There’s no question that an individual retirement account (IRA) is an excellent resource to use when planning for your retirement. These individual retirement accounts offer a respectable return on investment, with an average of around 12%. Perhaps one of the best options with an IRA is that the earnings as well as the money that you contribute to this type of account is completely tax-free.

The issue that many people have in today’s economic climate is that with market volatility seemingly at an all-time high, it’s difficult to expect the sort of returns for your retirement planning that you could have counted on just a few short years ago. In this instance, savvy investors look for hedges for their investments. One popular hedge is precious metals, especially gold. Thankfully, people who invest in IRA’s for retirement planning are now able to take advantage of gold as a hedge against market uncertainty and volatility.

If you have an IRA that is either underperforming or you fear is going to be affected by instability in the market, you can use gold as a hedge via a gold IRA rollover. This allows you to take advantage of the skyrocketing value and the protective nature of gold as opposed to assets and commodities that are based on paper money. Until recently, gold wasn’t permitted as an investment in an IRA.

The process in a gold rollover IRA is very simple. You will take an existing IRA, liquidate that account and move those funds to an IRA that’s value and return is based on the purchase of physical gold or gold mining stocks.

Many people think that a gold rollover IRA and a transfer are the same thing. It’s important to remember that these two terms are not the same. A transfer is a custodian directed gold IRA rollover process where one IRA is liquidated and those funds are moved into a gold backed IRA. This often happens when an owner of an IRA uses the same lending institution or brokerage house for their standard IRA and their new gold backed IRA. In any case, all you do is sign the paperwork and the custodian of the IRA does all the moving of funds from one IRA to another.

A rollover is where the account owner rather than the custodian liquidates the IRA. The account holder then employs the services of a brokerage house or lending institution that offers gold backed IRA’s. While rollovers are the most common, it’s important to make sure that you have everything planned out before you liquidate your IRA account. If you are unable to rollover your existing IRA funds into gold backed IRAs within 60 days, you may be responsible for significant tax penalty.

The process in a gold rollover IRA is very simple. You’ll first need to find a brokerage house or lending institution that will act as your gold backed IRA custodian. Once you’ve liquidated your existing standard IRA account, you will deposit that money into a gold backed IRA account with your new custodian or trustee. There will be obligatory paperwork to fill out; however, the process is very streamlined and uncomplicated.

It’s also important to understand certain limitations that a gold IRA rollover has. Not just any gold can be purchased in a gold backed IRA. Jewelry as well as collectible items made of gold are not permitted to be purchased with gold backed IRA funds. In addition, the gold must meet a certain purity level, typically .995 percent pure, in order to be a tax-free gold IRA purchase

Lastly, pursuant to the rules governing a gold IRA rollover, owners of these retirement accounts are not permitted to physically hold the gold that they purchase with their IRA funds. In these cases, the custodian of your gold rollover IRA will typically employ the service of a third party that is dedicated solely to storing the physical gold that your IRA has purchased. Upon the maturity of your IRA, the goal will be released to you in order to do with it as you please.