold in a portfolio.
How Gold and Silver Can Protect Against Inflation
An investment increasing or maintaining value over time is a hedge against inflation. The idea is to provide protection from currency depreciation. One of the poorest inflation hedges is fixed-rate bonds. A good example is investing in a bond with a return of three percent. If the interest rate at this time is five percent, purchasing power is lost.
The majority of hard assets including gold and silver are a good hedge against inflation and currency depreciation. Gold and silver are classified as real assets. This is a physical asset offering an intrinsic value. Due to the inherent value, many investors prefer precious metals as a hedge against inflation. This is because currencies devalue due to inflation while gold and silver have the ability to retain value.
The most widely sought hedge against inflation is gold. One of the earliest indications of inflation pressure is the price of commodities. This means when inflation increases due to an overheated economy, commodity demand generally increases as well. The result is an even higher price. Although there are several causes for inflation, the most common for central banking is an overheated economy.
In this event, central bankers take steps to help ensure inflation remains manageable. A key strategic focus is low inflation. In general, commodities with an intrinsic value such as precious metals are considered by many investors to be a strong hedge against rising inflation. It is not possible to guarantee any investment will perform well, but when the last few decades are considered, the performance of precious metals has been good.
When compounded annually, the average growth rate of gold between 1970 and 2017 is 7.86 percent. During the same time frame, the growth rate of the Dow was just 7.28 percent. Since precious metals including gold and silver are considered a hedge against both inflation and economic uncertainty, many investors consider precious metals a good investment for the long term.
Precious metals are also portable and tangible assets. Investors with current portfolios based on mutual funds, stocks and bonds do not receive the same benefits of protection and diversification as gold and silver. One of the best options for portfolio diversification is allocating between five and 10 percent to precious metals. Many experts in the financial sector use this strategy.
There will always be some analysts recommending allocating a smaller percentage to precious metals. Many of the investors more conscious of the risks involved prefer to add silver and gold to the overall value of their portfolios as a hedge against volatile and unstable market risks. The general rule is investors closer to retirement should make investments in precious metals as opposed to equities.
For those that have lost trust in the United States dollar and other fiat currencies, allocating between 10 and 20 percent to precious metals has become a lot more common. Hard assets including silver and gold have been used as a hedge against the devaluation of numerous currencies and economic catastrophe for centuries. There is a possibility the value of the United States dollar will crash due to inflation.
If this should come to pass, storing wealth using precious metals will provide protection and can preserve the life savings of the investors. Other consumers have completely lost confidence in the current system. Many of them believe a collapse of the current financial system is imminent. If this happens, it will become common to allocate between 20 and 30 percent of portfolios to precious metals.
The actual percentage should be determined by each individual investor. Some of the beginners prefer to play it safe by allocating a smaller percentage. Regardless of the percentage, investors can always make adjustments according to current economic results. This should answer the question of how gold and silver can protect against inflation.
401k Rollover Process
If a current investment portfolio or retirement account is biased towards any asset connected to the dollar such as stocks or bonds, the individual might be considering converting a percentage to gold or silver bullion bars or coins. This is a good way to protect your assets against economic uncertainty, currency debasement and inflation. This process is referred to as a Gold IRA rollover.
The term rollover is in reference to opening a self-directed IRA. The investor can use this type of account to invest in silver or gold. The rollover process is fairly simple and the majority of companies provide clients with any necessary assistance. There is an option to use cash to fund a new Gold IRA. The safer strategy offering tax advantages is to move the retirement savings with a rollover.
It is important to understand two different methods are available for funding a new self-directed IRA without losing the tax advantages. These are a transfer and a rollover. The two are often confused with both being referred to as a rollover. The reality is different since they are not the same. Certain individuals believe any type of fund movement from a retirement account is a rollover. Others still have questions regarding the 401k rollover process.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, the distinction between a transfer and a rollover is clear. In the instance of a rollover, the funds moved are paid to the individual prior to being deposited into the new account. In the case of a funds transfer, the original IRA custodian directly transfers the money to the new IRA custodian the individual has selected to receive the money.
The account holder never actually sees or takes possession of the funds. Once a Gold IRA has been established, the company responsible for the management of the 401k is contacted so the rollover process can begin. The first step is deciding between an indirect and direct rollover. For a direct IRA rollover, money is directly moved from one account to the other.
For the completion of an indirect rollover, money is withdrawn from one account prior to being deposited into another. The simpler choice is generally the direct option because the risk of receiving penalties from the IRS significantly decreases. An indirect rollover provides the individual with a period of 60 days from the date the funds were received for the funds to be transferred to a Gold IRA company or custodian.
If the transfer is not completed within the 60 day period, the money withdrawn becomes taxable. If the individual has not yet reached the age of 59 and 1/2, an early withdrawal penalty of 10 percent is charged. Regardless of the rollover option selected, all special rollover requirements for the company must be satisfied. Once these requirements have been met, a check for the funds is sent to either the Gold IRA custodian or the individual. At this time, the 401k rollover is complete.