The Case for the Self-Directed IRA
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010March 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.