Ouch money.

For a company that isnt out to steal your money, check out the video review here. Retirement is that stage of life where you finally cease to work, and just relax and spend time with family and friends. Its certainly a good time to maximize on hobbies and volunteer work, though the lifestyle you experience at this point is very much dependent on the plans you make during your working life. With this in mind, its crucial to get an IRA account early, because by doing so, you can set aside enough resources to make your transition into retirement as comfortable as possible. Converting your IRA to gold is also a wise decision; however, if you decide to do this, you have to be cautious because you wouldnt want anyone conning you out of your well-earned savings.

How to protect yourself from conmen

When you have taken years to accumulate money for your retirement, the worst thing that can happen is to lose that cash to fraudsters. IRA fraud cases can occur any time because swindlers are always looking for new, gullible consumers to con; and this therefore means that you have to be equally vigilant regardless of who you decide to deal with. Here are some tips to help you avoid becoming a victim of gold IRA fraud.

Only deal with ethical professionals

Even as a self-directed IRA enables you to invest in different things including gold, you have to bear in mind that the custodian you choose will be principally responsible for handling your assets. Thus, the custodian must be an ethical professional so that you are confident that they wont clear your account and run away. Considering the flexibility that comes with self-directed IRAs, many scam-artists convince account holders to let them take over as trustees of the involved IRA accounts, only to end up double-crossing them.

Watch out for unsolicited offers

When it comes to gold IRAs, you have to be keen of anyone who appears to be very interested in sharing with you some great investment opportunities because it wouldnt make sense unless they also had a stake in it. In such cases, you may be lured into transferring your money into self-directed IRAs that may make you lose in the end. Together with that, the fact that gold prices keep soaring is one reason why individuals with bad intentions never run out of ideas on how to con gold holders. Their activities keep flourishing and they can easily provide you with a pitch to purchase gold, when they actually have none to sell. Thus, you have to be wary so that you do not fall victim to such gold investment tricks.

Seek advice from different people beforehand

Before you invest your money, you should consult a number of advisors who should ideally include your spouse, attorney, wealth manager and even a tax planner. Also, you must make sure that you are dealing with a legitimate custodian ahead of rolling over your IRA from the existing company to a new one. Aside from that, you can seek referrals from people you trust so that you are best informed about the companies to deal with, and how to go about the process of acquiring the IRAs.

Get documentation for every transaction

For every transaction made, you have to ensure that you get papers for it. In case anything goes wrong, you want to be able to keep track of all the transfers and contracts involved. You should be in a position to get such documents from your custodian because only an illegitimate one will be hesitant to provide you with the same. With that said, in case you encounter any indecisiveness from the custodian you select, you should steer clear of him or her and find other options because when it comes to gold IRA fraud, it all begins and ends with the IRA custodian.

Heres a video to help you detect investing fraud: