Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You're listening to the Preferred Way, a.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: Retirement podcast brought to you by Preferred.
[00:00:04] Speaker A: Trust Company, the preferred custodian for all alternative investments.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome to another edition of the Preferred Way, a podcast with Preferred Trust Company. Today we are talking to Carrie Cook, CEO, about due diligence behind selecting your investment sponsors and your investments. So this is going to be a problem. These spinny chairs. Ron told me not to spin, but.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: This is like our problem. Our new set.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: What do you think?
[00:00:33] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Do you?
[00:00:35] Speaker B: This chair is way too comfy. So if you can't find me during the day, this is where you'll be. Yeah.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: They don't recline though.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: That's okay. It's comfortable, like the backing. Right here.
[00:00:44] Speaker A: It is. It is kind of comfy. I like it better than the other ones.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Yes, this is much better. I like this.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Upscale.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Yes. We're moving up in the world. It must be our podcast. Don't forget to like and subscribe. I see. Yeah. See. Okay.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: All right. What are we going to talk about today? I've got a list here.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: I know that's a long list.
That it is. So due diligence when it comes to alternative investments and the various types of alternative investments, kind of what investors need to know because obviously they are the ones performing the due diligence. Preferred trust companies not doing that because we're not licensed to give investment advice. So when you have a self directed ira, you have to really be honing in on that on your own.
And there are so many different types of alternative investments out there that people can consult, select. Like, where do they even start to begin? Like how does their due diligence even begin? So I think we'll start.
Startup companies are very popular today. LLCs, LPs, corporations, a lot of people are investing that way. So what are, what are some of the things that clients, investors should be looking at when they're going to use their self directed ira?
[00:01:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
Well, statistically speaking, startups, right? Yeah.
So the first thing you need to consider is your risk. Right. So if you're going to invest in a startup, you definitely want to consider.
Can you take the risk of losing your entire investment?
And not all investments are like that, but when it comes to a startup company, you only have very limited amount of information to work with. It's not like it's a public company, they're required to disclose things. But the one thing that every company is going to do when they start up is they're going to create a business license, articles of incorporation, maybe, Maybe they have an operating agreement. Maybe, maybe they should, I say maybe, but they should have the basic elements of creating a company.
So let's talk, you know, let's say it's an operating agreement, right? There's an operating agreement upon which how they're going to run the company, who the owners are, you know, maybe some basic overview of how the company is going to be structured.
They'll typically file a business license. We all should, in some state somewhere, business license.
And when you do that, it becomes public information. So there's your first little tidbit of public information that you can obtain. So you would go to a Secretary of state's website.
But keep something in mind.
You can start a business in the state of Oklahoma and you could incorporate your business in the state of Delaware or Wyoming or Nevada or wherever you want really. So you're going to need to know a little bit of information about the company. But most companies, I say most, at least the companies that we've seen from an alternative standpoint will incorporate in their own state because that's what they know, that's what they're comfortable with. So that would be your first place you would look is the Secretary of State's website business entity search. Type in the business name, see if it's active.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: You want to make sure of that first. Let's say it's not in that state though either. Go on the hunt because there's typically three states that you'll see them use most widely. Delaware, Nevada and now Wyoming are the three states that you see a lot of business incorporating in because of, you know, benefits that come to incorporating in those states.
Non disclosure items that they don't have to do in those particular states. Or maybe they're just business friendly states. So start there. That's the basics.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: And now you gotta. What's the company gonna do? You know, is it something that you're going to actively monitor and watch?
[00:04:43] Speaker B: And what type of investment, like is it debt related? Is it equ. Related link? What is your position in it?
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, Are you taking a ownership position?
[00:04:51] Speaker B: Right. Are you buying some shares?
[00:04:54] Speaker A: What are you doing? Maybe you're a passive investor, maybe you're just like, oh my gosh, so and so had a great idea and I'd love to get involved in that. Okay, great. But do a little due diligence on that front and also find out what kind of reporting they're going to give you. What is that going to look like? I mean with startups, don't expect to make much money. The first couple of years, unless it's just, you know, a crazy idea that that takes off and is wildly successful and you saw them on Shark Tank and you're like, ah, I want to be a part of that. Right. And then maybe, you know, they're already generating income, but likely they're probably not. So it could be a 2, 3, 5 year hold before you start to see a return. But find out how you're going to receive a return. Are you going to receive tax reporting if they say no, like beware, like they have to report to the irs, win or lose.
[00:05:48] Speaker B: Right. And when are they going to provide those documents? Because it is an IRA investment. So those tax documents are gonna look a little bit different as far as who the investor is, who the ein under the investor is, that type of thing.
[00:06:01] Speaker A: And stay in contact with them, follow them as much as you possibly can.
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Yeah, don't set it and forget.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Don't be annoying.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Don't set it and forget it. You sort of can't do that with an alternative investment. You have to really watch what's happening. And I guess it's the same thing, even if it wasn't a startup and you're investing in an LLC or an LP or those are the same concepts for doing your research.
But know the return too, so that you can be prepared to watch your account and see whether you're actually getting the income that's stated 100%.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: So that's the business side, but then there's the people side.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Right, Investigating of the people.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: So you get a copy of an operating agreement, you get a copy of their bylaws, you get a copy of those things so that you can do more research.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: Right.
[00:06:47] Speaker A: And when you invest in a company, you're really investing in the intellectual property of the people that are running that company. So, you know, Google it and then.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Find out who they are digging down a little bit too. I think sometimes you'll look at LLCs and they're actually the members of the LLC or other LLCs. You know, there's layers to them. So make sure you're checking, you know, their standings with the state that they're registered in for each of the LLCs.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Absolutely important. Absolutely.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: All right, let's shift gears a little bit. We'll talk about real estate a little bit. There's obviously so many different types of real estate investments that you can use with a self directed ira so we can touch on, you know, obviously real property, you're talking about fix and flips, rental properties.
What would be some of your recommendations if they're looking to do a, to do a rental or a fix and flip.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
So rental and fix and flip. Those.
Real estate has a cycle, right. And we're starting to cycle back into maybe some opportunities to take advantage of some distressed real estate. But maybe you just stumble across them when you stumble across it. The most important part of any acquisition of real estate is value. That is the number one key component that we need to be very in tune with.
How you determine that value.
It can be a little interesting. I think what we see is we have clients that are real estate agents, right. So they have readily accessible access to what has sold in the surrounding area. But then you have those clients that don't and they're like, you know, I just, I want to invest in something that I understand a little bit about. And real estate is typically something that people understand a little bit about. They either own their own home, maybe they've owned a home in the past, they understand the concept about value of their house going up and down. Right. We've seen multiple cycles in real estate and so according requiring that you need to make sure that you know what your value is. Either get a broker price opinion, maybe you're an agent yourself, check out the surrounding area. Zillow can be very dangerous. Right. Check it out. County assessor. I know that sounds crazy because the county assessor is either super high or super low. But if you do a couple of those value appraisers, you can get an appraisal. It's a more costly option for sure and in my opinion isn't always as trustworthy depending upon the type of asset that you're buying. But since we're just talking about real estate, it's relatively simple. They just take the surrounding area, surrounding like real estate type, and they put a value to it. So know your value, get your value first and foremost.
But value is not everything because if you haven't opened the front door and walketh through, you know, value can deteriorate very, very quickly.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: So I. Obviously you can get your value based on market, but now we have to look at the interior and see how much it's going to cost you to get it to a place where you can rent it. And so you need to make sure of two things. One, when you buy something sight unseen, which a lot of times when you're able to take advantage of distressed value, it's as is.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Right?
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Right. So there's no inspection that's being done on the home.
You're really, you know, we're in Vegas and you're rolling the dice.
If you're going to roll the dice, you have to make sure that your IRA can support the potential costs of rolling that dice. So if you have the chance to get the door open before you purchase, please do that. If you can't do that, make sure you have enough funds set on the side to get that property to a state that you can rent it and.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: A little extra just in case.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Oh, absolutely.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: When you open the door, what you find isn't exactly what you expected.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: And that's what you should expect when you purchase for distressed value.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: But if you're buying for top value, you've been able to see it. Not a problem, but just another key component to look into when you're doing your due diligence, making sure that your IRA has enough to support those costs that are associated with it.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: And just understand too, I think all expenses, depending on, if you're buying it 100% with your IRA or whatever percentage, that's the percentage you have to use to pay for the expenses associated. You can't be doing any work on the property yourself, which I think sometimes, you know, our clients are, you know, they don't have a problem with that. They think they're going to be able to help with the rehab and stuff, but you have to keep your hands off of that. So you don't want to do anything to disqualify your ira.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: And something that pops up at the end that I think if you're not in real estate day to day, you wouldn't know this, but you need to get a clear title.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: And so, you know, one of the things that we're going to do through the process of acquiring, acquiring that property is we will help our clients work with the title company to make sure that we have clear title when it becomes vested into the IRA account. And occasionally when you buy distressed, it also comes with liens. And so you need to make sure that you can clear those before you can actually take possession of the property. And clearing those liens is just like you said, you never know. And you would need to be able to utilize your IRA to clear those liens as well.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: So you're going to want to make sure, sure that you're on top of that. So those are probably the three key factors, I would say, if you're looking at acquiring a rental property that you should dig deep.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Okay, so now shifting gears a little bit more. Precious metals. So this is something, once you put in your ira, it's not earning monthly income. It's not that type of investment.
You hang onto it assumably for years to come. But I think that also one of the trickiest investments to make in your ira. So let's talk a little bit about that.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: Well, it's kind of similar to real estate. Right. It's the collateralized asset that you really have to make sure that when you acquire it, you acquire it for the right price. It's very similar to real estate. Right. We just talked about that with precious metals. You know, it's super unfortunate that we live in an environment where there's no laws or regulations around precious metals dealers as to what they can sell the metals to you for. And so what I would say to everybody is that metals have a value, they're a commodity.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Yeah. You can price them all day, every day.
[00:13:57] Speaker A: You absolutely can price a metal. Now, you have to keep a couple things in mind. I don't want to piss off all the precious metals dealers out there because there are certain metals that have a greater value, but at the end of the day, there is a melt price that you could potentially have to sell your metals for. So we always have to think of investments as, you know, can I bear the risk of losing my entire investment? But with metals, you're not going to lose your entire investment. Right?
[00:14:26] Speaker B: Right.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: Metals are going to go.
Real estate's not going to go to zero. I mean, it could, I guess, if it was really bad, deteriorated property, but it's not going to go to zero because the land will be worth something. With metals, you always have that tangible asset, but that rare coin that may fit into the box of IRS or IRA approved for purity standards, the value may not be there for somebody else. And so you have to make sure that when you acquire these metals, even if they are, you know, a special edition of something that meet the purity standards. To be in the ira, whom you may need to sell that to, will look at it at a melt price. They're going to look at it. Or spot price. They're going to look at it at what the true value is of 2 ounces of gold. They're not going to go, oh, let me flip both sides and see how much this is worth.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: You see what I'm saying? So you just need to be very cognizant of that. Now, some individuals may choose to use their ira. Now, we know collectibles aren't allowed, but in the precious metals realm, coins are fun. Coins are a hobby. Coins are something where you can have some Fun with it. But it also meets the IRS standards to be in your ira. And so just be cautious there because they'll try to sell you some specialty stuff.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: The only one left, you're getting the last 10.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Oh my gosh.
[00:15:51] Speaker B: You're getting the last 10. So just watch the last 10. You better be careful. Nobody else is gonna want them.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: So just do me a favor. If you're gonna buy precious metals, look at what the value of the gold is, of what the silver is, of what the palladium is, what the platinum is before you buy. And if you're comfortable with the price that it is valued at. If you look at market research, right, what is it valued at today? Because it's valued every day, it's a commodity, it's valued every sing. So look at that value and then look at what the precious metals dealer is selling it to you at. Now just to be fair to precious metals dealers, there is cost associated in getting it from mine to melt to, you know, the press to get it to a bar, to get it to a coin. There is cost in doing that. But you have to ask yourself, what is the value of that to you, right? When do you plan on utilizing your retirement account? If you're planning on using utilizing your retirement account within a short period of time, then you really need to squish that number down as tight as you can get it. So that way there's potential for it to go up, for you to make money on it.
Some people may just be utilizing precious metals as capital preservation and that's okay too. So for those of you that have lost a lot of money in the market and you're nearing retirement, and you hear that infomercial late at night, that Armageddon, the sky is falling, the government is going to go bankrupt. All this stuff that could happen, right? It all could happen. The world could end tomorrow.
But the reality of it is some of us may use it as capital preservation. Just a holding, just to say, I want it at this value at this time. And I know I have a three year time horizon and I'm willing to pay 40% above the value, then do that.
But most people aren't going to be okay with giving away 40% of their retirement to a precious metals dealer to buy metals, find another place to buy metals.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: Because there are a lot of them out there. It's not like there's only one or two and you only have this small area to buy from. I mean, they're pretty prevalent out there. There's a lot of Them out. There they are. And so doing your due diligence on those and comparing the metal at the cost of one compared to another dealer is a good idea.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Absolutely. Absolutely. And their buyback.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: You know, what I have noticed is some of the metal dealers will buy it back for the exact cost that they sold it to you. Seems kind of weird to me because why would you buy it back at the exact cost? That's kind of a red flag to me. That's when I'm like, my radar is up a little bit.
In theory, they should be buying it back from you at a greater value if gold went up. Right. So why would you be buying it back at the same value? Well, they're doing that because it's not at that value yet.
That's where you should really look at the fine print. Read their agreements and then ask yourself, how did I get involved with this group anyways? Did they reach out to me? Could I not sleep at night? I saw it on infomercial at 3:00am you know, I love the weird tactics.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: Are they scaring me? Is it threatening to me? Yeah.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know if you've ever done this, Chris, just off topic, but you're up super late at night or you can't sleep and you turn on the.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: TV and you're buying stuff.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: I'm not buying stuff.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: No.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: And so you have to ask yourself, you know, at 3:00am Is it a smart choice to dial the phone and buy metals? You know, probably. Probably not. You know, buy metals. When you want to buy metals, don't buy metals because somebody has approached you with some scare tactics to buy them.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah. And then just be careful too. You know, diversification is important and we talk about that a lot with our clients. Putting your eggs in one basket. I think it's important, don't. You know, if that's your only retirement you have, it might be best to not put it all into precious metals. Especially if you're becoming of age where you have to take an rmd. You know, be mindful of those kind of things. Talk your cpa, find that out. Because if you have to sell those metals, you know, a year later you may not get what you need to for your rmd.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: So, yeah, you have to watch that.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Yeah, you really do. You have to. You really have to do that. I think probably precious metals are probably one of the, you know, the alternative investments that probably takes the most due diligence and the most, you know, don't feel like it's a rushed thing. I think you have to take your time with it a little bit.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: I think the reason it takes the most due diligence is because the precious metals dealers have intentionally gone after the elderly.
[00:20:38] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: And they do the scare tactic with them intentionally.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:20:45] Speaker A: And just stop and think. My greatest advice for precious metals is just think about it for just a second. And you know what's crazy about this entire thing is usually they have those tickers running across the top.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Right. That shows you what the price is.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Because it is a commodity and it's something that is bought and sold on the stock exchange every day. And so every day there's going to be a value that it starts and a value that it ends. Every day they have it running across their website. And I kind of half believe they are intentionally doing that because right underneath it you'll see that gold is valued at, I don't know, $3,000 an ounce. Right. And then you see right at the bottom there they've got a gold coin, 2 ounce gold coin and they're selling it for $15,000. It's like, what is this? Do they put their pinky up when they say $15 billion? Why are they doing that?
You know, they're basically putting it in front of them and then they can defend it because they say the value was on our website. What was the value on the website when they called the 800 number at 3am? Was the market open then? Did you really have a ticker running? I mean, maybe you did from the day before, but they weren't on your website. They picked up the phone and called you.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Yeah. I'm guessing a lot of these people never get on the website.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: That.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: Of the dealer.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: I can't imagine things.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: So yeah, proceed with caution on precious.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Metals, I think is what we say. Absolutely. And you can also check out the CFTC's website.
[00:22:16] Speaker B: You can do that too, which is. Yeah, that's a good idea. You know, making sure you're doing some research about the company itself. How long has it been in business? Do they go by any DVAs out there?
Have they? You know, who are you working with again? You met mentioned individuals. I think it's okay to take a look at and see who's running the company. Do a research on their name on the CFTC website, see if there are any complaints against them. I think that's a big, huge part of it. So definitely take your time, proceed with caution.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: All right. So on the other side of precious metals is digital currency, digital assets, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana. I mean, you name it, it's out there.
It's okay to invest in your ira. So what do we need to be cautious about when you're thinking about those types of assets?
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Well, from a digital currency standpoint, I'm a little old school. I know you are too. We come from the same era, which is weird because I guess I don't consider myself old. Do you consider yourself old?
[00:23:17] Speaker B: Not so much.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Okay, what are you talking about?
[00:23:19] Speaker B: We're still 25.
[00:23:20] Speaker A: I know this is true. Okay, well, with digital currency, what I would say about that is I don't like to burn my money on the sidewalk.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: I don't like to loan somebody $20,000 and then cross my fingers.
You know, there is, I'm not going to say there's not reliable places that you can buy and sell digital currency because we buy and sell with a reputable company. But there are many, many, many, many places that have gone under. There are many individuals that have stolen billions, billions of dollars from individuals that are investing in digital currency. And the vast majority of them are taken advantage of from hot wallets where you are buying and somebody else is holding. Right. And in theory, their sub ledgers look really great.
But in the grand scheme of things, you're a part of a massive wallet of a lot of people that have a, of a specific type of digital currency.
And I am of the belief that when it is your retirement account and it's not your day to day, funny money, whatever you want to do with your funny money is great. But retirement dollars should be treated as a very precious commodity. No point intended.
And with digital currency, the IRS has deemed it a commodity. And as soon as they did, everybody came out of the woodworks and was like, oh my gosh, we got a potential currency in their IRAs. Well, let's partner with this company and that company, this company, that company. Nobody wanted to set up the infrastructure that it took to take the least amount of risk when investing in digital currency. But we did.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: We decided to invest the capital and create an opportunity for individuals to hold digital currency in a cold storage wallet environment.
And I think people kind of throw that around nowadays as like, oh, this is the safest, this is the safest. But here's the reality. If you look at the other custodians that are out there, I don't know any that have cold storage as their only platform in which they hold digital currency. Because it's super easy to partner with somebody and push a few buttons and call it a Day and take a fee.
That's not how we operate. We operate a little bit differently where each individual has their own wallet addresses unique to them. Yes. Does it take a heck of a lot more to manage that? Does it take more insurance? Does it take, you know, multiple locations?
Does it take a variety of things necessary to make it risk adverse? It does, but that's, we, that's our comfort zone believe that holding custody of digital currency, it's going to come at a little bit of a higher cost.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: But to ensure and to create that infrastructure also comes at a little bit of a higher cost. But the security in it I'm willing to pay for. And our clients that, that utilize us for digital currency are as well, likely because they've been burned someplace else. They've learned their lesson. They realize the importance of I want to put in a wallet address and see my digital currency.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: I don't want to see it coming old with everybody else's.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: This app, can I trust this app or am I subledgered to some Excel spreadsheet behind the scenes? I mean that's the reality of those things.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Yeah, I think everybody looks at that shiny, like the shiny app where I can move digital currency around and I'm buy and sell all day long. But in reality the back end of that's not the safe thing in the world.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: What was the whole point of digital currency to begin with? Decentralization.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: Right?
[00:27:06] Speaker A: That was the entire point.
It's completely lost the intent of what ideal currency was all about. And decentralization is not seeing all of those movements not being on a site where you have to give your Social Security number your birthday. But now the government has moved in on that and now you're providing all this additional information. Well, when you open up a self directed IRA with us, you provide your information once, right?
[00:27:36] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: All of your digital currency transactions are not being tracked. They're maintained by us. They're being tracked. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they're not, you know, the ins and outs from your specific wallet. But that's what you see. You see the ins and outs of your specific wallet. Tell me where else you see the ins and outs of your specific wallet.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: Yeah, no, you can.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Everybody else's not with hot wallets. It doesn't work that way. All of it is public information. It's all public consumption. And so, you know, it's a little, little different, you know, and everything that's.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Being hacked today, like it's, it's you know, you're constantly seeing the news where, you know, information's being lost and it's.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Just, it's just not the safest, it's not the safest route you can take. And so, you know, watch out, watch out for that and who you're working with. And you know, it doesn't take a, it doesn't take a rocket. Scient as to Google hot wallets and what's happening with hot wallets and how many companies have gone under and custodians being sued because they decided to work with them and you told me that I could trust this and now all of a sudden I've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in digital currency.
You really need to make sure that you're working with a custodian that understands what it takes to hold a cold wallet. What does that mean?
Ask them to see your transaction IDs. I want to see exactly what was purchased, exactly what moved into your wallet. I want a copy of, I want my wallet address, I want to be able to manage my wallet, you know, those sorts of things.
[00:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: Good luck finding that. So be careful on the digital currency side. And yeah, you might have to spend a little extra with us, but, you know, for the peace of mind.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: Yep, that's what we hear all the time. Investors say, I don't mind spending a little bit more knowing it secure and knowing that you're taking care of my investment. So.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: Absolutely, absolutely.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: All right. Did we hit all the. I think we did.
[00:29:35] Speaker A: We get all the topics?
[00:29:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: We're not referencing our sheet very often.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: I know, it's like we've done this before.
Is there anything just overall from a due diligence standpoint that you want to get out there?
[00:29:51] Speaker A: Well, it is a self directed ira.
[00:29:54] Speaker B: It is.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: And so probably the most important part about it being a self directed IRA is the entire onus of due diligence is on you.
[00:30:03] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: And only you.
It's not on us as a custodian.
It's not on Google. Sometimes you gotta pick up the phone, sometimes you gotta go visit.
Take that extra step to make sure that you're securing your retirement account.
There's no reason why you shouldn't ask more questions. There's no reason why you, you shouldn't say, let me think on this overnight. Hang up the phone. Really take the time that's necessary for you to feel comfortable with making that investment. The vast majority of us understand traditional investing. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, 401 plans from our employers. My 2050 plan, chances are you know very, very little about that. But when it comes to alternatives, you have to learn as much as you possibly can about it.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: And if you ask the questions and they won't give you the answ, move on. Yeah. That should be a red flag.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Just absolutely move on. And then the second thing is, keep following up.
When you invest with your self directed ira, you're investing with, nine times out of ten it's with another company. If it's not a rental property, it's with another company.
That other company likely has an account for you as well. So do some cross comparison with what they're showing on their side and what's showing in your ira. Make sure that payments are being made, interest payments, dividend payments.
[00:31:33] Speaker B: And they match.
[00:31:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And that they're matching. You know that's on you.
[00:31:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: So many clients do not log into their IRAs. It's.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Yeah, we hear that all the time.
I haven't looked at my account in a year.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: Oops.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Take a peek.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: Look at what's going on.
That, that is on you. That's 100% on you. We're not going to reach out to you and say, hey, your investment isn't paying. That's 100% on you.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:03] Speaker A: So self directed. Yeah. Do your due diligence.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Follow up, follow up, follow up again, keep following up. Make sure that your investments are working the way you intended them to.
[00:32:15] Speaker B: Well, thanks. Appreciate it.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Thank you all for joining us on another edition of the Preferred Way. Don't forget to like and subscribe and we'll see you next time.
Thanks for joining us for another episode where retirement savers meet alternative investments. Can't wait for the next episode. To learn more, visit our website at Preferred trustcompany Combination.
