Self Directed IRA Companies & Roth tax implications

[Chris Schoonhoven]

I've started looking into a few SDIRA companies and just wanted to ask to see if anyone has experience with these companies or if anyone has any suggestions for another SDIRA.

I'm looking at Quest, Advanta, and Cama. Really liked how hands on Advanta seems to be. They offer checkbook but I've heard that isn't necessary and should maybe be avoided due to legal issues with cutting checks improperly. Does anyone have suggestions on this?

Also, I'm considering switching some funds from my traditional to a Roth for future tax implications. I'll obviously speak with my CPA to decide how to do this as well as possible. Just wanted to see if anyone had experience with doing this or has any suggestions one way or the other.

[Bryan O.]

Hi @Chris Schoonhoven. I strongly suggest checkbook control (IRA LLC). Once you set that up, it doesn't matter if your provider is slow, fast, smart, stupid, you move at the speed of you. It is not difficult to avoid prohibited transactions, just don't get into business with family! Naturally, there are a couple of other things, but you get the point.

Once you've set up checkbook control, you've mitigated any risk from a bad provider.