Business Tech

Self-Directed Investing with a Personal Touch

When investors understand the financial marketplace, they know just where they want their assets to be placed and they know exactly when they need to act. With the help of Jill Banner and the team at iPlanGroup, these transactions can be facilitated with speed, accuracy and convenience.

According to Banner, self-directed investing is “when a client truly takes control of their investments, knows what they want to invest in and does that using qualified funds.” Banner, the CEO and founder of iPlanGroup, discovered this niche of self-directed investing in 2000, through working with her own IRA. “I knew there was a need in the industry for someone to respond faster and make the process easier for investors.”

“That’s how our company was born,” she said. “We understand that sense of urgency when an investor finds a deal and needs to execute a transaction.”

“Currently, only about 2 percent of this country’s investors prefer to direct their own accounts,” Banner explained. These investors also tend to lean toward alternative and tangible investment opportunities, such as real estate, promissory notes, private mortgages, gold, lumber and land. Banner explained that the IRS has approved holding many types of alternative assets within tax deferred or tax free retirement accounts. “A lot of clients don’t understand that they can do this. We are used to just stocks, bonds, and mutual funds,” she said.Clients of iPlanGroup are typically savvy investors “who know exactly what they want to hold inside their IRA,” Banner explained. More than likely, they already have experience investing in a particular asset group and want the benefits of doing so within the structure of an IRA. iPlanGroup functions as a facilitator for these transactions and does not offer strategic counsel, nor do they sell products or try to dissuade or redirect client choices.

“It’s really investing in what you know and what you are comfortable with,” Banner said. “Unlike a stock or bond, this is something they can drive by, something they can insure – for instance, an apartment building or mobile home park – and they like that feeling of having a tangible asset.”

“We execute whatever they authorize us to purchase on behalf of their IRA as long as it’s administratively feasible,” Banner said. “Our investment philosophy is ‘do your due diligence and invest in what you know.’ ”

Roth accounts can be started with as little as $100 and Banner said, “We don’t discriminate on how much money someone has, on whether or not they can open an account and whether or not we’ll work with them.” There are no commissions or sales fees, only an annual flat fee.

“We love to work with clients who are interested in taking more control of their financial destiny,” Banner said.

For more information, visit: www.iplangroup.com

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