What Is a Gold IRA? A Plain-English Guide.

A Gold IRA is a self-directed individual retirement account that holds physical precious metals — gold, and in many cases silver, platinum or palladium — instead of (or alongside) paper assets like stocks and bonds. The tax treatment is the same as any IRA of its type; what changes is the asset inside the account and the infrastructure required to hold it.

The Three Parties Involved

This is the part most first-time buyers find surprising: a Gold IRA is not one company holding everything. Three separate roles are involved, by design:

• An independent custodian — a qualified institution that opens and administers the self-directed IRA, processes transfers and rollovers, and keeps the account's records. The custodian is not the dealer.
• A precious-metals dealer — the company you buy the metals from. That is our role at United Reserve Trust: education, product selection, pricing and trade execution.
• An independent depository — a secure storage facility where eligible metals are held for the benefit of the account. IRS rules do not permit keeping IRA metals at home; they must be held by an approved institution.

What Metals Qualify

The IRS sets purity standards for IRA metals — for gold, a minimum fineness of .995, with a specific exception for the American Gold Eagle (91.67% gold, but explicitly permitted by statute). In practice, the common IRA-eligible choices are government-minted bullion coins such as the American Gold Eagle, Gold Buffalo, Canadian Maple Leaf and Austrian Philharmonic, along with bars from accredited refiners. Collectible coins generally do not qualify.

Traditional vs. Roth

A Gold IRA can be structured as a Traditional IRA (pre-tax contributions, taxed on withdrawal) or a Roth IRA (after-tax contributions, qualified withdrawals tax-free). The gold doesn't change the tax rules — your existing account type, income and timing do. This is exactly the kind of question to review with your own tax adviser; a dealer should not be making that determination for you, and we don't.

What It Costs

An honest cost picture has three layers:

• Dealer premium — the amount above the metal's reference value that you pay when purchasing. This is how dealers, including us, earn revenue.
• The spread — the difference between what you pay and what a dealer would pay to buy the same products back the same day. It is the real round-trip cost of ownership.
• Custodian and storage fees — annual fees charged by the custodian and depository, itemized separately from the metal.

Our standard is simple: all of these are presented to you before any transaction. If a number isn't shown to you first, don't approve the trade — with us or with anyone. We break this down further in Gold IRA Fees & Spreads Explained.

The Risks — Stated Plainly

Gold can rise, and gold can fall. Precious metals are volatile, have experienced significant historical drawdowns including multi-year declines, and have gone through extended periods of underperforming stocks and bonds. They also produce no income. Independent custody protects the safekeeping of assets — it does not protect against market losses. Anyone who presents gold as risk-free is not being straight with you. Our full Risk Disclosure is public.

Who It May Suit

Most people who add metals to retirement accounts do it as a diversification measure — a portion of the portfolio, chosen deliberately, not a wholesale replacement for everything else. How much, if any, is a personal decision. Our tools let you explore allocation scenarios without labeling anything "recommended," because none of it is a recommendation.