Whether you’re new to investing or an experienced mutual fund and IRA investor, you might not know much about gold and other precious metals IRAs. Learn more about gold and choose a gold IRA from Fidelity as your next investment.
Brief History of Fidelity Investments
Since its founding in 1946, Fidelity has positioned itself to provide innovative solutions and education for its investors. It now has over 200 Investor Centers in nine countries across four continents, with exceptional online services for investors, making it a well-established and trustworthy giant in the investment world.
Fidelity focuses its investor services on education, advice, and financial planning for retirement, wealth management, college savings, and broker services for investments. Therefore, no matter where you are on your investment journey, it is poised to move you along in the right direction.
With a wide range of investment options and over 42 million individual investors, it might seem like Fidelity is the best option for new and experienced investors. However, brand recognition and history aren’t the only factors that matter. So, what are the options for a gold IRA from Fidelity?
Is the Gold IRA From Fidelity Trustworthy and Legit?
Fidelity takes a generalized approach to offering several investment solutions for its members. While this includes options like a precious metals IRA or gold ETF, they don’t specialize in precious metals as investment options.
The primary benefit of opening a gold IRA with Fidelity is that they trade in all four IRS-approved metals: gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Additionally, Fidelity offers a lower minimum investment amount than most other gold IRA companies, at just $2,500.
Investment Options for a Gold IRA With Fidelity
While Fidelity does offer a precious metals IRA, investors can’t open a true self-directed IRA (SDIRA) with Fidelity. Instead, Fidelity has developed an IRA package with backing in precious metals. However, when you purchase from their offerings of coins or bullion, you might be getting “paper” gold.
Physical Precious Metal Products They Offer
Fidelity offers a range of gold, silver, and platinum coins you can add to your IRA in an approved depository. They sometimes offer palladium, but these rare coins are often unavailable. Fidelity maintains private, insured depositories or stores coins through a partnership with FideliTrade.
Types of Gold IRA Accounts Offered by Fidelity
Fidelity offers several IRA options, including a traditional IRA for retirement, a Roth IRA for investment trading and borrowing, and a rollover 401(k) IRA to protect your retirement plan if you change companies. But which account type has the best options for investing in gold? Fidelity offers gold options for each of its regular IRA accounts; just speak with an account manager to set one up.
Traditional IRA
Traditional IRAs are an excellent option to save for retirement with tax-deferred earnings and tax-deductible contributions. You still have access to your savings in a traditional IRA for certain expenses, including college, purchasing your first home, birth, or adoption.
Roth IRA
Roth IRAs offer more flexibility for withdrawals for any purpose without taxes or penalties. How does that work? Contributions to your Roth IRA come from your earnings after taxes, meaning you don’t pay taxes again on your Roth IRA contributions and investments.
401(k) With Gold Options
You can open a new 401(k) or rollover an existing account into an IRA to manage your retirement options in one account. This is especially useful for members who change jobs and need options for retirement accounts when going to another company.
What Are the Eligibility Requirements and Contribution Limits?
There are some limitations to a gold IRA from Fidelity. The first is that Fidelity doesn’t offer a truly self-directed IRA account. Second is how you purchase and store your gold and other precious metal investments in your IRA from Fidelity compared to dedicated gold IRA and precious metal investment providers.
Fidelity also offers precious metals as alternate investment options, including gold stocks, ETFs, and other investments you can place into your gold IRA. But what do you need to start with a Fidelity Gold IRA?
Age and Income Requirements
There are no restrictive requirements for age or income as long as you can afford the $2,500 minimum investment amount and pay the fees. Fees for a gold IRA with Fidelity range between 0.99-2.9% of the amount held in your account and vary between certain transactions, such as purchasing gold for your account or withdrawing or transferring assets from your IRA.
Contribution Limits and Rules
The minimum investment amount of $2,500 makes Fidelity Investments a much more affordable gold IRA for new investors than other specialized gold IRAs from dedicated gold investment providers. Other providers often have a higher minimum investment limit, ranging from $25,000-50,000. This often proves to be a challenging barrier to entry for new investors.
Rollover and Transfer Options
You can rollover or transfer an existing IRA into a gold IRA with Fidelity. An advisor can help you convert money or assets in your current retirement account into gold and other precious metals for storage at a certified depository.
Pros and Cons of Investing in a Gold IRA With Fidelity
There are several advantages to investing in a gold IRA with Fidelity, including the low minimum deposit, ease of access, and opportunity to work with a major investment firm with locations around the globe. However, there are also potential drawbacks that serious precious metal investors may not like about the gold IRA options from Fidelity, including impersonal customer service and the lack of a dedicated account manager for their investment.
While many investors see the size of Fidelity as an advantage in knowing they have the appropriate backing and protection for their investments, others might see it as a disadvantage when attempting to contact an experienced advisor about gold and precious metal investments.
Fidelity doesn’t specialize in gold and precious metals, meaning their customer service representatives may be unable to give qualified advice about current metal prices and investment trends. This can leave some investors unhappy with their experience when they have questions about the next steps in their retirement or investment plans.
So, what are the specific advantages of choosing a gold IRA from Fidelity?
Advantages of Choosing Fidelity for a Gold IRA
The key advantage of choosing Fidelity for your investment firm is that the barrier to entry in precious metal investing is much lower than with other precious metal investment firms. With only $2,500 needed to open your gold IRA, it’s much more affordable than other gold IRAs.
Additionally, Fidelity charges fees based on purchases and deposits into the IRA rather than annual fees on the balance, like many other precious metal IRA companies. The fee rate varies between 0.99-2.9%, depending on the amount and type of transaction.
Potential Drawbacks or Considerations
Because Fidelity doesn’t specialize in retirement accounts or precious metal investing, some investors may have questions beyond the general knowledge of most customer service representatives who work with Fidelity accounts.
Additionally, Fidelity only assigns a team of advisors to manage accounts over $50,000, and a dedicated advisor for accounts over $250,000. Most major gold IRA investment companies include a dedicated account manager or advisor for each customer. These advisors specialize in buying and investing in gold and other precious metals for gold or silver IRAs.
Fees and Costs Associated With a Fidelity Gold IRA
A Fidelity gold IRA removes the high barrier to entry that many other gold-buying investment firms have for their gold IRA options. But what are the possible fees for an investor when considering a gold IRA from Fidelity?
Account Maintenance Fees
Most gold IRA providers have annual account maintenance fees averaging $200-250, although some are even higher. These fees can vary based on whether you choose additional account features, such as personal insurance for your gold and precious metals beyond the depository’s own insurance. However, Fidelity doesn’t charge a typical account maintenance fee like other firms.
Transaction Fees and Expenses
Instead of account maintenance fees, Fidelity charges fees between 0.99-2.9% for transactions, depending on the type of transaction and the amount purchased, deposited, or sold. Buying or selling more in a single transaction will reduce the fee percentage, benefiting experienced investors with more fee savings.
Final Thoughts on Choosing a Gold IRA From Fidelity
When choosing a provider for a gold IRA, Fidelity is an excellent option for beginners just getting started investing in gold and other precious metals. The low minimum investment makes a Fidelity Gold IRA much more accessible for new investors who haven’t yet built up a large retirement savings balance.
Fidelity is also a great choice for investors who want a balanced IRA portfolio between all four IRS-approved precious metals, including gold, silver, palladium, and platinum. While some precious metal companies support silver or gold, few offer coins, bars, or bullion in all four metals like Fidelity.
If you’re a more experienced investor looking for dedicated customer support, Fidelity may not be your best choice. Learn more about gold IRA providers on our list of the best gold IRA companies.
