Do you want to know all about Strata Trust Company? Is Strata Trust Company a Scam? Well, let's try out best to reveal they're true colors in this review!
To do this, we'll get to their most in-depth details and assess for ourselves if they are worth the try.
Can they be trusted? Can I invest my entire life savings with them?
Let's start this Strata Trust Company review!
Strata Trust Company Summary Review
- Name: Strata Trust Company
- Website: https://www.stratatrust.com/
- President: Kelli Click
- Price: A LOT
- Rating: 3.8/5.0
What is Strata Trust Company?
Strata Trust Company is an Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) Custodian that helps individuals work on their retirement savings.
They were founded in 2008 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Horizon Bank, SSB. Furthermore, the company is located in Texas and its former name is Self Directed IRA Services, Inc.
So, what this company does is to empower investors to reach their retirement goals by providing custody of alternative investment IRAs as well as traditional assets.
Strata Trust Company IRA Services
Strata Trust Company offers services to both individuals and professionals. Let's first explore how they serve different individuals:
Individuals: Self-Directed IRA
A self-directed IRA is a retirement account that empowers investors to take control of their financial future. So, similar to a traditional IRA, a self-directed IRA can provide you the opportunity to take advantage of tax benefits and watch your money grow with compound interest.
As a result, the difference that a self-directed IRA can provide is that you can have more investment options and greater control of your retirement portfolio.
With a self-directed IRA, you can:
- Have a wider range of investments
- Obtain also the power to invest in a company you trust
- Protect your wealth against market volatility and inflation rates
- Have control and flexibility over your investments
- Have tax-deferred or tax-free growth, tax deductions, asset protection, and estate planning benefits
- Obtain protection for your assets under federal bankruptcy laws
IRA Administrator VS IRA Custodian
Normally, when we talk about Self-directed IRAs, you'll encounter words such as IRA Administrators and IRA Custodians.
Let's know the difference between the two!
- IRA Administrators are not regulated by state or federal banking authorities. Furthermore, administrators can maintain control of a customer’s un-invested cash and assets if the custodian has contracted its powers away. So, they are a risky way to process your IRA given the situation that happened in Utah in 2014. Plus, some states are beginning to tighten state laws to prevent the inherent risks with the administrator business model.
- IRA Custodians are directly regulated by state or federal banking authorities. By law, IRA Custodians can be a bank, trust company (LIKE STRATA TRUST COMPANY), or apply with the IRS to become an approved IRA custodian. Furthermore, they are responsible for maintaining control of their customer’s un-invested cash and hold title to customer assets.
How to Get a Self-Directed IRA?
First, choose your investment.
With Strata Trust Company, you can have traditional, nontraditional, and alternative investment options with your IRAs. Examples of investment options are:
- Real Estates like commercial property, raw land, and even apartment buildings and condominiums.
- Gold & Precious metals like IRA-permissible gold, silver, platinum, or palladium coins and bullion.
- Crowdfunding like marketplace lending to private equity.
- Private equity-like start-ups or existing entities, including real estate ventures (they are not publicly traded on the stock exchange).
- Private debt like those that are incurred by companies and corporations or real estate-backed debt
- Structured Settlements and secondary market annuities.
- Public Investments like publicly traded stocks, bonds, or mutual funds within an IRA-owned brokerage account, or invest in publicly registered, non-traded LPs, LLCs, and other investments.
Next, choose the type of IRA that fits your needs.
There are different types of IRA that you can have with Strata Trust Company like:
- Traditional IRA gives individuals the opportunity to direct pretax income towards investments that can grow tax-deferred. Plus, this type of IRA allows you to have annual tax-deductible contributions are based on income level.
- Roth IRA is a type of IRA that allows you to set aside after-tax income up to a specified amount each year. Furthermore, earnings on the account and withdrawals are tax-free after age 59½.
- SEP IRA is an acronym for Simplified Employee Plan and is a retirement plan that’s established by an employer. So, a SEP IRA permits employers to make deductible contributions that are made to a Traditional IRA.
- Simple IRA is an acronym for Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE). To summarize, a SIMPLE IRA allows employers to plan for their employees’ retirement and their own.
Lastly, choose how you want to fund your account.
This step is very important to get your IRAs up and running. There are three methods you can do to fund your IRA which is as follows:
- Direct transfer in which you will move your IRA funds or assets directly from one IRA custodian to another.
- A rollover in which the movement of funds between two qualified retirement plans, such as from a 401(k) plan to an IRA, or from one IRA to another IRA.
- Annual Contribution in which you can contribute to your self-directed IRA, within the federal limits, on an annual basis, or set up as a recurring (monthly or biweekly) basis. However, you are only eligible to have this kind of IRA if you have earned income. So, earned income includes taxable employee compensation and net earnings from self-employment, as well as certain disability payments.
Simplified Investment Diversity for Professionals
Strata Trust Company can help the following professionals through a different type of services:
- FINANCIAL ADVISORS & BROKER DEALERS: wherein you can help your clients optimize their retirement portfolio with a self-directed IRA.
- INVESTMENT ISSUERS & PRODUCT SPONSORS: in which you can increase the capital available for your endeavors through retirement account investors.
- REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS: in which you can provide your knowledge of the industry to make wise investments for yourself and your clients.
- PRECIOUS METALS BROKERS: in which Strata Trust Company is well equipped to handle the unique needs required to hold precious metals in a self-directed IRA.
Strata Trust Company Fees and Other Services
The fees that Strata Trust Company collects depends on the type of IRA that you want to open with them. Below, you can find the different fees for each type of account:
- Basic IRA - A Basic IRA account can invest in real estate trust, brokerage accounts, LLCs, and many more. Basic IRAs have an annual fee of $100.
- Flex IRA - A Flex IRA allows you to add precious metals into your portfolio. Plus, it also allows you to invest in real estate, stocks, private notes, and futures. However, their annual fees are the most expensive at $250 annually. Plus, you would also have to pay fees depending on what you will be adding to your portfolio. You would have to pay another $100 yearly if you want to hold real estate. If you want to hold private notes, then you would have to pay another $100. Lastly, adding precious metals to your portfolio would also cost $100 yearly.
- Precious Metals IRA - This type of account only lets you invest in precious metals. However, it has the cheapest annual fee at $75 annually.
If you want your investments to be stored separately from other customers, then you can pay for segregated storage which will cost you $140 annually.
However, if you want your precious metals to be delivered to you, then Strata Trust Company might not be for you. You must remember that they are only custodians and that they do not sell precious metals to be delivered to your doorstep.
In addition, they also cannot buy precious metals from you.
Do customers think Strata Trust Company is a scam? Let's find out!
Strata Trust Company Reviews and Ratings (2023)
Is Strata Trust Company a Scam?
Below, you can find some Strata Trust Company reviews and ratings:
- Trustpilot: 4.7 out of 5 based on 1,015 reviews
- BBB: 1.6 out of 5 based on 7 reviews. A+, Not an accredited business.
What I Like About Strata Trust Company
- Well-known in the industry
They have been in the industry since 2008. Also, the company also has more than 36,000 empowered investors and more than 2 billion dollars of assets under custody. So, this makes them practically trusted by both individuals and professionals in the industry.
Aside from this, they are committed to continually investing resources towards the success of our employees and the industry. In conclusion, they fully support their employees’ education and professional development through conferences, training, and other learning opportunities.
What I Don't Like About Strata Trust Company
- A lot of fees
Well, with Strata Trust Company you'll be paying a lot of fees. For example, some of it includes annual account fees, annual asset holding fees, annual precious metals storage fees, processing fees, service fees, etc.
- Plenty of negative reviews
Apparently, when you search for reviews about this company, they have a lot of negative reviews. So, you should consider that before working with them.
However, on the good side, they are responding to bad reviews and complaints.
Is Strata Trust Company a Scam?
The question now... Is Strata Trust Company a Scam?
Well, with all those years in the industry, they are definitely not a scam. However, you should also consider and think carefully before getting their services.
Plus, you'll be paying a lot for their services. So, you should be ready for that above everything else.
If you want to check out other IRA companies, then you can check my top 5 best IRA companies below:
Final Thoughts
Given all those years, they can be a good option to serve as your IRA Custodian. However, you should think it over and research about them more!
So, what I would recommend is GOLDCO.
Goldco is a gold or precious metals dealer that helps you with your IRAs to get diversified. Furthermore, they have recommended custodians to assist you with your IRAs, so I think choosing them is for the best.
So, to know more about them just click the button below!
I hope you find this review has helped you make a good decision! Thank you!