An IRA depositary, such as Pacific Premier Trust, is a highly regulated bank, credit union, or non-custodial bank that is allowed to guard the assets of an IRA. Both the state and federal governments supervise custodians, including IRA Gold custodians, and there are strict internal policies, procedures and controls. An IRA custodian is a financial institution authorized by the IRS to provide custody services and hold assets on behalf of IRA owners. According to IRS regulations, an IRA must have a custodian, who can be a bank, a mutual fund company, or a brokerage firm. The IRA depositary is responsible for buying and selling investments on behalf of the investor in an IRA and for ensuring that the IRA complies with IRS regulations.
The custodian charges a fee for providing escrow services and managing investments on behalf of the investor. Traditional IRAs allow account holders to contribute pre-tax income to their IRA, and the investment growth tax is deferred until retirement when they retire. What the custodian of the targeted IRA does is execute the IRA owner's investment instructions and perform the numerous administrative and custodial tasks that are necessary to preserve the tax-deferred status of an IRA and otherwise manage the account and guard the assets. Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs can be managed by the investment firm holding the IRA or be self-managed.
However, regardless of the type of IRA you have, the IRS requires that you have a depositary to manage your IRA investments and provide custody services for your IRA assets. In his role as a passive depositary, the depositary of a targeted IRA does not solicit investments and does not provide advice or recommendations to clients regarding investments acquired or held by IRAs. If you want to invest your IRA money in FDIC-insured securities or money market funds, you can use a bank as an IRA depositary. If you choose an insurance company as the custodian of your IRA, you can invest your savings in premium annuities.
These scammers claim to investigate and approve underlying investments, but as the SEC points out, IRA custodians don't assess the quality of investments in self-directed IRA. To complete transactions, a self-directed IRA administrator must establish a relationship with a self-directed IRA custodian or trust that is authorized to hold IRA funds and investments. A manager is an intermediary between the owner of the IRA and a custodial partner who owns the IRA's assets. Marketable securities, such as mutual funds or stocks, require no effort to choose a custodian; however, IRAs that have alternative investments, such as private notes, precious metals or real estate, need a self-directed IRA custodian.
A custodian of a targeted IRA acts as a passive, non-discretionary custodian of customer-led individual retirement accounts (“IRAs), also known as self-directed individual retirement accounts (“IRAs)”, as defined by the IRA in section 408 of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended.
