For over 35 years, IRA Services Trust Company has offered unmatched custodial, administrative, and trustee services for investors, asset sponsors, financial institutions, and financial advisors. Their clients and partners have the security and safety of working with the market and technological leader with the lowest account fees in the industry.

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Process for setting up a new account:

Online Application that fully meets and exceeds all IRS requirements and regulations for IRA accounts as well as the Bank Secrecy Act, Anti-money laundering, and Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC).

Process for adding a new asset to client account:

IRA Services will review investment documents for administrative feasibility and to ensure investors are adhering to IRS rules regarding prohibited Investments with disqualified individuals before making their investment.

Procedures in place to protect client information: 

They understand that data security and privacy are of utmost importance to their clients. That is why they take every precaution to ensure that their clients' data is collected and stored using the highest levels of physical and logical security.

Procedures for annual valuations:

IRA Services Trust Company is required by the IRS to provide them with an annual fair market value of their client's account. For assets held in each client account, the amounts indicated as “value” or “valuation” on the client statement reflects, where possible, the latest prices provided to them by outside quotation services. Some assets, such as real estate, deeds of trust, direct participation programs, promissory notes and other investments, may be listed at original cost, an estimated or accrued value or designated as “not available” where there is no readily available market information. These values may be general approximations and are only for guidance and reporting purposes. Prices listed may be based on the last reported transaction or quotes available from an outside services, assessed values, values provided to us by asset issuers or program sponsors, IRA owners or other estimates of value. Estimates of value may be based upon an appraisal, book value, prices paid, industry standards or other valuation methods and may not necessarily be current. Values of property based on assessed value may not reflect the actual value of property due to limitations or legal restrictions on assessments in the state/county of the property. IRA Services Trust Company does not guarantee the accuracy of the prices obtained from any of these sources, the values calculated on the basis of such prices, accrued values, or the estimates of value. Any estimates of value listed with respect to an asset should not be relied upon as being representative of the ultimate financial value of that asset.

Procedures for when an investment is suspected to be or is found to be fraudulent:

1. Review Public Information
2. Comply with all Law Enforcement Agencies
3. Advise Clients
4. Stop Related Fee Charges

Security and client information protection:

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) based system fully complies with PCI DSS 3. For backend services (b2b systems), authentication is performed using a secure randomly generated API Key, matching Secret, Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) signing and IP-address based restrictions. API Keys are independent of master credentials and can be revoked and created at will. All transactions are executed in real-time with detailed transaction logging, time stamps, and auditing for every create, read, update, and delete (CRUD) operation.

• Edwin Blue, President & CEO

• Todd Yancy, Chief Strategy Officer & Executive Board Member

• Gary Shumm, Vice President

• Michael McNair, Trust Officer

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Glassdoor Ratings: (How company rates as an employer)

The Self Direct Your Retirement Transparency Index is a metric we have developed to indicate how transparent self-directed IRA custodians and administrators are about their company. We value transparency as an ideal trait from a company that is providing custody or administration of your retirement accounts. It shows that the company has nothing to hide about their activities. You should consider this when you are making your choice.

The Self Direct Your Retirement Transparency Index is split into two parts. The first part is whether they voluntarily provided this information to us or whether we had to find this data on our own. Companies that provided us with the data were given the "company certified seal". If they did not participate, the seal does not show up in their profile. All companies were given a chance to participate. The second part of the index is how transparent the companies were in providing us with this information. A higher transparency number indicates a more transparent company. A number above 80% is ideal. There may be legitimate reasons companies do not want to share certain information, but you should consider this when making your decision.

Below the seal, we have listed the last time the company provided us with information. As long as the company has the certified seal, the information should be considered up-to-date. We contact the company periodically to ensure the information is accurate. If the company chooses not to verify the information, then we remove the seal. Transparency is only one factor you should consider when choosing a self directed IRA custodian or administrator.

Visit the Self-Directed IRA custodian & administrator comparison page to see how IRA Services Trust Company compares to its peers.

We asked IRA Services Trust Company to provide their individual insight into the following questions. This section is a bit more personal. The idea is that it will give you more insight into the company you are considering to provide custody of your investments. 

Company's view of important of the following items (ranked in order of importance)

1. Legitimacy - Prevention of fraudulent investments and schemes
2. Transparency - Providing clients with transparent information
3. Visibility - Creating greater visibility about self-directed IRAs to investors
4. Coordination - Coordinating with other custodians, administrators, and professionals

Other relevant information: 

IRA Services specializes in custody of private equity, real estate, notes, and other non-exchange traded assets. IRA Services offers three key differentiators that set them apart from the rest of their market: 1) A single focus on self-directed IRAs. 2) Industry leading processes and adherence to compliance and IRS rules. 3) Their customer-centric client services approach ensures the proper handling and processing of each of their client’s self-directed transactions.

IRA Services Trust Company has an extremely high level of transparency. This is exactly what we look for in a custodian or administrator. Without this high level of transparency, we would not have access to the information we would need to make the best decision possible.

Looking for companies with this high level of transparency is only the first step in the process of finding a suitable self-directed IRA custodian or administrator. With this information, you can make a determination about whether IRA Services Trust Company is the best choice for your retirement investing needs. 

Please use our Self Directed IRA Custodian & Administrator Comparison Tool to help you assess whether IRA Services Trust Company is the right choice for you.

One of the biggest areas of frustration we see from self-directed IRA investors is when they realize they have chosen the wrong self-directed IRA custodian or administrator. It takes time to set up an account and fund your investment. The last thing you want to do when you are trying to fund your investment is to think about changing to a different custodian. Choose your Self-Directed IRA custodian or administrator wisely. If you put the time in now to find the right company, you will save time, money, and aggravation later. Read our Choosing a Self-Directed IRA Custodian report for more information.

Next Steps... Once you have located your ideal Self-Directed IRA Custodian or Administrator, you will be on your way to self-directing your retirement. If you decide that this process seems too complex and you need assistance or financial advice, feel free to contact us. Our firm specializes in providing financial advice pertaining to alternative investments held in self-directed IRAs and 401ks. We are fiduciaries and provide unbiased financial advice to our clients. Contact us if you want to learn more about our wealth management services.