Precious Metals IRA
More control over what you own inside your retirement account.
Your retirement savings represent years of work. A self-directed IRA can give you the flexibility to hold qualifying physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium as part of your retirement strategy.
Lucent helps you understand your options, coordinate with your custodian, and arrange secure depository storage—so you know what you own and how your account works.
The Basics
What is a self-directed Precious Metals IRA?
A self-directed IRA follows the same basic tax structure as other IRAs, but gives the account owner greater control over the investments held inside it. It can hold qualifying physical precious metals alongside more traditional investments—and it doesn’t have to replace your existing brokerage relationship.
Self-directed means you direct the investments.
Unlike a managed account where an advisor selects investments on your behalf, you decide which permitted assets your self-directed IRA will hold. For physical precious metals, three parties work together:
Lucent Metals
We help you understand and select eligible products, execute the transaction, coordinate with your custodian, and arrange shipment to your selected depository.
The account administrator
Your custodian establishes and administers the IRA, receives funds, authorizes transactions, provides statements, and handles applicable administration and tax reporting.
The physical custodian
The depository receives, verifies, safeguards, and physically custodies the precious metals held by your IRA.
Why can’t you simply store IRA metals at home?
Federal tax law generally treats metals and coins as collectibles for IRA purposes, but Internal Revenue Code Section 408(m) provides exceptions for certain coins and qualifying bullion. Qualifying bullion must meet applicable fineness requirements and remain in the physical possession of an eligible trustee or custodian.
Funding Your Account
You may already have the retirement assets you need.
Most Lucent Metals IRA clients use retirement assets they’ve already accumulated. Depending on the account and your eligibility, assets may be transferred or rolled over into a self-directed IRA.
What types of retirement accounts may be eligible?
- Traditional IRAs
- Roth IRAs
- SEP IRAs
- SIMPLE IRAs
- Inherited or beneficiary IRAs
- Former-employer 401(k) plans
- 403(b) plans
- Governmental 457(b) plans
- Thrift Savings Plans
- Certain pension and governmental plans
- Certain qualified retirement annuities
- Other eligible arrangements
Eligibility and the appropriate transfer or rollover method depend on the account and individual circumstances.
Your current provider doesn’t need to offer precious metals.
When eligible, assets can be transferred or rolled over from an existing account into a self-directed IRA with a custodian that supports physical precious metals. Lucent works with retirement institutions and custodians throughout the United States to coordinate that process.
Assets move custodian to custodian.
Eligible assets move directly from an existing IRA custodian to your new self-directed IRA custodian.
Eligible plan assets move into an IRA.
Assets from an eligible former-employer or other qualified retirement plan may move through the appropriate rollover process.
Choosing Your Metals
Choose metals for how you intend to own them.
Not every precious-metals product is permitted inside an IRA—and simply being IRA-permissible doesn’t make a product the right choice for you.
Lucent focuses on high-quality, recognizable bullion from established sovereign mints and refiners. We’ll explain differences in cost, denomination, liquidity, and potential future use so you can choose deliberately.
Be careful with the word “premium.”
A higher-priced coin isn’t automatically a better coin. Products marketed as “exclusive,” “limited,” or “premium” can carry significantly higher acquisition costs. If we present a higher-cost product, we’ll explain why, how its pricing compares, and what may matter when you eventually sell or distribute it.
Think ahead.
Larger-denomination bullion may provide a more economical way to acquire metal, while smaller denominations can provide greater flexibility—especially when planning for future distributions.
Storage & Security
Your metals are physical. Where they’re held matters.
IRA-owned precious metals are held in secure third-party custody. Lucent helps you compare available depositories, understand their fees and procedures, select your storage arrangement, and coordinate insured delivery.
Allocated, segregated, or commingled?
We’ll explain what the available arrangements mean: how holdings are recorded, whether specific metals are separately identified or physically segregated, what storage costs, and what happens when metals are sold, transferred, or distributed.
Security and insurance.
We work with established institutional depositories and help you review their security, insurance coverage, receiving and release procedures, and visitation policies where applicable.
We verify that your metals arrived.
Lucent tracks fulfillment through delivery. Once your metals are received and processed, we reconcile the deposited holdings against your transaction records and confirm that they’re properly reflected in your account.
Ongoing IRA Support
Your metals are deposited. Our job isn’t finished.
Once your metals arrive, we’ll help you get oriented—then stay involved as your account changes.
- Confirmation and reconciliation
- Online access and statement support
- Written fair-market valuations
- Additional purchases
- Required minimum distributions
- Cash and in-kind distributions
- Retirement-account transfers
- Roth conversions and eligible recharacterizations
- Qualified charitable distributions where applicable
- Beneficiary changes
- Product exchanges
- Liquidation and buyback assistance
- Custodian and depository coordination
Taking a distribution doesn’t necessarily mean selling your metals.
Depending on the transaction and applicable IRA rules, distributions can be made in cash or in kind. We’ll help coordinate the process either way.
We’ll stay in touch.
You shouldn’t only hear from your precious-metals company when someone wants to sell you something. Lucent provides ongoing education and regular personal contact, with a service standard of checking in approximately every 90 to 120 days.
Simple, Transparent Costs
Know what you’re paying—and what you’re paying for.
There are two primary costs to understand: the price you pay when purchasing your metals and the annual cost of maintaining the self-directed IRA. We’ll explain both before you proceed.
The cost of acquiring the physical metals.
Before you authorize a transaction, you’ll know the current spot price per ounce, your total purchase price, the percentage you’re paying over spot, and any applicable third-party transaction fees.
The annual cost of maintaining the account.
Your self-directed IRA has an administrative cost, and physical metals require secure storage and insurance. We’ll show you the actual fee schedule before the account is established.
Simple fees should actually be simple.
The goal is straightforward: understand what you pay to acquire the asset, understand what you pay to maintain and store it, and know those costs before you proceed.
Be skeptical of the word “free.”
Promotional costs don’t disappear because they’re called free. Lucent would rather explain what things actually cost.
Is a Metals IRA Right for You?
Start with what you want your retirement assets to do.
People consider physical precious metals for different reasons. Lucent doesn’t prescribe a universal metals allocation. Instead, there are questions worth considering for yourself.
Why am I considering physical precious metals?
How much of my retirement assets do I want represented by metals?
What other assets will I continue to own?
How important is access to liquidity?
How long do I expect to hold the metals?
Will I need required minimum distributions?
Am I purchasing for retirement needs or long-term wealth preservation?
Are these assets I may eventually leave to others?
Tell us what matters to you. We’ll explain the options.
We can explain products and denominations, pricing, liquidity, storage, distributions, account mechanics, and other practical considerations. We don’t provide individualized investment, tax, or legal advice.
Understand the tradeoffs, too.
Physical precious metals don’t produce interest or dividends. Prices can rise or fall. Buying and selling involves transaction costs, and a Metals IRA has ongoing administration and storage costs.