Gold IRA Investing First-Year Checklist: Account Setup to First Allocation

TL;DR: Year one is where most gold IRA mistakes are made and where the best decisions compound. This pillar walks the first twelve months in order: 5 to 10 percent allocation, operator pick at $25,000 (Goldco’s minimum) or $50,000 (Augusta’s minimum), custodian setup under IRC Section 408(a)(2), trustee-to-trustee funding, IRA-eligible bullion at 0.995 fineness, depository selection, and a first-anniversary review. I built my own gold IRA with Goldco in 2014, and the steps below are the ones I actually walked.

Disclosure: Companies featured here may provide compensation for click throughs. This is how I maintain free research for consumers. My full disclosure of who I invested with is on this page for transparency.

Disclaimer: This article is educational and is not financial, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional before any retirement-account decision.

Why a First-Year Checklist Matters

A gold IRA is built in a single year and managed for the next thirty. The decisions you make in months one through twelve set the fee schedule, the storage posture, the metals mix, and the operator relationship that will carry your retirement position for decades. Pick the wrong custodian and you’ll pay percentage-of-assets storage costs for the life of the account. Pick the wrong dealer and you’ll absorb a markup over spot that compounds every time you rebalance.

The structural picture under IRS Publication 590-A splits the work across three parties that must stay distinct. The custodian is the bank or approved nonbank trustee that holds title to the IRA assets and executes your written directions. The dealer is the unregulated counterparty that sells the bullion to the custodian on your behalf. The depository is the IRS-recognized vault that holds physical possession of the metal. None of the three can collapse into the others.

I waited too long before I built my first gold IRA, and the price tripled while I researched. The lesson I took from that delay is the lesson behind this checklist. Year one is a sequence, not a single transaction, and walking it in order is what produces the account you actually wanted.

Month 1: Preparation and Allocation

The first month is allocation math, not paperwork. Decide how much of your overall retirement balance you want exposed to physical bullion before you call a single dealer. The industry-standard guidance hasn’t changed in the fourteen years I’ve been operating in this market, and it sits at 5 to 20 percent (the operator allocation range), with the heaviest concentration at 5 to 10 percent (the typical first-year band).

People do recommend 5 to 20 percent, according to Tim Schmidt, and most people go between 5 and 10. If you stay within that number as your portfolio either earns or loses money over the years, that’s probably a good range to keep inside. The point of the band is to keep you diversified without overconcentrating in an asset class that pays no dividend and produces no cash flow.

Once you have your target percentage, do the contribution-limit math. For 2026, the IRA contribution limit is $7,500 (the cap published in IRS Notice 2025-67), with a catch-up contribution of $1,100 (for individuals age 50 and over). IRS Notice 2025-67 was issued in November 2025. That cap matters at the margin, but most first-year gold IRAs are funded by a rollover from a 401(k) or an existing IRA rather than by fresh annual contributions. The rollover path lets the full pre-existing balance enter the metals position at once.

Three numbers anchor the month-one decision. Your overall retirement balance. The percentage you want allocated to bullion. The source account you’ll roll over (401(k), 403(b), TSP, or an existing traditional IRA). Walk into month two with those three values written down. If your rollover source is a 401(k), the Rollover 401k to Gold IRA pillar on this site covers the source-account mechanics in more depth.

Month 1-2: Choosing Your Operator

The operator pick is the second decision and the one most readers spend the longest debating. The top five operators in this market all clear the basic eligibility floor, but they sit at different minimums and target different account sizes. Goldco’s stated minimum is $25,000 (to open a gold IRA on its preferred custodian). Augusta Precious Metals requires $50,000 (to open a Gold or Silver IRA). Noble Gold’s stated minimum is $20,000 (per Yahoo Finance’s 2026 reporting). American Hartford Gold publishes $10,000 (as its retirement-account threshold). Birch Gold Group recommends starting with at least $5,000 (in a retirement account).

I opened my own gold IRA with Goldco in 2014 and have held the position ever since. The reason I keep recommending Goldco isn’t promotional, it’s practical. The specialist model means one person handles your account from the first call through metal selection and storage confirmation. You don’t get bounced through a call center or handed off mid-process.

The process was good, everything was done on DocuSign, so I didn’t have to do any FedExing of paperwork or anything. They made it very easy.

Tim Schmidt Sr., May 2026 (operator call)

If your account is at the $50,000 floor or higher and you want an education-first onboarding experience, Augusta is the alternative I send people to. The full attestation on each operator sits on the Goldco Review and the Augusta Precious Metals Review on this site. The aggregator at Gold IRA Companies covers the broader five-operator picture.

A practical filter applies during the discovery call. If there’s anything high-pressure on the sales call, get right off the call. High-pressure sales is just someone trying to get your money, make the commission, and move on. The operators on the recommended list run an educational discovery process, not a closer-script process. Hang up if you hear the second pattern.

Month 2: Account Setup and Custodian Selection

The custodian is the bank or approved nonbank trustee that holds title to your IRA assets under IRC Section 408(a)(2). The operator usually has a preferred custodian, and most first-year accounts open with that preferred custodian for operational simplicity. The three custodians that dominate the precious-metals market are Equity Trust Company, STRATA Trust Company, and GoldStar Trust Company.

Equity Trust Company’s published fee schedule shows a $50 (online application setup fee) or $75 (paper application). The annual maintenance fee for a precious-metals-only account is $225 (the published figure). Storage is $100 (annually for non-segregated) or $150 (annually for segregated). The same numbers move slightly across the other custodians, but the structure is similar.

The setup itself is straightforward when the operator runs an electronic-paperwork workflow. The custodian’s IRA adoption agreement, beneficiary form, and rollover authorization can all be signed in a single DocuSign session. The operator opens the account on the custodian’s platform, the custodian confirms the account number back to the operator and the IRA owner, and the funding instructions go out the same week.

Watch the custodian fee structure on this step, according to Tim Schmidt, because the schedule you accept on day one is the schedule you’ll pay every year. You should look for fixed fees over percentage-of-assets pricing. Custodians that publish flat-dollar maintenance and storage lines protect you on the upside. As the account grows, the dollar cost stays fixed and the percentage drops.

Month 2-3: Funding the Account

Funding is the step where the IRS rules turn from background to foreground. Two paths exist and only one is operationally clean. The trustee-to-trustee transfer moves funds directly from your existing custodian to your new gold IRA custodian without the funds ever passing through your hands. No withholding applies. No 60-day clock starts. The transfer is not a rollover in the technical sense under IRC Section 408(d)(3)(B).

The indirect rollover is the alternative path and the one I tell people to avoid. The IRS guidance is clear on the mechanics. If you receive a distribution from a 401(k) and try to roll it over yourself, your employer is required to withhold 20 percent (the mandatory federal income tax withholding on indirect rollovers from employer plans). The 60-day deposit clock starts the day you receive the funds. Miss the window or short the deposit by the withheld amount and the missing balance becomes a taxable distribution.

The Tax Court drew the outer boundary in McNulty v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 10. The court decided the case on November 18, 2021, and assessed deficiencies of $250,558 (for tax year 2015) and $18,094 (for tax year 2016). An IRA owner can’t take actual and unfettered possession of the IRA assets, wrote Judge Goeke, summarizing the holding that closed the home-storage loophole some marketers were still pitching. The rollover path you choose has to keep you outside that boundary.

The Bobrow rule sets the second guardrail. Beginning after January 1, 2015, you can make only one rollover from an IRA to another IRA in any 12-month period, regardless of the number of IRAs you own. Trustee-to-trustee transfers are not subject to the once-per-year limit. Use them. The published IRS rollover guidance covers the funding mechanics in detail.

A $30 (one-time wire fee on the funding side) typically applies at the custodian. That’s the only out-of-pocket cost a clean trustee-to-trustee transfer should generate at funding time.

Month 3: Choosing Your Metals

The metals decision happens after the funds settle in the new IRA. The eligible-product list under IRC Section 408(m)(3) is narrower than most first-year investors expect, and the markup spread on each product line is where the dealer’s margin actually sits.

Bullion is where most people should go. IRA-approved coin or bar, not a collectible, is the main takeaway. Eligible gold products include the American Gold Eagle (statutorily listed and the only IRA-eligible gold coin below the 0.995 floor at 91.67 percent purity), the American Gold Buffalo at 0.9999, the Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, the Austrian Gold Philharmonic, and gold bars from accredited refiners at 0.995 (the bullion fineness floor for gold under IRC Section 408(m)(3)) or higher. Silver eligibility requires 0.999 fineness.

The ineligible categories are where the scam risk concentrates. Numismatic and collectible coins are out. The South African Krugerrand at 0.9167 fineness is out because it’s not enumerated in 31 U.S.C. Section 5112. Pre-1933 U.S. gold coins are out. Any rare or proof coin valued above bullion melt is out. Reference for the eligible and ineligible product list sits on the International Depository Services guidance page and on the operator’s own IRA-eligible product sheet.

Spot anchors matter at the moment of purchase. On May 19, 2026, the COMEX front-month gold contract settled at $4,558.00 (per ounce), with silver at $75.16 (per ounce). The intraday gold spot quote from USAGOLD on the same day was $4,489.21 (per ounce). The difference between spot and the per-coin price you’re quoted is the dealer markup. Confirm that spread in writing on the order confirmation before funds release to the dealer.

A question worth asking on the operator call is the cost of holding the position. You’re going to get a bill for your depository and your account management. The other question is portfolio mix at current price levels. If gold is at an all-time high, silver may have more runway. The 2025 calendar year was gold’s strongest annual performance since 1979 per the World Gold Council Gold Outlook 2026, with the metal up 60.6 percent (through November 28, 2025, on a LBMA Gold Price PM basis).

Month 3-4: Choosing Your Depository

The depository holds physical possession of your metal under IRC Section 408(m)(3) and is the third leg of the role-separation stool. The three depositories that handle most of the precious-metals IRA market are Delaware Depository, Texas Precious Metals Depository, and International Depository Services. Brink’s Global Services runs the institutional logistics layer that connects them.

Delaware Depository’s primary FAQ discloses $1 billion (in all-risk insurance coverage for bullion held in its high-security vaults), plus $100 million (in contingent vault coverage), with the insurer described as London underwriters. Delaware Depository has IRS-approved IRA storage locations in Wilmington, Delaware, and Boulder City, Nevada. Both segregated and non-segregated storage are available.

Texas Precious Metals Depository in Shiner, Texas, runs a different model. The vault is privately owned, SOC 2 Certified, an LBMA Member Facility, and insured by Underwriters at Lloyd’s of London. TPMD offers only fully segregated storage. Its published pricing puts silver at 0.6 percent (annually) versus 0.5 percent (annually for gold, platinum, and palladium) at the entry tier.

The segregated-versus-commingled choice is where most first-year investors stall. The simplest framing came from an operator call I sat through last year.

Segregated would mean your metals are the exact ones you purchase. It’s shipped and stored separately from everyone else’s. Non-segregated would be you bought 10 American Gold Eagles and they’re just in a vault and they’re labeled as yours, but they’re with other people’s metals mixed in. I think people that maybe have a larger investment want to think about doing segregated. And if you have a smaller investment, co-mingled. But it’s a personal preference. Your metals are safe in a depository.

Tim Schmidt Sr., May 2026 (operator call)

I stored my own metals at the Texas Depository. The choice was driven by the LBMA membership and the segregated-only posture rather than by Texas geography. Pick the depository whose insurance, audit, and segregation model match your account size and your storage philosophy. Both depositories named above clear the IRS-approved threshold.

Month 4-12: First-Year Maintenance

The maintenance year is where the fee structure you accepted in month two pays off or punishes you. Custodian and storage billing typically arrives on a quarterly or annual cycle. First-year fee waivers are common on the operator side. Goldco’s preferred custodian charges a one-time IRA account setup fee of $50 (per the operator’s attested schedule), plus a one-time wire fee of $30, and annual maintenance of $100, plus storage of $150 (for segregated) or $100 (for non-segregated).

The fee question I get most often is whether the schedule is fixed or percentage-of-assets. It’s fixed, and everybody should look for fixed fees. Some operators will waive the fees for five or ten years on larger initial purchases. Confirm any waiver in writing on the account-opening paperwork rather than on the verbal call.

The category picture across the five mainline operators sits in a tight band on the disclosed lines. Storage fees range from $100 (the low-segregated tier in the Goldco schedule) to $150 (the segregated tier across Goldco, Noble Gold, and the rest of the disclosed set) per year. Setup fees range from $50 (the published figure at Augusta, Goldco, and Birch) to $80 (Noble Gold’s published one-time setup). American Hartford Gold is the only operator that does not publish its setup figure on a primary page. The operator-attested schedule is what matters at your specific account.

The buyback policy is the second maintenance-year line to watch. A real buyback program publishes its payment timeline, its price-relative-to-spot quote, and any liquidation restrictions in writing before you open the account. The strongest buyback programs in the industry quote at or above spot for IRA-approved coins held in the custodian’s name. The buyback policy at year zero needs to remain enforceable at year ten, fifteen, or twenty.

Watch for the free-silver promotion pattern during the maintenance year. Some operators advertise up to 10 percent (in free silver on large rollovers), which can be a real benefit if the silver is priced at spot. The same promotion can hide a marked-up silver price that absorbs the value. Confirm the per-ounce price of any promotional silver against the spot anchor on the day of delivery.

Home storage stays off the table for the full year and every year afterward. Any company that tries to ship your metals home is offering an illegal arrangement. Per IRC Section 4975, a prohibited transaction causes the IRA to lose IRA status under Section 408(e), with the entire account treated as distributed at the start of the taxable year. The bad-actor pattern is documented in enforcement cases like CFTC Press Release 8254-20 on Metals.com, where over $185 million (in customer funds) and more than $140 million (in retirement savings) were taken from at least 1,600 (persons named in the complaint).

Month 12: First-Anniversary Review

Month twelve is a structured review, not a transaction. Pull the year-end statement from the custodian. Match the dollar position against your month-one target allocation. If gold appreciated and pushed your bullion percentage above the 5 to 20 percent (the operator allocation range), the rebalance question is real. If the allocation drifted below 5 percent because the equity side of the portfolio ran harder, a top-up purchase makes sense.

Refresh your contribution-limit position for the new tax year. The 2026 limit is $7,500 (the contribution cap per IRS Notice 2025-67), with the catch-up of $1,100 (for age 50 and over). The 2027 figure will be released by the IRS in late 2026 and is typically inflation-indexed up by 200 dollars to 500 dollars on the base limit.

If you’re approaching age 73, the required minimum distribution rules under SECURE 2.0 Act Section 107 kick in. The IRS RMD guidance page covers the calculation. The excise tax for a missed RMD was reduced from 50 percent (the pre-SECURE 2.0 penalty) to 25 percent, and further reduced to 10 percent (if corrected within the statutory window).

The anniversary review is the moment to update your operator relationship. Most operators run an annual portfolio-review call for IRA holders. Take the call. Ask the cost-of-holding question and the portfolio-mix question. The answers shape year two.

The Canonical Year-One Checklist

The table below condenses the twelve-month sequence into a single checkable view. Each row is one decision that has to land before the next one starts.

Month	Decision	Key Number
1	Set target allocation	5 to 10 percent of retirement balance
1-2	Pick operator	$25,000 Goldco / $50,000 Augusta minimum
2	Open IRA with custodian	$50 setup, $225 annual category band
2-3	Fund via trustee-to-trustee transfer	$30 wire fee, no withholding
3	Select IRA-eligible bullion	0.995 gold / 0.999 silver fineness
3-4	Choose depository	Segregated or non-segregated
4-12	Track maintenance billing	Fixed-fee structure preferred
12	Anniversary rebalance review	Reconfirm 5 to 20 percent band

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should I allocate to physical bullion in my IRA in year one?

Most operator guidance lands at 5 to 20 percent (of the overall retirement balance), with the heaviest concentration at 5 to 10 percent for first-year accounts. The lower end of the band is appropriate for investors who want a diversification position without overconcentrating. The upper end is appropriate for investors who treat the bullion holding as a structural hedge against currency or equity-market risk. Above 20 percent the position becomes overconcentrated in an asset class that pays no dividend and produces no yield. Below 5 percent the diversification benefit is too small to influence portfolio outcomes.

Can I take physical possession of my gold IRA metals during the first year?

No. IRC Section 408(m)(3) requires that the bullion be in the physical possession of a qualifying trustee. The Tax Court reinforced this point in McNulty v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 10, decided November 18, 2021, with deficiencies of $250,558 (for tax year 2015) and $18,094 (for tax year 2016). Home storage is not a legal option for IRA-held metals. Any operator that ships metals to your home address is offering an illegal arrangement that converts the entire IRA balance to a taxable distribution at the start of the taxable year under IRC Section 408(e).

What is the single biggest mistake first-year gold IRA investors make?

The single biggest year-one mistake is using the indirect-rollover path instead of the trustee-to-trustee transfer. The indirect path triggers a 20 percent (mandatory federal income tax withholding on indirect rollovers from employer plans) and starts a 60-day deposit clock that’s easy to miss. The trustee-to-trustee transfer moves funds custodian-to-custodian with no withholding, no clock, and no once-per-year Bobrow limit. Use the direct path. Any operator or custodian pitching the indirect path on a first-year rollover should be re-evaluated against the published IRS rollover guidance before any paperwork is signed.

Risk Warning: Precious-metals prices can be volatile. Gold IRA holdings are subject to IRS rules, custodian fees, depository storage costs, and dealer markups that affect net returns. Past performance does not predict future returns. The 2025 calendar-year gold appreciation of 60.6 percent does not guarantee future returns at the same rate. This article is educational only and not investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult a qualified professional before any retirement-account decision.

Request the Goldco IRA kit through the network’s primary affiliate path to read the operator-attested fee schedule and the first-year specialist workflow against your own checklist.

About the Author

Tim Schmidt is an entrepreneur who has covered retirement investing since 2012. He started IRAInvesting.com to share his expertise in using his self-directed IRA for alternative investments. His views on retirement investing have appeared in USA Today, Business Insider, and Tech Times. He invested with Goldco in 2014 and stored his metals at the Texas Depository. He serves as VP Business Development at Cayman Financial Review and operates Ice Cold Marketing.

Reviewed by Sean Webster, CPA

Sean Webster is a Certified Public Accountant licensed by the Oklahoma Accountancy Board. He reviews articles in this series for IRC Section 408 compliance, SECURE 2.0 alignment, and FINRA-compliant framing on rollover and distribution mechanics.