March 17, 2010

Many investors, regardless of their investment strategy, look to their IRA as their safety net to retirement. To play it safe, many have been sitting on the sidelines and leaving their cash in the bank, which is falling behind due to less than 1% on their accounts. I can understand this strategy, as those who have lost a lot of money in the market over the last two years are concerned about losing more. But how can we really grow at 1% or less?

Others invest in mutual funds, stocks, bonds or other traditional investments, looking for a higher return. This strategy may be a way to increase your returns, especially if you have a financial advisor you know and trust. But again, many have lost money with their advisors because of the market, the economy, the decline of the real estate markets, unemployment and more.

What is an investor to do in order to grow their IRA and ensure a financial future? Especially if you as the investor feel you need to accumulate wealth on your terms? One suggestion is to control your IRA by investing in assets you know, understand, can kick the tires or research; in other words that involve you and the specific choice that you make for your investing.

Does this take work? Yes. You need to understand what you are investing in, educate yourself on how a truly self-directed IRA works, and be comfortable with the administrator who does this work for you. Fidelity, Schwab and others say you can self-direct your IRA, but think about this: What they call self-directing is investing in their funds/portfolios. To my knowledge, a brokerage house has never allowed an investor to acquire a piece of real estate in their IRA.

The Entrust Group, the largest network of third party administrators in the country, works exclusively with self-directed retirement plans where the investor selects the asset and we, as your administrator, follow your direction. That is the true definition of a self-directed IRA. You control, we follow your instruction. Entrust remains committed to our industry-leading customer service, to our ability to listen to our clients and execute the acquisition of the asset in a timely professional matter, and to provide this outstanding service at a reasonable price.

Entrust does not give investment advice or make recommendations. We strictly do the record keeping on behalf of your IRA. Sound interesting? Visit www.theentrustgroup.com and locate the closest office to you. Learn from them what other successful investors have learned. At times it is best to trust yourself to control your financial future.

Sun Life did a recent survey to determine where we get our financial advice.

– 43% of those polled get advice from family members
– 36% get their advice from financial advisers

I guess the rest do their own research and determine their own investment strategies.

How about you? Where do you go to learn about investing?

Let The Entrust Group be your guide to learn more about investing with a self-directed IRA. Visit Entrust at http://www.theentrustgroup.com

Have you ever asked yourself “what could I have done differently in planning for my retirement?”

Many of us have depended on others to advise them and invest their IRA or (k) plans on their behalf. There are many excellent financial advisors out there who do what is in the best interest of their clients. They listen to their needs, assess their level of risk and invest accordingly. However, no one is ever going to care about your money as much as you will. Your retirement plan is one of the last tax-enhanced programs available to you.

With the majority of baby boomers approaching age 65 in this decade and the outlays for Social Security beginning to exceed income collected from payroll taxes bu 2016, we need to seriously take steps now to grow our IRA. Let’s face it, we can’t count on Social Security or other government programs to provide the income needed to secure a comfortable financial future. It’s time to do some planning and to take responsibility for the growth of your retirement account. It’s not too late!

Add value to your retirement plan by taking control and diversifying into a self-directed IRA. This type of IRA allows you to select assets and acquire them directly, on behalf of your retirement plan. From Real Estate to Gold Bullion (and just about any other hard asset you can think of), a truly self-directed IRA must be a part of your plan.

What do you need in order to invest your IRA dollars directly? You need a third party administrator or record keeper who follows your direction and can provide the services necessary as well as be in compliance with IRS rules and regulations.

However, not all administrators or custodians are created equal. You must do your own due diligence. Here are three areas to watch:

1. Make sure your administrator or custodian keeps your cash in FDIC insured funds. All of your funds. Every day I see companies popping up claiming their administrator or custodian keeps the cash insured. Read the fine print as this is not always the case. In one recent presentation, I heard about a custodian who mixes your cash with some insured funds and some funds that are not insured. Make sure you know where your money goes.

2. Watch out for companies that sell other products and offer an IRA for free when you buy their product or services. Normally these ’services’ run into the thousands of dollars. You do not need to spend thousands of dollars to have a self-directed IRA.

4. Finally, watch out for the overpriced seminars where people spend a fortune to learn “investing techniques” that will make them rich quickly. As many new ones pop up as go out of business. Your education should not cost more then your home, savings, or your credit card limits!

It’s not necessarily about what you invest in; it’s about how you do it! With a self-directed plan you get to choose. Visit The Entrust Group (www.theentrustgroup.com) and learn what it really takes to be in control of your IRA.

What could you do differently in planning for your retirement? Having a self-directed IRA is a good start.

2010 brings with it some changes to the tax code. Here are the top three tax changes that you should pay attention to this year.

1. Estate Tax
2. ROTH Conversions
3. Gift Tax Exclusion

Whether any of these tax rules changes applies to you, you should seek the advice of your tax adviser or CPA and as always, do your due diligence to think and grow rich.

Does all of the advertising and hoopla over the ROTH IRA make sense to you?

Download the free ROTH report from Entrust and learn how to take advantage of one of the last tax enhanced programs the government allows. Visit www.entrustcalifornia.com for details.

Did you know there are over 10 million individual and family owned forest owners in the U.S? 72% of these are located in the Eastern part of the country where productive timberland is produced.

According to The American Wind Energy Association, 20% of the nation’s electricity may come from wind by 2030. States with the most wind power include: Texas, Iowa, California, Minnesota and Oregon.

And what about water? The business of water rights is alive and well in states such as Colorado.

These alternative investments are allowable in a self-directed IRA. If this is of interest to you, log onto www.theentrustgroup.com to learn how you can self-direct your IRA to acquire investments that are important to you!

Welcome to 2010! It is the year of the ROTH conversion and the time to examine your retirement plans to make sure you feel comfortable with your asset allocation, your time horizon, financial assets that are a part of your retirement plan and your level of risk.

Experts have called the five years before you quit the workforce the most dangerous to your retirement plan. The only way to guarantee growth whether you have five or twenty years until retirement is to utilize your IRA by making the maximum contributions, and to invest in assets you believe will grow over the long term. In my opinion this means making the leap and becoming responsible for the investments you control in your IRA.

Compounding wealth with investments where you are comfortable, that can go the course and allow you the ability to invest in assets that the traditional advisers may not be in a position of offer, gives your IRA diversification and allows the opportunity to be in control of what specific alternative investments are a part of your IRA. Many of us depend on third party advisers to tell them what to do because we think we cannot invest on our own. This is not the case with a self-directed IRA.

For more information on how you can learn how to invest with your IRA, visit www.theentrustgroup.com. Entrust, the nation’s largest administrator of self-directed plans (with close to 30 years of experience), has a wealth of information on their web site to answer any question you may have.

If you want a more personalized experience, you can find the local offices closest to you and work with experienced professionals who know and understand your marketplace and are able to provide you with outstanding customer service.

You owe it to yourself to take advantage of the tax-deferred/tax-free possibilities that the IRA can offer.

For 2010, investors who earn over $100,000 per year in income will, for the first time, be able to convert their IRA or inactive 401(k) from a tax-deferred plan to a Roth IRA, which is a tax-free account, when you make future withdrawals. For now, this opportunity is for one year only—2010.

Many investors do not understand the rules of conversion, what this means for them, and why they would be willing to pay tax today for tax-free wealth in the future. It’s important to understand how the conversion works to determine whether it makes sense for your financial situation.

As of January 1, all investors—not just those with an adjusted gross income under $100,000—can convert retirement assets to a Roth IRA. When you convert the funds, you pay taxes now, but you are not taxed on gains and withdrawals as long as you are over 59 years old or if the assets have been in the Roth for at least five years. With traditional IRAs, earnings and any pre-tax contributions are taxed as ordinary income when withdrawals are made. In addition, with a traditional IRA, you must start taking distributions from the accounts after age 70. With a Roth IRA, you aren’t required to take any distributions.

The concern for many investors is that converting to a Roth IRA means paying taxes now on the assets converted. However, you do have two years—2011 and 2012—to pay the tax owed on this conversion.

There are three benefits in my mind for doing the conversion:

1. If you are betting on higher tax rates in the future, converting to a Roth makes sense today.
2. If you know how to compound wealth in your IRA, tax free earning are better than tax deferred.
3. If you believe that the government will change the IRA rules to help pay down the debt that is owed, now might be the last chance that you have to take advantage of this tax-free opportunity.

None of us have a crystal ball to see into the future. Who knows if this Roth conversion will be extended beyond the year 2010? One thing that is certain is whether you convert to a Roth or leave your funds in a tax-deferred plan, you can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines.

Entrust is committed to helping investors learn more about self-directing your IRA so that you can invest in alternative investments such as real estate and precious metals, to name just two possibilities. A self-directed IRA should be a part of everyone’s portfolio.

For more information on the new rules for 2010 and other information on Roth IRAs, visit The Entrust Group and download the free special Roth report.

In 2009 the Internal Revenue Service provided a tax break to seniors (ages 70 or older) by not requiring them to take their minimum distribution on their IRA. This tax break is set to expire on December 31, 2009!

If you are over 70 years of age and in a good financial situation, you may want to consider a few other options for your IRA funds.

1. To help prevent the ups and downs of your portfolio, consider moving into lower risk investments within your IRA.

2. Make a direct contribution from your IRA to your favorite charity. Currently, the IRS allows seniors (ages 70 ½ or older) to take tax-free withdrawals from their IRA as long as the money goes to a charity.

For those of you under the age of 70, now is the perfect time to plan on a ROTH Conversion that will be happening for the 2010 tax year.

Another way to plan for 2010 is with a self-directed IRA with Entrust! Visit www.theentrustgroup.com for information on setting up your own self-directed IRA or to contact a local office near you.

No matter what your age the opportunities abound. You just need to know the rules of the road.

Stay tuned to Wise Women Investor for the latest updates for your IRA!

401 (k) limits stay the same for 2010. The maximum amount that workers can contribute to their 401 (k) is $16,500. Catch up contributions for workers age 50 and over will remain the same at $5,500

For seniors, Social Security recipients will not be getting an increase this year. I don’t know about you but I worry about our parents and grandparents who count on social security to live. You don’t think the cost of health care, prescriptions, rents, and other expenses that are necessary to live are going down do you?

Another great reason to start planning now with a self-directed IRA for your financial future. After all, by the time we retire, there probably will not be social security!