Metals Retirement Eligibility Transfers How it works Custodians Storage Compare

Gold and silver in a retirement account, explained from the law rather than the sales script

Nearly every page on this subject is published by a company that sells the metal. We do not sell it. We read the statute, the IRS guidance and the court decisions, we quote them, and we publish the parts that cost providers sales.

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What are you trying to work out?

Pick the question closest to yours and we will send you straight to it.

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Eligibility

Which silver actually qualifies

The full approved list, the products that quietly fail, and a checker for fifteen specific items. Includes the exemption almost nobody writes about.

 Moving money

Transfers, rollovers and the 20% trap

Why you almost always want a transfer rather than a rollover, and the withholding rule that can cost you twenty thousand dollars on a hundred thousand dollar move.

 Mechanics

How the account works, and where it does not suit people

The three companies involved, the full cost stack, and the required distribution problem that comes from owning something you cannot cut in half.

 Verification

Check a custodian against the IRS list

There is an official list and it takes two minutes to search. Most sales conversations never mention it. Six questions that tell you what you are dealing with.

 Storage

Where the metal sits, and what storage really costs

The actual facilities and their locations, segregated against commingled, and a calculator for flat versus percentage fees over your holding period.

 Providers

Who will take your account

Published minimums side by side, and an honest answer if your balance is below both of them.

What we do differently

We quote the statute instead of paraphrasing it

The familiar rule that "the IRS requires .999 fineness for silver" is the right number reached the wrong way. The tax code names no fineness at all. It defers to the minimum a futures exchange requires for delivery. That distinction is invisible until you hit an edge case, and then it decides the answer.

We publish the drawbacks

Metal held in a tax-deferred account produces no income, so there is nothing for the shelter to shelter. Storage and administration are charged whether the price rises or falls. And from age 73 you must take annual distributions from an asset that cannot be divided. None of that appears in a sales conversation, and all of it is real.

We say when the answer is genuinely unsettled

Proof coins are the clearest case. The statutory position and normal custodian practice do not line up, and providers reach different conclusions. We mark that as depending on your custodian rather than picking whichever answer reads more confidently.

We tell you where our money comes from

We earn a referral fee when a reader chooses a provider we compare, at no cost to you. It buys no ranking, it softens no rule, and it removes no drawback. Our standards page sets out exactly what it does and does not affect, and how to correct us when we are wrong.

The three things most people get wrong

  1. Buying the metal first

    Silver you buy at a coin shop and carry home can never be moved into your IRA. The account has to make the purchase itself, through a custodian, delivered to a depository. Doing it in the wrong order cannot be corrected afterwards.

  2. Taking the money themselves

    Ask an employer plan to send the money to you and 20% is withheld before you see it, even when you fully intend to roll it over. A direct transfer between custodians avoids the withholding, the 60-day deadline and the annual limit all at once.

  3. Assuming purity is the whole test

    A .9999 silver round can still fail, because the rule also asks who produced it. A pre-2013 Britannia fails on purity while the identical coin from 2013 passes. And sending an eligible coin to be graded can make it ineligible.

Metals Retirement is an independent research site. We are not a broker, dealer, custodian, depository, law firm or investment adviser, and nothing on this site is investment, legal or tax advice. Rules change and provider terms vary, so confirm your own position with your custodian and a tax professional before moving money. We may be compensated by providers we compare, at no cost to you. Last reviewed 26 July 2026.