In an environment of economic slowdown and uncertainty, it is only natural to find ways to secure your savings and investment and if you are employed then your retirement savings make up a great part of your savings. If, like millions of Americans you own a 401(k) account then you must have been offered a range of investment options to invest your retirement savings so that you can generate passive income and increase your savings.
The most common forms of investment options offered to 401(k) account holders are mutual funds, equities, and bonds, etc with varying risk profiles to match your risk appetite. While this is a good way to increase your savings but if we look at the performance of retirement funds in the financial meltdown of 2008 then we can see that the financial meltdown wiped out retirement savings by up to 20%. For individuals, within a few years of retirement age, 20% is a big number when they do not have enough time to make up for the loss.
For someone with around a million dollars in retirement savings, this meant a loss of up to $200,000! If invested at the rate of 5%, this represents an annual return of around $10,000. You can see how big a loss this must have been for people close to retirement, with their savings all piled up.
So no matter how good your investment strategy is, if a financial crisis hits, it will end up reducing your savings. Although many protective measures have been taken since the last meltdown when the chips go down, they go down with a domino effect and no one can be sure where it will eventually stop.
Therefore, it is only prudent to take some steps to mitigate the risk of loss in savings due to uncertain financial situation and this is where Gold IRAs come in. Gold IRAs are self-directed retirement savings accounts that allow individuals to roll over their savings from their 401(k) accounts to invest them in precious metals.
The advantage of investing in precious metals is that precious metals do not carry the same risk as other marketable securities, they will not default on payment like bonds or shares of a company and usually, the price of precious stones moves opposite to the price of dollar, thus in a crisis situation you can rest assured that your savings will not be going down with the dollar.
Consider the Gold IRA as a way to hedge the risk on your 401(k) account. It is not advisable to convert all of your retirement savings into Gold IRA investment instead only a portion of your savings should ideally be transferred to your Gold IRA account to be an investment into precious metals.
Many companies offer Gold IRA management services in the market and many of them have an impeccable track record. Lear Capital is one such company. In fact, it is not just any company, it is the market leader when it comes to Gold IRA accounts.
Lear Capital has the advantage of having the experience and the expertise required to advise the customers in the best possible manner in order to secure and increase their savings. Lear Capital boasts having state of the art customer advisory function with real-time insights to help the customers make well-informed decisions.
Lear capital offers a wide variety of coins and Gold IRA plans that can be customized according to the needs of the customers. The full list of available coins and bullion can be seen on their website. Lear Capital only offers the approved coins for Gold IRA it must be remembered that items of jewelry or unapproved articles made out of precious metals are not eligible for the gold ira account.
Lear Capital also offers numismatic or rare coins. Numismatic coins are inflation resistant and have a history of profitability because they have a value that is over and above the value of precious metal coins due to their rarity. Thus, the range of precious metals available with Lear Capital allows the investors to invest their retirement savings with peace of mind.
Being the market leader means that you can expect the very best from Lear Capital, from investment advice to customer care they have got it all covered. At Lear Capital, they understand the mindset of the customers, most if not all customers come to Lear Capital with a mind full of questions that are only natural because they are looking for safe investment options. The customer service representatives of Lear Capital have a track record of guiding the customers until they are satisfied with the answers they are getting.
Lear Capital takes around 24 hours to open up your Gold Ira account. Their process is simple, your credentials will be collected by a representative and following the submission and acceptance of the application your gold IRA account will be opened in 24 hours and your custodian will be contacted to transfer the funds from your 401(k) plan to your Gold IRA account.
Lear Capital has a precious metal depository in Delaware, while other companies have spread out storage areas Lear Capital still keeps all of the deposits in a central depository with your precious metals insured by Lloyds of London, one of the oldest insurance companies. Lear Capital charges an annual fee of around $160 and this includes storage, custodial charges, and quarterly statements. In addition to this, they have an online store which means that purchases of precious metals can be made at any time without the need to call or walk into their office.
There are other Gold IRA management companies in the market as well and because the product is same for all of the companies, they differentiate on cost and services offered to customers but Lear Capital has the biggest market share of all the companies because of the level of service they offer along with the diversity of investment options and low-cost structure.
