Platinum and palladium are permitted in Self-Directed IRAs under the same IRS approval framework as gold and silver. The category is narrow. Industrial demand. autocatalysts, electronics. drives most of the price signal, not monetary-hedge allocation. Few firms specialize. This register lists only the custodians that genuinely handle these metals.
A Gold IRA is an individual retirement account, under the same §408 framework as any other IRA, but with a single qualifying distinction: its custodian is approved to hold physical precious-metals bullion rather than only securities. That distinction is regulatory, not aesthetic. It changes nothing about the tax treatment, the contribution limits, or the distribution timeline.
What it does change is the set of questions one must ask when selecting a provider. Where is the metal stored? Under what insurance? What fee will the custodian charge to custody it, and is that fee transparent before the account is opened? These are not the questions a conventional IRA custodian is trained to answer — which is why the review framework we apply to this category is distinct from the one we apply elsewhere.
Each year we rank the ten custodians we would trust to hold our own retirement gold. These are the first three. The complete Register continues at the link below.
Where the metal is physically held, under what insurance, and — critically — under what annual audit regime. We read the SOC-1 Type II reports ourselves.
Whether the fee schedule is published in writing before the account is opened. The single most reliable leading indicator of long-term satisfaction.
Written buy-back programs, the spread to spot, and the settlement window. A custody relationship you cannot exit is not a custody relationship.
Whether a named analyst exists, whether the portal functions, whether calls are returned. Observed over twelve months of test accounts.
BBB, BCA, state securities divisions, the SEC, CFTC, and FTC enforcement databases. Every venue we can check, we check.
Whether the firm materially improves the account-holder's literacy. A good custodian teaches; a great custodian teaches without selling.
Yes. It enjoys the same §408 tax treatment, the same contribution limits, and the same RMD rules as any other individual retirement account. The distinguishing feature is solely the custodian's approval to hold physical precious metals.
Not while the metal is sheltered inside the IRA — doing so constitutes a distribution and triggers tax consequences. At or after the required-minimum-distribution age, however, you may elect an in-kind distribution, and the custodian ships the physical metal to you directly.
The academic literature — Erb & Harvey (2013), refined by subsequent work — places optimal allocations within diversified portfolios in the 5–15% range, weighted toward the upper bound for investors with particular concerns about currency debasement. Ten percent is a defensible midpoint.
Direct trustee-to-trustee rollovers — the only mechanism we recommend — typically clear in three to ten business days, depending on the originating custodian. Indirect rollovers are faster but subject to the sixty-day deadline and the once-per-year rule.
Under IRC §408(m)(3): gold at .995 fineness or better, silver at .999, platinum and palladium at .9995. American Eagles, Canadian Maples, Austrian Philharmonics, and LBMA-accredited bars. Numismatic and collectible coins do not qualify, regardless of purity.