American IRA: created by investors for investors.
Hello, and welcome to the first article!
I’m Jim Hitt, CEO and founder of American IRA, and today I’ll be explaining what a self-directed retirement account is from the ground up. At the heart of it, a self-directed account is simply an IRA or 401(k) that allows you, the account owner, to make all of the investment decisions associated with your retirement plan. This means that you’re in charge – “the power of choice”.
While this first video lays the groundwork for everything to come, it’s also important to understand that self-directed accounts are the ultimate opportunity for true diversification — many clients choose to direct their investments into non-traditional assets. This includes anything outside of traditional assets, from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and real estate to tax liens, private stock, providing cash for private loans, and nearly anything you can think of! Many of our clients also like to have the flexibility to invest in securities, and that can be accomplished through self-directed IRAs.
While I personally tend to take a more informative, educational role at American IRA, neither I nor my staff can handpick nor approve anything you choose to invest in. We do take care of all required third party annual reporting to the IRS, but we aren’t registered to be investment advisors.
That leads me to another point altogether: the educational component that really makes us unique. We may not be personal consultants, but we do provide in-depth education that’s more detailed in scope. It can be challenging to connect Point A to Point B (much less to Point Z!) in any new endeavor, but our regularly-released articles and events, our exceptional staff, and our other resources were created to guide the self-directed investments of beginners and experienced investors alike.
Finally, here are a few diverse aspects of self-directed retirement accounts you should also keep in mind:
- Transferring from your existing IRA or 401(k) to American IRA is a non-taxable event
- Your retirement account’s rules remain the same as they were before the transfer; traditional IRAs or Roths at another institution will keep their traditional or Roth format
- You still retain the same FDIC insurance on cash. Funds are held at the Custodial Bank, which has an Office of the Comptroller Currency (OCC) charter (the highest level of compliance)
- Your investment choices are nearly unlimited – you have the “power of choice”
