Checkbook SDIRA & Ameritrade

[Harold Groetsema]

I have a Checkbook controlled IRA LLC and want to invest into TD Ameritrade. Can I just set up an account from my LLC or do I need to set it up directly with my SDIRA? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Brian Eastman]

@Kevin Zimmer

That is a great question, and certainly Harold will need to respond with his own motivations.

We have a lot of clients with the Checkbook IRA LLC or Solo 401(k) establish standard trading accounts. Diversification is a good thing, and these brokerage accounts are a mechanism to keep contingency funds or earnings actively deployed within the program as opposed to sitting idle in cash.

That said, there may be benefits to maintaining a separate IRA elsewhere for reasons of asset segregation. If you have a larger portfolio and assets that create risk exposure such as rental property, you would not want a significant amount of cash or stocks sitting in that same LLC and potentially exposed to a lawsuit. In that case it is best to transfer money out of the system to a separate IRA. Of course the reverse can be done as well.