Daily Precious Metal Update

September 10, 2009 - Retirement accounts with precious metals have seen an unusual amount of growth over the past four quarters, and many IRA experts attribute this to the rapid increase in demand for gold and silver. Retirement accounts with precious metals are relatively new, and since the government passed the Tax Payer Relief act in 1997, millions of American investors, including a large number of baby-boomers, have shifted away from traditional investments and into gold.

The government stipulates that precious metals must be stored in an approved depository, and meticulous care must be taken to keep track of all the metals. In the same way that retirement accouns offer withdrawls, a gold IRA offers delivery of physical gold when withdrawls are taken. Some investors are concerned about a possible repeat of the gold confiscation that took place between 1933-1973, so they purchase the American Eagle Proof coin. This is the only coin that an investor can put inside a retirement account without fear of confiscation. The American Eagle proof is available in gold and silver. Any other COMEX acceptable bullion bar or coin may be placed inside the IRA as well. Many investors with inactive 401Ks also convert these plans to gold IRAs. With many American investors losing over 35% of their retirement accounts last year, it is no suprise that an influx of gold IRA requests are being reported by Sterling Trust and Goldstar trust, the two companies approved by the government for precious metal storage for IRA accounts.

The plethora of individuals with retirement accounts that now contain precious metals is growing by hundreds of thousands per week, causing the gold spot price to rise to over $1000 earlier in the week, marking only the sixth time in history that this number was surpassed. The current gold spot price as of 1:30pm EST is $996.90, which is a 0.35% rise for the day and a 32.43% increase from the same day in 2008.

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Danny Burns

Senior Staff Writer - Precious-Metal.org