Precious Metals
Many Americans today are looking at ways to help safeguard their wealth. With growing economic uncertainty, more and more people are worried about the possibility of recession or other financial turmoil.
That’s why more and more Americans are looking at ways to help safeguard their wealth. And many people are starting to look to alternative assets to do that.
Among those alternatives are precious metals, which have a history as safe haven assets and hedges against inflation. One precious metals option that is gaining in popularity is a silver IRA. If you’ve never heard of a silver IRA, read on to find out more.
A silver IRA is just an individual retirement account (IRA) that holds physical silver coins or bars. Unlike most IRA accounts, which hold financial assets such as stocks, bonds, and shares in funds, a silver IRA owns and holds physical silver. These tangible assets are managed by an IRA custodian and stored at a bullion depository.
Owning silver can bring with it many potential benefits. Here are three to think about.
When most people think of a safe haven asset, they think of something like gold. Silver always seems to get short shrift. But many people who are in the know understand that silver can be a complementary choice to gold.
Silver can outperform gold during times of economic turmoil, as in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis when gold nearly tripled in price but silver more than quintupled. That potential for greater growth is always there.
Silver, like gold, also has a reputation for being a hedge against inflation. That’s because it, like gold, was a prominent monetary metal.
In fact, silver was the primary monetary metal that most people would have seen and used. Older Americans may still remember the days when they paid for groceries with Walking Liberty and Franklin half dollars, silver Washington quarters, and Mercury dimes.
Even though silver isn’t used in everyday commerce anymore, it can still maintain its purchasing power over the long run. During periods of high inflation it can help hedge against inflation too.
During the 1970s stagflation, for instance, silver’s annualized rate of growth was over 30% per year. With inflation remaining problematic today, could silver see similar performance in the coming years?
Finally, silver can add another layer of diversification to your portfolio. In years in which both stocks and bonds lose value, a mix of stocks and bonds may still result in losses.
Diversification isn’t necessarily going to make you more money, but it can help you reduce your risk profile and spread the risk of loss. While you may read about diversifying your portfolio with gold, it’s less common to read about diversification with silver. But silver can also help diversify your precious metals holdings as well as your overall portfolio.
In addition to the benefits of owning silver, a silver IRA offers unique advantages. Here are two that are particularly important.
A silver IRA offers tax-free growth, just like any other IRA, 401(k), or other tax-advantaged retirement account. This means that the gains your silver makes aren’t taxed until you decide to take a distribution.
If your silver IRA is a Traditional IRA, your distributions are taxed when you take them. If your silver IRA is a Roth IRA, your distributions aren’t taxed at all.
Because of the tax advantages it offers, a silver IRA can help safeguard your retirement savings. If you have assets in an IRA, 401(k), TSP, 403(b), or similar retirement account, you may be wondering how you can try to help safeguard them against loss.
Many people may think their only option is to cash out their retirement assets, take a tax hit or potential penalties, and just hold cash. Others may think their only option is to ride things out and take whatever losses come their way.
But there’s another way. With a silver IRA you can roll over or transfer assets from your existing retirement accounts into a silver IRA tax-free.
Like any other retirement account, a silver IRA is subject to IRS rules and regulations. There are a couple of them that are particularly important for silver IRAs.
By law, no IRA is allowed to acquire collectibles. The tax code states that any coin or metal is automatically considered a collectible for purposes of IRA acquisition, with a couple of exceptions.
Gold and Silver American Eagle coins are specifically exempted from consideration as collectibles, as well as any coin or bullion meeting the minimum fineness requirements for futures contracts.
What this means is that any silver coin or bar with a minimum fineness of .999 (99.9% pure silver) is not considered to be a collectible for purposes of IRA acquisition. Mints and refineries around the world are aware of this requirement, and they produce coins and bars specifically to meet these requirements.
Most of the popular silver coins on the market today are produced to this standard, as are most silver bars. Goldco offers a wide variety of these IRA-eligible coins from mints around the world, working directly with mints to bring you these coins.
If you’ve been doing research on precious metals IRAs, you’ve probably come across something referred to as a home storage IRA. This purports to be an IRA arrangement in which your IRA can purchase precious metals like silver and store them at home. If this sounds too good to be true, it’s because it is.
Coins and bullion owned by an IRA are required to be in the physical possession of a trustee, defined as a bank or other person who demonstrates to the Secretary of the Treasury their ability to administer the assets of the trust. While it is perhaps theoretically possible for an individual to satisfy the requirements to be an IRA custodian, the bar is set incredibly high.
Individuals who have tried to start home storage IRAs for themselves have been found to violate the laws and regulations surrounding IRA assets, and have had to pay large amounts of taxes and fines. While a home storage IRA may sound like a great idea at first, it could cost you dearly.
If you start a silver IRA, you need to recognize that your assets will be managed by a custodian and stored at a depository. All IRA assets are managed by custodians, but not all of them manage precious metals assets like gold and silver.
Goldco works with established custodians who have experience managing precious metals to ensure that your silver assets are professionally managed.
Your silver coins and bars will be stored at a bullion depository. Goldco works with established bullion depositories to make sure that your silver IRA assets remain safe and secure.
Just like any other IRA account, a silver IRA, if it’s a Traditional IRA, is subject to required minimum distributions (RMDs). This means that at age 73 you’ll be required to start taking RMDs from your silver IRA. You can choose to take distributions either in cash or in physical metals.
If you have retirement savings that you’re trying to safeguard, maybe it’s time to start thinking about a silver IRA. Learning about how silver can help safeguard your savings can go a long way toward helping you secure your future.
Thousands of people have already taken advantage of the benefits offered by a silver IRA, hoping to benefit from silver’s potential price growth. They’ve taken the opportunity to help safeguard themselves and their hard-earned wealth while they can, before any potential economic downturn.
Silver can be one way to help safeguard your wealth in the face of a potential recession, problematic inflation, and economic turmoil, and owning silver through a silver IRA can be a useful tool in harnessing silver to work for you. The precious metals specialists at Goldco have helped thousands of people just like you benefit from holding silver in their portfolios.
With over $3 billion in precious metals placements and thousands of satisfied customers, Goldco has become one of the best silver companies in the industry. Give us a call today to learn more about how you can benefit from a silver IRA.
This article was originally published in January 2023 and was updated in March 2025.
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DISCLAIMER: This site is general in nature and not tailored to the specific goals of any individual. Purchasing precious metals may carry risk. Some of those risks associated with precious metals include the following: prices may rise and fall, which means the value of your metals may go up or down over time and you may sell for more or less than you paid. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Goldco cannot guarantee, assure, or promise future market movement, prices, or profits. Customers should understand that all purchases have some degree of risk. Customers should make certain that they understand the correlation between risk and return. Commodities involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. There is no assurance that commodities, i.e. precious metals, will achieve their objectives. Return and principal value will fluctuate and your portfolio, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than the original cost. Even though Goldco and its representatives are precious metals specialists, we are not licensed financial advisors and do not give financial advice. Additionally, Goldco cannot provide tax or legal advice and will not advise as to the tax or legal consequences of purchasing or selling precious metals or opening a Precious Metals IRA. Individuals should consult with their investment, legal or tax professionals for such services.
