Three Essential Facts about a Checkbook Self-Directed IRA

March 12, 2024 By: turnkeyira0 comments

Retirement planning is like a choose-your-own-adventure story: there are multiple paths. You don’t have to be beholden to one retirement planner’s idea about how to stock away money. But if you turn the page on one key idea—the “Checkbook Self-Directed IRA”—you’ll see how many possibilities there truly are. In fact, this approach to investing is a single choice that can unlock all sorts of other choices in your approach to retirement. Not familiar with how it works? Let’s zoom out. Here are three essential facts you should know about this strategy:

Fact #1: With a Checkbook Self-Directed IRA, You Can Easily Make Alternative Investments

Traditional IRAs often limit investors to stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. And that’s fine—if that’s all you want to invest in. However, a Self-Directed IRA Owned LLC opens up a new world of possibilities. This approach is popular thanks to its flexibility: you can make investments beyond the conventional options that most traditional brokerages make available to you. Using a Checkbook Self-Directed IRA, you can check out alternative investments such as real estate, tax liens, precious metals, trust deeds, and shares in private companies. The retirement investing world becomes your oyster.

With this arrangement, you can diversify your portfolio and maybe even enhance your returns. By incorporating alternative assets, you’re not reliant on the performance of traditional markets, like the stock market. And that makes you more flexible when it comes to how you put away money for decades at a time. In fact, you can leverage different investment avenues to mitigate risk and pursue higher yields. If you have a lot of experience in an alternative asset class, the “Checkbook” Self-Directed IRA approach may be a better way for you to get the gains you’re seeking.

Fact #2: You Can Reduce Fees and Make More Timely Investments

Why a “checkbook” Self-Directed IRA specifically? Typically, investors rely on Self-Directed IRA custodians to facilitate alternative investments. But this traditional approach often comes with processing fees and holding fees, which can eat into your returns. And the process of placing investments through a custodian may involve delays. What if you are dealing with time-sensitive opportunities like real estate purchases or tax liens? You need more flexibility.

Opting for a Checkbook Self-Directed IRA Owned LLC can reduce fees and streamline the investment process. By establishing an LLC owned by your IRA, you gain more control over your funds. The LLC’s checkbook reverts to the IRA, which you control. This structure eliminates the need for custodial involvement in every transaction, allowing you to make timely investment decisions without bureaucratic hurdles.

Fact #3: You’ll Have More Control

One of the most appealing features of a Checkbook Self-Directed IRA is the level of control it offers you. As we mentioned above, with traditional IRAs, investors often rely on custodians to approve and execute transactions on their behalf. While this arrangement provides a layer of oversight, it can also limit your autonomy and flexibility.

By establishing a Self-Directed IRA Owned LLC, you can make investment decisions independently. You have the authority to direct funds, execute transactions, and manage assets according to your specific tastes and tolerance. This control not only enhances your investment agility but also allows for greater customization of your retirement strategy.

Yes, a Checkbook Self-Directed IRA offers a compelling alternative for investors seeking to diversify their retirement portfolios and maximize their investment potential. But there’s more to the story here. You’ll have to open an account with someone you can trust to make sure everything goes smoothly. If you’re interested in starting a “Checkbook” Self-Directed IRA of your own, contact TurnKey IRA at 844-8876-IRA (472) today.