Self-directed IRA company that charges per transaction?

[Lucas Hall]

Hi friends,

I'm looking to move some money from a trad IRA to a Self-directed IRA so I can use it to invest in real estate. I really like Equity Trust and Quest IRA as providers of a SDIRA, but they both charge a fee based on the amount of money you have in the account - essentially penalizing you for growing it.

Are there are any reputable SDIRA providers that charge per transaction, instead of by asset size?  

Thanks in advance!

[Timothy Carson]

Lucas,

Be careful of Equity Trust. I thought the same as you and discussed options with them and filled out paperwork to move money out of my Roth at TD Ameritrade to Equity Trust.  I wanted to move cash and stocks in-kind.  I completed the paperwork noting the particular stocks, number of shares and approximate market value at the time I completed the paperwork.  Got everything submitted, on-line account established and thought everything was in order.  I then received calls saying that TD would't process the transfer due to funds not available, which I thought was strange.  I called TD and they said I didn't have enough cash for the transfer.  Again, weird because I knew how much available cash I had in the account.  I had TD forward me the paperwork that was submitted to them and as it turns out, it was one page with the entire amount requested in cash hand written in (I had typed in everything on their provided form in exact detail).  After seeing that, I informed Equity that I no longer wanted to do business with them as this constituted fraud and was not how I wanted my assets transferred.  They never told me that they would not do in-kind transfers (it's an option on their form) and continually blamed TD for not transferring the funds.

With that said, that was my experience, other people may have had a better one.  So, now I too am looking for a reputable SDIRA company.

Hope this helps.

Tim