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American IRA got its start in 2004 when the CEO, Jim Hitt, founded the company.
He and his staff have more than four decades of experience investing in self-directed 401(k)s and self-directed IRAs.
They have cultivated a loyal group of clients who contributed a total of $400 million under the company's administration. American IRA earned an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
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About American IRA
The company is based in North Carolina. It was formerly a franchise of Entrust Group. It focuses on investing in precious metals, real estate, private lending, private placements, and other types of investments.
Management Team of American IRA
Jim Hitt - CEO
Since 1982, Jim Hitt has built up his investment portfolios by the use of self-directed IRAs.
He has extensive experience with business financing and acquisitions. These include real estate ventures, mortgage lending, private offerings, partnerships, joint ventures, and limited liability companies.
Using creative methods, he has owned, managed, and developed properties including large businesses and properties ranging from single-family housing to multi-unit commercial real estate.
When Jim founded American IRA, his focus was to enable his clients to invest in non-traditional assets. These include private loans, limited liability companies, partnerships, real estate, and precious metals, other types of investments.
The company will educate you on how you can utilize your self-directed 401(k) or self-directed IRA to earn tax-efficient income.
Sean McKay - President
Sean graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.A. degree in Economics. For the past 15 years, he has been dealing with real estate investments. He has curated a portfolio of rental properties and investments in tax certificates and notes.
He is on the Board of Directors at Metrolina REIA, which is an organization dealing with non-profit real estate. He was also the chairman of the Charlotte Landlord Group.
Products from America IRA
This is the most common and also the oldest type of IRA. Anyone who earns an income and who wants to defer paying taxes on the income can open an account. You can contribute to a self-directed traditional IRA until you reach 72 years old.
This type of IRA allows you to invest in your retirement with post-tax dollars. Because you pay taxes off the top, the earnings from this contribution can grow tax-free if specific conditions are met.
There is no age limit to making contributions. You are also not required to make withdrawals at a certain age. You can withdraw your principal at any time without tax liability.
The SEP or Simplified Employee Pension plan gives employers a method to contribute to the employee's retirement. The employer must contribute directly to the IRA, particularly a self-directed SEP IRA, that was opened for each employee,
This 401k plan is designed for an individual who is self-employed and owns his own company, whether the company is a sole proprietorship, a limited liability company, or a corporation.
The individual contributes to this plan as an employer and an employee. This allows for a high contribution limit. This type of 401(k) has earned the nickname of a self-directed IRA on performance enhancing drugs.
SIMPLE stands for Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees. This IRA is designed for the small employer or an individual who is self-employed for setting up a retirement plan for their employees.
The HSA is a Health Savings Account. This is a tax-exempt account administered by a custodian or trustee where you can save for your medical expenses. You can pay from your HSA account or get reimbursed by it. You must meet eligibility requirements.
This is designed as a way to assist parents and students in saving for educational expenses.
Why Put Gold in Your IRA?
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) protect your retirement as well as your family's financial security.
These special accounts allow you to set aside tax protected savings that you can use in the future.
With these long term accounts it's important to allocate a significant portion to assets that are solid and reliable, so you have a secure and worry-free retirement.
You can have cash in an IRA, but that is devaluing at a rapid pace and inflation is out of control.
You need an asset that's dependable, retains it's value, and even increases in value over time, and there is no better asset for this than gold.
With the world's economy struggling through lockdowns, shortages, wars, and inflation, uncertainty has never been higher and investors are protecting themselves by placing physical gold in IRA's.
A gold IRA investment prospers from these crisis that negatively affect most other assets.
Risk is knowing the economic dangers and doing nothing to protect yourself and your family.
Safety is knowing the economic dangers and taking action to protect your financial future, and this is easy to do with a gold IRA.
Explanation of a Self-Directed IRA
Also called a SDIRA, a self-directed IRA lets you invest in non-traditional assets including precious metals, real estate, and other assets that traditional IRAs do not allow.
Contribution and withdrawal rules are similar to that of the traditional or Roth IRAs.
The SDIRA is ideal for investors who have experience investing in other types of assets, and who want to make that part of their investment portfolio to get higher returns.
It allows more flexibility for the account holders, but it also comes with more risks and more complex processes.
A SDIRA will still require a trustee or custodian to administer it. You can contribute to it just like how you would contribute to a regular or Roth IRA. You make annual contributions every year. A fund manager chooses the best assets to purchase.
A SDIRA traditional IRA follows the same contribution and tax rules as a regular IRA: you contribute pre-tax dollars and pay taxes later when you withdraw the money. With a self-directed Roth IRA, you pay taxes on the money before you invest it.
When you withdraw, it is tax-free. Your choice between the two depends on what works best based on your situation.
Explanation of a Precious Metal IRA
Everyone has heard about saving for retirement. Individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, are the most common form of retirement savings.
You can contribute to this account while you are earning an income. In this account, you can invest your money in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other paper assets.
When you retire and have reached a certain age, you can withdraw money from your IRA to use. This is like a savings plan that is regulated by age.
A precious metals IRA is similar in most ways except for the type of assets that it can hold. Unlike the regular IRAs that can only hold paper assets, a precious metals IRA lets you purchase precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium.
This is the only way in which you can purchase precious metals for a retirement account.
Although you own the precious metals in your IRA, you cannot physically have them in your possession. The metal must be held at an approved depository that is connected to your precious metals IRA company.
There are also strict rules from the IRS governing precious metals IRAs. This is to ensure that this type of IRA does not get abused.
Why Should You Invest In Precious Metals?
Historically, precious metals have been stable investments for retirement accounts. Gold and silver are the foundations for currency around the world.
This means it is not affected by the fluctuations of the paper dollar, or an unstable economic or political environment. It is a hedge against inflation.
With the current issues that the U.S. is currently facing, including the pandemic, civil unrest, high unemployment rate, and more, this is all the more reason to look to precious metals for more stability in your retirement portfolio.
In addition, precious metals have high liquidity. When needed, it can be traded easily on the market, and you can usually make a profit if you employ a good strategy.
For instance, if it is important to you to be able to make a fast trade for a quick return, investing in gold coins would be more desirable than investing in gold bars because gold coins are easier to sell.
If your goal is to hold precious metals for the long term, then holding bars and larger amounts of precious metal would fit your investment goals.
Self-Directed IRA Benefits
No matter what type of IRA you have, diversification is the key to a solid portfolio. You never want to put all of your money into one thing. With a regular IRA, you can only invest in stocks and bonds that might not give you as high a return as you desire.
If there is a market collapse, the value of your holdings can be wiped out.
A self-directed IRA allows you to invest in other assets beyond what a regular IRA allows. There does not include life insurance, collectibles, and situations where the person does not qualify.
You can invest in things like cryptocurrency, precious metals, foreign currency, real estate, and more.
You have full control of your SDIRA funds. You can invest in it by just writing a check. You can also set up a wire transfer or use a debit card. You do not need to get approval from the IRA custodian.
Retirement plans have tax benefits. With SDIRAs, these tax benefits are particularly important. With a self-directed traditional IRA, you do not pay taxes on the money that you use to contribute. These are your pre-tax dollars.
You pay taxes when you withdraw money during your retirement. This results in a lower tax bill while you are still working. For self-directed Roth IRAs, you contribute using post-tax dollars. That means you pay taxes first, then you contribute to your IRA.
The beauty of the Roth IRA is that the money you withdraw will not be taxed, but only if the money has been in your account for a minimum of five years and you are at least 59 1/2 years old.
Conclusion
Since 1985, American IRA has been providing investment advice and services for savvy investors.
Unlike many investment firms, it offers non-traditional types of accounts that allow you to invest in other types of assets. It has high ratings from many investment review sites.
This helps investors feel more confident about doing business with this company.
American IRA is not a scam, they are a reputable company but we do not recommend them for precious metals investors.
They are not the best option for individual precious metals purchases and definitely not the best option for investors that want to protect their saving from inflation with a Gold IRA.
There are much better companies to work with that we have research extensively and highly recommend.
You can get a Free Gold Investors Guide from our top gold and precious metals company recommendation by clicking the link above or you can read our article of the top companies we reviewed this year:
>> CLICK HERE to read our list of the Top Gold IRA Companies. <<
Or, if you like what you have read about American IRA, you can go to there website below:
I started BMOGAM Viewpoints as a way to compile all my views on investing in one place. I own my home, have some real estate, and own a few stocks like most people, but what really drives my interest in investing is I have a strong love of precious metals, especially gold.
