How can one keep the tax benefit of an IRA but "invest" in gold, not gold shares or futures, but gold coins?

-- Pat Spruce (patspruce@hotmail.com), March 31, 1998

Answers

One can legally hold precious metals bullion (e.g., "new age" gold, silver and platinum coins) in a self-directed IRA account. The problem is that there are virtually no custodians or trustees which have the proper tools to periodically value the assets for reporting purposes. If you are serious about this, contact a reputable dealer, make a decent-sized purchase out of your taxable account to establish a legitimate business relationship, and then ask your dealer to divulge to you which custodial or trustee programs for precious metals bullion can be accessed. This worked for me, but it took some time.

-- R L Flink (CFA100@msn.com), April 02, 1998.

Call American Church Trust Company at 1-800-228-8825 and ask for a self directed IRA account packet. After filling it in, sending it back, getting the funds transferred from your existing IRA (do NOT take direct possession of the check!), you can purchase gold, silver, and/or platinum coins from the broker of your choosing. Note that not all types of coins are elgible for purchases inside an IRA. All U.S. Mint issued coins (Eagles) are as well as some others. You must have a seperate investment direction form filled out and signed (fax is okay) for each coin purchase. Your metal is stored at Wilmington Trust Company in Delaware. No funds are released to the broker until ACTC is informed by Wilmington that they've received the coins. You might want to hurry a bit. This process takes about 3 weeks to complete and gold, having bottomed in January at about $280, is starting to show signs of life. The metal markets are VERY small compared to equities and it won't take much to really spike that price. $45 million buys all the elgible gold at Comex. Warren Buffet spent twenty times that much last year on silver!

-- DentArthurDent (fordprefct@stlnet.com), April 04, 1998.