SElf directed IRA for alternative investing

[Hal Truitt]

Can anyone give me a good company for Self Directed IRAs for alternative investments. Ease of use/ online and easy to understand are perks to me. Litigation, short term notes, etc.

[Brian Eastman]

I would agree with @Taylor L. Quest is a good mix of customer services vs fees, and therefore a good value. The service at IRA Services used to be good, but they broke the customer service culture several years ago. Quest is not particularly expensive relative to the industry and kind of in the middle of the range when it comes to those firms that actually provide any kind of quality service.

Our firm utilizes Kingdom Trust Co. as a back-end custodian in some of our plan structures and they do a nice job as well.

The alternative is to establish an IRA LLC or Solo 401(k) that provides checkbook control. Such structures eliminate the per-transaction interaction with a custodian - the paperwork, processing delays, per-transaction and per-asset fees that come with that type of service. Such legal structures typically cost more to setup initially, but will significantly reduce your annual operating costs if you are engaging in multiple investments, dealing in time-sensitive transactions, or working with an overall portfolio of more than about $75K.