For the most part people who eventually find out about self-directed retirement accounts try to find a self directed IRA custodian to warehouse their funds. Let’s say you have had an IRA for the last 15 years and it has about $75,000 in it. You would roll those funds from the current plan administrator or brokerage house in to your new account with the self directed IRA custodian. That custodian acts like the bank/broker for that account. Establishing these accounts can be tedious work and often times disincentives the individual from moving forward.

The relationship between the custodian and you is much like that of a parent/child relationship. You don’t have immediate access to those funds so when you do find an investment you have to go back to the custodian and ask for permission. The custodian would require you fill out a request for them to make the investment on your behalf. Again, filling out investment forms can be both time consuming and tedious work. Also, the custodian will likely charge you for reviewing this request and if they approve it they will charge you for wiring the funds to the appropriate parties. There are a lot of misnomers when it comes to the self directed industry. One is that it doesn’t cost much. This is a very large misconception for most people. Most custodians are both asset and transactionally focused when it comes to their fee schedule. They will charge you anywhere $300 to $800 for every 100k you have in your account EACH YEAR just to hold it with them. Also, for each wire transfer they will charge you, for each review they will charge you, if they need to research something further they charge you per hour. Once you have made an investment they will charge you a fee each year for each asset or investment, on top of the fee you pay as a percentage of your asset value. Each year you have to re-appraise your holdings – which guess what, cost money as well. This allows them to collect more fees as your account value goes up. Realize though that in many cases, you cannot participate in this industry with out one. This is much like what our brokers do to us. There is an asset management fee and then a commission for every trade that we make. The custodian serves a necessary purpose in that they file the necessary paperwork to keep your plan in good standing with the IRS. Although their fees are steep, we’ll later discuss how an IRA Facilitator, like Guidant Financial Group, can help you completely avoid paying the unnecessary custodial fees that can nickel and dime your IRA. The biggest problem I see with custodial relationship is the lack of control we have as IRA holders. I think it is safe to assume that, after the stock markets last 5 years, there is a real need to take back control of our investments. No one is going to care about your investments as much as you do. When using the IRA custodian the way most people do, you have to be very aware of what I like to refer to as the TIME FACTOR. When it comes to investing, time is either your best friend or your worst enemy. Let me give you an example:

If you pay attention to the financial world you know that the real estate market has been hot. Many people are turning away from the stock market and instead looking at real estate as their main investment holding. Let’s say you found a home that you felt would make a perfect rental property. It is close to home, it has 3 bedrooms and 2 ½ baths and the yard is fully fenced. It has everything a young family could want. You decide to offer full price for the home. Within the same day another full price offer comes in. Here is the problem. You can’t put earnest money down on the property until the investment has been approved. In most cases you cannot, within the self directed industry, commingle personal and retirement funds. The owner of this fabulous home received 2 identical offers with one exception. The other offer was full price with earnest money being deposited with in 48 hours of mutual acceptance and yours said that earnest money would be there with in 5 days to 3 weeks. The custodians service tens of thousands of clients across the country and cannot respond as you may need them to. But there is good news. If you really need the money fast, you can pay them another fee to expedite the process and they can get to it within 3-5 days. That is the fee you will pay on top of the review fee, wire fee, asset fee and yearly dues. It can add up really fast.

Let’s continue with the TIME FACTOR. What happens if you want to invest in Tax Liens? Where do you buy these? You buy them at the county courthouse, right? When you go to the county court house can you tell them you’ll get them a check later? Absolutely not! You can’t buy them you have to have money in hand. How about foreclosures? These are bought at auctions also…..same problem. Without true control over your investments – you are always one step behind the game.

An IRA Facilitator helps clients structure their retirement accounts to purchase the investments of their choice. Real estate and businesses are two of the many different investments in which their retirement funds can participate. As a Facilitator, Guidant ensures that you, the client, is compliant with the rules and regulations set forth by the IRS and Department of Labor, so your retirement funds are safe from penalties and tax consequences. Using customized and conforming structures, IRA Facilitators have helped investors nationwide control their own investments. Our programs are designed for those of you who are looking to invest in all forms of real estate, businesses, financial paper and yes….even the stock market. You can invest in each of these individually or all of them at the same time. Remember earlier I said that when using a custodian you had to pick either non-traditional investments or the stock market. IRA Facilitatora allows you to do both. They take care of the establishment of your structure and new self directed IRA, your paperwork, your consultation and guides the implementation from start to finish. We understand this is a very complex field and that you are busy. Most people don’t have the time to deal with setting up accounts, working with custodians and plan administrators to make transfers happen, learn the ins and outs, let alone figure out the code to be able to do this correctly. Are job is not to make you busier. It is important that you work with a good IRA Facilitator – one that truly understands the laws that govern this industry. We will build the car you just need to understand how to drive it.

Unlike the custodians, an IRA Facilitator's fee structure is not transactional or asset based. Unlike the custodians the don’t have 1 type of retirement account for you to choose from – so they can show you you’re your alternatives and then you can ultimately choose what is best for you. You can use a traditional or ROTH IRA, SEP IRA, Keogh Plan, 403b, 401k and virtually any other type of retirement account.

The key is that we have to know what you are trying to accomplish.

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