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Prudential stands out as one of the most recognizable life insurance firms in the U.S., largely due to its iconic slogan, "own a piece of the rock."
This phrase references the Rock of Gibraltar, a renowned British fortress in Spain, symbolizing strength and stability, which is fittingly featured in Prudential's logo.
Since the 1890s, the "rock" has been Prudential's corporate emblem, with the memorable slogan making its debut in the 1970s. Prudential's journey from its modest beginnings to becoming a trusted provider for millions of customers is a testament to its enduring legacy.
But what about IRAs? Specifically, can Prudential offer IRAs that hold physical gold and other precious metals? Read on to discover the answer.
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About Prudential
Prudential, over the years, was the pioneer in sales of investment and consumer insurance products. It was also the first company in America to offer its clients variable annuities.
It also issued the first of the variable-appreciable life insurance policies in 1984. In 1988, Prudential entered the arena of investment when it established Prudential International Investments.
In recent years, Prudential has entered the world of precious metals. Unfortunately, Prudential does not offer IRAs that can hold physical gold investments.
Instead, Prudential offers financial instruments such as gold-related certificates. These instruments are designed for short-term investment and not for retirement funds.
But investors should not worry. There are much better companies work to work with to build your gold IRA like our top recommendation Goldco.
Why Place 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.
What are Gold IRAs?
Gold IRAs, also known as precious metals IRAs, are a special type of self-directed IRA or Individual Retirement Account.
These self-directed accounts provide the opportunity to buy and invest in unconventional assets such as cryptocurrency, real estate, and precious metals.
These extend beyond the traditional options that are made available in conventional IRAs, yet they share very similar traits outside this, which includes identical contribution limits.
Precious Metal IRAs are one of the avenues that conservative investors make use to add to their retirement plans since palladium, platinum, silver, and gold have grown historically over the long term and tend to have less volatility than the stock market.
Adding precious metals or gold to your savings for retirement might help to add a layer of protection to your wealth such as lowering the risk and volatility of your potential investments, providing a hedge when it comes to economic downturns, and offering a highly tax-efficient shelter when it comes to potential gains.
What is a Self-Directed IRA?
An SDIRA or Self-Directed Individual Retirement Account, is a form of an IRA that can be used to hold various alternative investments that are usually not permitted in regular IRAs.
Even though these accounts are administered by either a trustee or custodian, it is managed directly by an account holder, and this is why it is called self-directed.
The self-directed IRAs are available as traditional IRAs (where you will be making tax-deductible contributions) or Roth IRAs ( where you will be taking tax-free distributions).
The self-directed IRAs are suited best to savvy investors who have an understanding of alternative investments and those wanting to diversify their retirement savings in a tax-advantaged account.
The only difference between SDIRAs and other IRAs is the investment types that can be held in these accounts.
In most cases, standard IRAs are typically limited to regular securities such as CDs (certificates of deposit), stocks, bonds, exchange-traded, or mutual funds.
SDIRAs, on the other hand, provide a way for investors to choose from a broader range of assets.
With a self-directed IRA, you can also hold private placements, commodities, limited partnerships, precious metals, real estate, tax lien certificates, and other alternative investment types.
How to Open a Gold IRA
You can invest any of your retirement funds that qualify that are held in either a 401(k) or IRA in precious metals such as gold, but these types of investments are not permitted or available through your existing 401(k) or IRA custodian.
Due to an IRS loophole, it is now possible to open a self-directed IRA and transfer or roll over a percentage of your savings in your retirement account, penalty free and tax free, so that you can use it to acquire a physical form of silver or gold.
IRA experts are available to guide you through the process of how a self-directed IRA works when it comes to holding silver and gold, and the process of how to open one.
Opening a gold IRA allows you to take control of your hard earned savings and invest it in a wide range of new opportunities.
By extending beyond traditional bonds, mutual funds, and stocks that your existing custodian chose, you will enjoy several benefits that come with owning physical silver and gold and be in a better position to provide a hedge against some of the risks that your life savings might be exposed to obtain financial security.
Once you have opened your gold IRA, you can rollover funds in your current retirement plan that qualifies such as a Roth IRA, Traditional IRA, 457, 403(b), 401(k), 401(a), annuities, or a Thrift Savings Plan to your self-directed IRA.
This account will be put into your name, and you will also have complete control over the account.
The gold dealer that you decide to use won't be holding your funds or your assets, and they can't trade on the account without receiving consent from you in writing.
These types of accounts have existed for more than two decades and there are now many companies that specialize in these types of IRAs that will make sure that any potential errors are eliminated in the transaction processes.
The ideal way to make sure your rollover or transfer is completed correctly is to work with one of the companies that specialize in gold IRAs.
With the experience and knowledge that expert gold dealers bring, they can assist you through each step of the process.
To achieve optimal protection and reliable portfolio diversification when it comes to your future finances, you should use a small percentage of your savings to diversify your portfolio, and not all your wealth into physical silver or gold.
Once the fund transfer is complete, the next step of the process involves stocking your precious metals IRA with physical assets such as silver or gold.
Your Account Executive that is dedicated to your account will assist you in selecting the correct IRA-approved metals to make sure you maximize the potential of your portfolio, optimize your diversity, help you to meet your goals for your finances, and provide you with more control over a broader range of lucrative assets.
When rolling over a percentage of your IRA into assets such as precious metals, you can achieve financial security by:
With a gold IRA, you won't be getting an unpredictable paper document that states your interests in gold.
You also won't have to worry about the fees associated with gold ETFs or that they could also collapse with the financial market while the demands for physical precious metals continue to rise in price.
A precious metals IRA provides you with real gold, a physical and proven asset that is not impacted by the volatile markets.
Benefits of Investing in Physical Gold
Any wise investor knows that they need to consider the advantages and setbacks linked with the choices that they make when it comes to investments, and this includes gold.
Inflation is something that concerns investors since it usually always affects the overall value of the funds they have saved in a bank. With time, the buying power linked to the dollar will predictably decline.
If you ever look back at an old newspaper or magazine, you will probably notice the way things have changed when it comes to the prices of products, and how much cheaper things were then.
One main attraction when it comes to investing in gold is the layer of security when you know the price is likely to steadily rise over time. Historically, of course, the price has dipped at some stage, but at the same time, it has always bounced back.
When looking at historical charts as a reference, it is safe to conclude that the gold price will most likely be higher 10 or 20 years from now.
Unlike mutual funds, bonds, or stocks, there is no need to be concerned about how a corporation or particular industry is doing when checking on the value relating to your investment in gold.
Even though the current economy has a slight effect when it comes to the prices of gold, an economy that starts to slump doesn't automatically make the prices of gold go down.
The opposite occurs. During times of economic uncertainty, more people are driven to start investing their savings in gold, and this drives the prices upwards.
Perhaps, the largest advantage of gold investments is diversifying your portfolio. As mentioned before, the gold price performs extremely well during uncertain times.
This is why it is a good idea to add gold to your portfolio to balance returns and lower the volatility in your investment.
More specifically, including a precious metal like gold as part of your diversified portfolio will protect you from a complete wealth wipeout during extraordinary circumstances such as a crash in the stock market or dramatic economic depression.
Any investor has concerns about the way their investments are going to fare, yet this type of fear is lessened when investing in gold.
For example, if the stock market crash that occurred in 2008 happened again, you may risk your portfolio being wiped out if you only invested in mutual funds, bonds, and stocks.
But for the people that have placed a significant percentage of their retirement savings in gold, would probably feel a lot more secure. Their investments would not be affected as adversely by global market crashes or financial crises.
The gold price typically increases in these situations since more people turn to physical asset investments since their faith and reliance on the financial market usually declines.
How to Perform a 401k Rollover to a Gold IRA
These processes are straightforward with the assistance of a reliable gold IRA company. Here are the steps to follow:
Precious metals or gold IRA accounts differ from a Roth or traditional IRA, since they hold tangible assets such as precious metal coins or bars, while the traditional IRAs are designed to hold bond and stock investments.
Many retirees should be finding out more about these types of assets, and a precious metal dealer is suited ideally for this task.
Trusted gold IRA providers will provide you with the information that you need and guide you through each step of the process to set up your account.
They will also help you with hiring the right custodian, choosing your precious metals, along with deciding which secure facility you should be using to store your assets.
When setting up a self-directed gold IRA you will need to find the right person that is going to serve as your gold IRA's administrator or custodian.
Individuals are not permitted to store their gold in their IRA at their home.
Gold IRA account custodians are companies that keep track of every transaction and provide the services and paperwork to you as well as the IRS.
They hold the responsibility of performing the task of selling and purchasing the precious metal you have chosen for your account and completing these transactions on your behalf.
Once your Gold IRA company has helped you to choose the commodities you are interested in, the order desk of the provider will work directly with the custodian to broker your transaction to make sure your precious metals are transferred safely to an IRS-approved storage facility that holds gold bullion, coins, and bars.
From how your gold IRA was set up to where your assets are stored, your custodian will guarantee that the account has followed IRS laws.
They track the gold you have purchased for your precious metal IRA and they send this paperwork to the IRS and you as the owner of the self-directed precious metal IRA.
This step involves transferring funds from your current retirement savings plan to a new gold IRA rollover. This can either be done indirectly or directly.
Direct rollovers are when funds are transferred directly from your existing IRA custodian to a new IRA trustee.
The gold IRA provider that you have chosen can help you to prepare this transaction by communicating with the administrator to execute the transaction.
An indirect rollover is more complex since you will be the one to deliver the funds from your previous retirement account. With this option, you are required to transfer your funds into a new gold IRA and not to keep this money in the form of a payout.
Background of Prudential
For over 145 years, Prudential Financial has served its clients extremely well and earned well-deserved recognition as a globally admired company.
In the way of investing in markets and growing businesses around the globe, delivering industry-leading client and customer experiences that combine human connection with the latest technology, while creating next-generation financial solutions, Prudential easily serves the diverse requirements of an extensive range of clients and customers.
Prudential believes in responsible leadership culture, and a commitment to business practices that are ethical which is vital to the ability of this company to deliver true value to its shareholders, customers, and any other stakeholder.
This has also paved the way for success when it comes to developing and attracting top talent.
Prudential Services
Prudential assists investors when it comes to fulfilling their financial needs by providing investment strategies that span the global markets.
Prudential Financial is among the top 10 companies as a global investment management company and a business that businesses and individuals have placed their trust in when it comes to their financial futures for more than 140 years.
They deliver investment solutions that are actively managed through expertise and experience using a multi-manager model that helps investors to participate in various opportunities across the global markets.
This option includes a diverse range of more than 70 actively-managed funds such as specialty funds, style-specific growth and value funds, bond funds, and income-orientated stock.
Designed in such a way to provide clients open and easy access to Prudential's investment managers, which involves a reliable structure offering daily transparency and liquidity.
The future is unpredictable, but investors can prepare for it. Target date funds involve investor-centric planning and adjust automatically according to the requirements of each life stage.
Conclusion
Prudential is known for offering one of the best 401(k) plans. The website is regarded as average, yet it contains a lot of information that is very useful for investors.
It contains a range of useful tools such as the goal-setting tool taking a lot of the frustration out of planning for retirement.
Other tools such as the contribution accelerator and automatic rebalancing help with keeping your account in excellent financial shape.
Prudential is one of the solid competitors within the 401(k) market.
Prudential is not a good option if you are looking for a gold IRA, but don't worry, there are a few companies out there that specialize in these retirement investments that we 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 Prudential, 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.
