Self-Directed Retirement Accounts
Your retirement, invested in real assets.
Most retirement accounts hold only what a brokerage happens to offer. A self-directed IRA is still an ordinary IRA — same contribution limits, same tax treatment — held at a custodian that also allows real estate and private offerings.
The Basics
Three things worth understanding first
It is a normal IRA
"Self-directed" is not a special account type in the tax code. It is a Traditional, Roth, SEP or SIMPLE IRA held at a custodian willing to hold assets beyond stocks and funds. Contribution limits, deductibility and distribution rules are identical.
The IRA owns the asset
You direct the investment; the IRA holds title and every dollar of income and expense runs through the account. You cannot use the asset personally or route money through yourself — that is where accounts get destroyed.
Nobody vets it for you
The SEC is explicit: custodians of self-directed IRAs "generally will not evaluate the quality or legitimacy of an investment and its promoters." A custodian accepting an asset is an administrative act, not an endorsement.
How It Works
Four steps, start to finish
Typically four to eight weeks, most of it waiting on the releasing institution.
Open the account
Choose a custodian that permits alternative assets and open the IRA type that matches what you already hold. Paperwork is usually same-week.
Move the money
A direct transfer (IRA to IRA) or direct rollover (employer plan to IRA) is cleanest — no withholding, no 60-day clock, no once-per-year limit.
Review the offering
Read the documents, ask questions, and get your CPA or attorney involved. Confirm the sponsor accepts IRA subscriptions and how it reports UBTI.
Direct the custodian
You submit a buy direction; the custodian funds the subscription in the IRA's name. Distributions return to the IRA, never to you personally.
Is This You?
Who tends to look at this
Old 401(k)s
Money still sitting at a former employer's plan. A direct rollover to an IRA is the usual starting point, and there is no tax on a properly executed direct rollover.
IRA holders
A Traditional, Rollover or Roth IRA already in place. Moving it to a self-directed custodian is a trustee-to-trustee transfer, which is unlimited in frequency.
Business owners
SEP, SIMPLE, or a Solo 401(k) with materially higher contribution room than a personal IRA — up to $72,000 in a SEP for 2026.
Passive investors
People who want real assets but not tenants and toilets, and who can accept that the position is illiquid for years, not days.
Limits vs. Growth
The cap is on what you add, not what it earns
$7,500 a year looks small — but that figure governs contributions only. Per the IRS, earnings and gains inside the account are not capped and are not taxed until distributed.
Contributions are capped
$7,500 for 2026, or $8,600 at age 50 or over, across all your IRAs combined. Adding more triggers a 6% excise tax on the excess.
Growth is not
Rent, interest and sale proceeds from an IRA-owned asset return to the account without counting against the limit, and without consuming next year's room.
And neither are losses
The same arithmetic runs backwards. Losses inside an IRA are not deductible on your return — no offset, no carry-forward — and the contribution room is spent.
Rules at a Glance
The numbers that actually matter
Tax year 2026, from IRS Notice 2025-67 and current IRS guidance. Verify before you act — these change annually.
| Rule | 2026 figure | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| IRA contribution limit | $7,500 | Across all your IRAs combined, not per account. |
| IRA catch-up, age 50+ | $1,100 | $8,600 total for the year. |
| 401(k)/403(b)/457/TSP deferral | $24,500 | Catch-up of $8,000 at 50+; $11,250 at ages 60–63. |
| SEP IRA | Lesser of 25% of pay or $72,000 | The reason business owners look here first. |
| SIMPLE IRA deferral | $17,000 | Catch-up $4,000; $5,250 at ages 60–63. |
| 60-day rollover window | 60 days | Miss it and the distribution is taxable. Use direct transfers instead. |
| IRA-to-IRA rollover limit | One per 12 months | Aggregated across all your IRAs. Trustee-to-trustee transfers are exempt. |
| Withholding on indirect plan rollovers | 20%, mandatory | You must replace the withheld 20% from other funds or it is taxed. |
| RMD beginning age | 73 | Roth IRAs require no distribution during the owner’s lifetime. |
| Form 990-T filing threshold | $1,000 gross UBI | The IRA files and pays the tax from its own assets. |
The one mistake you cannot undo
If you or a disqualified person engages in a prohibited transaction under IRC §4975, the account stops being an IRA as of the first day of that year and is treated as distributing all of its assets at fair market value on that date. Not the amount involved — the entire account.
Disqualified persons include you, your spouse, your ancestors and lineal descendants, and their spouses. Read the detail before you invest →
Questions about your own situation?
No pitch, no pressure. Start with a conversation — and bring your CPA.