SD-IRAs: Entrust vs. Equity Trust

[Loc R.]

Just wanted to get some opinions/experiences on these custodians.

I'm with Equity Trust right now and I am NOT very pleased with their overall company. A lot of their phone agents seem like they just got out of company training last week.

Any experience with Entrust or any other custodians?

Thanks.

[Shawn Couch]

IMO I would stay away from Equity Trust. There fees are seemingly reasonable from an annual fee standpoint, but you CANNOT get any timely response or paperwork out of them unless you pay for expedited processing. Calling them takes a lot of patience. Online Chat just sits there and repeates a message that you need to wait 2 minutes. This notice can repeat for hours. They don't respond to an email question for 1 or 2 days. Overall, the service is just outright terrible. An SD IRA is a good mechanism, but it really an antiquated system that Equity Trust uses. They make you feel like you are in the stone ages.

I'm switching to a solo 401K, but I can do this because I am truly self employed. There are also "checkbook controlled" IRA set up as well. I would consider the start up costs for this type of account, even though it's less to set up a standard SD IRA. After about 2 or 3 years, you will be saving on the annual fees with checkbook control types of accounts (usually a Trust or LLC).

Final note on Equity Trust. I just got off the phone as I wanted to ask about expediting closing my account and they say they do not offer that as an expedited service. Quote turn around is 4 business WEEKS to close my account. This will likely mean that they will charge me another annual fee on Jan 1, 2016 and may screw up my taxes as well.

If anyone has had terrible service from Equity Trust, please contact me to talk about retribution from them. They are clearly not looking out for their (former) client's best interest and are using our money in some other manner.

Good luck investing.