Transferring money from a Roth IRA to a Self Directed Roth IRA

[John Humphries]

I've got $30,000 in a Roth IRA with Ameritrade that I used to actively manage in stocks and corporate bonds. I'd like to use this money in real estate and real estate related investments now, but I am only 40 years old and (to my limited understanding) I can't just pull this money out without penalty. It has been over 5 years since I have opened and/or contributed to this Roth.

As an added wrinkle, I live in Canada now and have not had US income since moving here almost 10 years ago so I am not able to contribute new money to my Roth.

What I would like to do is to use this money to invest in two different real estate investment vehicles. One is a crowdfunding, "alternate investment" which basically would be buying shares in a portfolio of houses to be rehabbed, rented, and eventually sold. The other way that I would like to use the money is to buy individual investment properties in the US myself.

My understanding is that you can do either of these with a Self Directed Roth IRA. Is it possible to use one custodian to do both? Can anyone recommend a SDRIRA custodian or at least someone that is qualified to answer some of these questions?

[Daria B.]

Originally posted by @John Humphries:

I've got $30,000 in a Roth IRA with Ameritrade that I used to actively manage in stocks and corporate bonds. I'd like to use this money in real estate and real estate related investments now, but I am only 40 years old and (to my limited understanding) I can't just pull this money out without penalty. It has been over 5 years since I have opened and/or contributed to this Roth.

As an added wrinkle, I live in Canada now and have not had US income since moving here almost 10 years ago so I am not able to contribute new money to my Roth.

What I would like to do is to use this money to invest in two different real estate investment vehicles. One is a crowdfunding, "alternate investment" which basically would be buying shares in a portfolio of houses to be rehabbed, rented, and eventually sold. The other way that I would like to use the money is to buy individual investment properties in the US myself.

My understanding is that you can do either of these with a Self Directed Roth IRA. Is it possible to use one custodian to do both? Can anyone recommend a SDRIRA custodian or at least someone that is qualified to answer some of these questions?

I had a Roth with Schwab and transferred my funds to MidlandIRA. There was no penalty since it was a like-transfer to the new account I opened with MidlandIRA. I can now use Midland to invest in RE.