Discover the alternative investment strategies that are delivering big results in today’s market, straight from the leaders in the industry, who are fully versed in what’s working and what is not.

Equity Trust CEO Jeff Desich will provide his insider insights in a free webinar at 9 p.m. Thursday, June 13. As head of one of the leading self-directed IRA custodians with 130,000 clients and $12 billion in assets under administration, Desich has a firm grasp on what’s working in the world of alternative investments. He’ll reveal what the hot investment trends are right now, why investors are flocking to certain areas of the industry, and how a self-directed IRA can profit.

The webinar will include:

• An inside look at hot investment strategies in 2013 including the areas of real estate, notes, wholesaling and more
• Examples of actual clients who have used these strategies to build true wealth for their retirement savings
• How you can take this knowledge and actually put it to use, for the benefit of your own retirement account

Sign up for this webinar now and get ready to discover proven, successful investment strategies that you can put into practice! Hurry – spots are limited!

June 13th, 2013 | No Comments »

Attorney Lee Phillips, who is a counselor to the U.S. Supreme Court, is constantly educating investors about how to keep their assets safe by following the law. His latest outreach effort is an article in which he sets the record straight about self-directed IRA providers and what to looking for when choosing where to open you IRA.

In the article, Phillips stresses the importance of finding a self-directed IRA custodian that’s fully IRS qualified. Believe it or not, a number of companies offering self-directed IRAs fall short of this standard.

Phillips is a nationally recognized author and speaker in the area of asset protection, so he’s well versed in the risks and missteps people take with their retirement accounts. Such missteps could lead to the loss of assets, and in some cases, the entire value of the IRA if the IRS decides to go after the individual account holder, Phillips says.

Phillips also reveals:

• The types of accounts the IRS is most likely to audit
• What happens when IRA providers don’t follow IRS guidelines
• How to look out for firms that might not be fully IRS compliant
• The self-directed IRA custodian he trusts with his IRAs

Read what Phillips has to say about self-directed IRA account types and companies and what to look out for to make sure your retirement savings is safe.

May 10th, 2013 | No Comments »

Dust off your big hat and get ready to pour the mint juleps! It’s almost time to watch the top thoroughbreds run the most exciting 1 and ¼ miles of the year!

Join us as we raise the stakes: Head to our Facebook page and correctly guess the top three finishers of the big race to be run in Kentucky on May 4, 2013, and your annual fee for one Equity Trust account will be waived for 2013! If you’re not already a client, your setup fee will be waived as well.

PLUS, the grand-prize winner will receive video and audio recordings from the 2012 Equity University Networking Conference – an education package worth nearly $500 – AND half off the cost of admission for two people to the 2013 Equity University Networking Conference – worth nearly $900! That’s a total of as much as $1,400 in prizes!

Visit our Facebook page to enter (LIKE us if you haven’t already), and then post your prediction on our wall! Winners will be notified Monday, May 6.

Hurry – you must be signed up by noon on Saturday, May 4 to qualify!

April 30th, 2013 | No Comments »

Any time Plymouth, Michigan resident Paul Garon has pondered potential investment opportunities in the past few years, it was always with some reservation due to the unpredictable economic conditions.

Paul Garon owns this property in his IRA.

“I was expecting the financial crash to come; I was kind of scared,” he says.

Garon, a former financial analyst at Ford Motor Co., was fairly familiar with various investment strategies. He led a real estate investment club at Ford, which was also where he learned about using self-directed IRAs as a funding source for real estate and other alternative investments.

Now a real estate agent, Garon was intrigued at the idea of owning real estate in his IRA. He converted his traditional IRA into an Equity Trust Roth IRA because a Roth account is set up to allow his savings to grow tax-free. (Read more about Roth IRAs here.)

He researched potential investment types and decided that real estate is a relatively stable place to put his retirement funds.

“It’s a tangible property, it’s always going to have some value, and you have some kind of control over the property to some extent,” Garon says. “It makes you feel better about the actual collateral (rather than investing in the stock market).”

He finally pulled the trigger in January 2012, buying a 20-year-old single family home in nearby Wayne for $32,000. Garon currently leases the property to a Section 8 tenant for $850 per month in rent, which is paid jointly by the government and the tenant.

After paying the property taxes, Garon is left with nearly 26 percent in profits annually, which grows in his IRA tax-free. He received 31 percent of his investment back in just the first year.

Sharing the “secret of the industry”

For the most part, owning a property and being a landlord has been “smooth sailing” for Garon, though he acknowledges it takes some work on the front end to size up potential properties and make sure it’s a solid investment.

Paul Garon

Now that he’s dug into one self-directed investment and it’s been cash-flowing for a year, he’s anxious to explore more self-directed deals – not just real estate.

“I have many plans to do many more transactions – everything from tax liens to organizing a company with an interest in a multilevel marketing company,” he says.

He also intends to continue to spread the word about this investment funding source, with which few of his real estate industry peers and financially savvy friends are familiar.

“I’m shocked how few people know about self-directed IRAs,” he says.

His own accountant was one of the ones in the dark about the strategy before Garon told him about it.

“He described it as a secret of the industry,” Garon said about his accountant. “I got to thinking…it is kind of like that. I don’t know why, but it is.”

April 12th, 2013 | 1 Comment »

For the second year, Equity Trust Company put out the call for examples of tax-free wealth building at its best, and once again, the company was flooded with stories of investors making double-digit (sometimes triple-digit!) profits in their IRAs, or finding unique, creatively conceived deals to benefit their retirement funds. A winner has been chosen, and he will share his profit-building strategies during an upcoming free webinar.

The investor that stood out the most to us, earning him the title of 2012 Self-Directed Investor of the Year, is Rich Alpert of eastern New Jersey. Through his various self-directed deals, Rich – whose background is in technology, not investing – showed some of the scope of possibilities when it comes to investing in alternatives with an IRA. His creative, enterprising deals included using his and several family members’ retirement and education savings accounts to come up with the capital to fund an investment that would benefit all the accounts.

Rich’s portfolio also illustrates the flexibility of IRAs which allow investors to participate in unique deals. For example, he has invested in a franchised FedEx delivery route using his retirement account.

The vehicle that makes Rich’s wealth-building possible is a Self-Directed IRA, which enables an individual to invest his or her retirement savings in the stock market as well as alternative investments like real estate, renewable energy, precious metals and much more.

Rich will join us to share his experience with self-directed IRAs during a free webinar Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 8 p.m. ET. During this webinar, he’ll reveal what it took to get started with self-directed investing, the process he uses to find his deals and how the average investor can replicate them. Register now to learn how one of Equity Trust’s brightest stars builds tax-free wealth – webinar spots are limited!

Rich will also share his winning strategies in-person during a special session at the Equity University Networking Conference, which will take place from September 19-23, 2013, at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate. More details about the conference, which will feature more than 40 sessions and networking with more than 600 investors and educators, can be found at www.equity-university.com/NetCon.

April 5th, 2013 | No Comments »

Kurt Amundson has taken his real estate IRA rural to plant an investment that is already flourishing into quite a nest egg.

Amundson used his knowledge about farmland to buy up land through his retirement account and rent it out to create a constant stream of passive income. The Starbuck, Minnesota, resident had bought and sold Iowa farmland outside of his IRA in the past but wanted to make a purchase with long-term benefits. “I thought (buying the land with) the IRA would be a good fit,” he says.

Amundson funded most of the deal with his IRA money and took out a non-recourse loan to cover the balance. In July 2010, he purchased 40 acres of farmland for $1,750 per acre. The land gained him more than 6 percent in profits from the annual cash rent, but the investment’s real gain is in the property’s appreciation. It has appreciated to $2,700 per acre or more in one year. He already received an offer of $2,650 per acre.

“So if you add in appreciation the investment would have a return on investment of close to 60 percent in one year … I’ll take that any day!” he says.

Amundson plans to hold onto the property for a while and earn income by renting it out. He’s had no problem finding farmers who want to occupy the land.

“Actually,” he says, “There’s quite a demand for agriculture/renting. I guess weather can have an effect if you have a prolonged period of drought, but in a state like Iowa, the demand is so high, there’s kind of a long list of renters available.”

He also knew that crop prices would more than likely increase, which also increases the value of the land.

“As corn and soybeans prices skyrocketed, so did the value of the land. Farmland in a self-directed IRA is a powerful vehicle,” Amundson says. “This 40-acre parcel in Iowa was undervalued, and I bought it at the right price.”

In addition to nearly doubling the value of his investment, Amundson is securing a tax-free income that he can use in retirement.

“As an investment within the self-directed IRA I will be able to defer income and if I ever choose to sell this property, the tax treatment is very favorable long-term.”

Amundson notes that you don’t have to come into the game as a farmland real estate expert to make this type of investment, but just like with any type of investment, expect to take time to research the potential investments and be prepared to fill out some paperwork to get the deal off the ground. After that, he says, the required effort decreases significantly.

“I’ve hardly had to do much at all the last few months,” he says. “You get your cash rent checks from the farmer who rents the grounds, that goes directly to (Equity Trust), and it’s all kind of taken care of from there. There’s very little computer time or paperwork that you have to get into.”

Amundson credits Equity Trust for making the investment process easier and helping him discover the possibilities for his IRA through Equity University’s webinars, digital resources and in-person events.

“The company has been a real eye-opener to the potential of the self-directed IRA,” he says.

March 26th, 2013 | No Comments »

There’s just under a month to the tax-filing deadline, but it’s not too late to increase your tax deductions for your 2012 tax bill.

You can contribute to your retirement account until Tax Day (April 15, 2013) for the 2012 contribution year and potentially score substantial tax deductions.

The 2012 contribution limit for traditional and Roth IRAs is $5,000, with a $6,000 catch-up maximum for those 50 and older. You might want to note that the limits for traditional and Roth IRAs will increase for 2013 to $5,500 with a catch-up limit of $6,500 for those 50 and older.

Self-directing your retirement plan can bring additional tax benefits. Any profits you make from investments with your IRA go back into your IRA tax-free!

Find out if you’re doing all you can to reduce your tax exposure while preparing for your financial future. If you discover additional potential deductions, it’s not too late to make adjustments for the tax year.

Visit our special Tax Time website to view a free webinar and take a Tax Day Quiz to figure out how you can still maximize your 2012 tax return.

March 18th, 2013 | 1 Comment »

Equity Trust clients who use the eVANTAGE account management system have likely noticed some changes when logging on recently. That’s because eVANTAGE is now part of our all-encompassing client portal myEQUITY! This is still new to a lot of people, so we put together this brief list of frequently asked questions to help you get better acquainted with the new portal and all the features you now have access to.

Q: What is myEQUITY?
A: myEQUITY is a new all-in-one platform for our clients, where you can manage your account online, find education, forms, and an online community of likeminded investors to discuss investment strategies and education.

Q: What if I only want to access eVANTAGE?
A: If you’ve already used eVANTAGE, you’re already enrolled in myEQUITY. What this means is that you don’t need a new username and password, you can just enter your credentials into the username and password fields of myEQUITY and click on “eVANTAGE” to view your account just like before.

Q: If I’m a new client, how do I access myEQUITY?
A: You’ll simply use your account number and pin number (established when you opened your account) to create a user name and password. Just follow the appropriate link on the myEQUITY.com login page.

Q: I know that myEQUITY contains an online community and has terms related to this. How can I make sure I’m still private?
A: All Terms & Conditions for myEQUITY, including those related to the online community are subject to our Privacy Policy. The myEQUITY system further ensures that all of your account and personal information remains private and secure.

Q: What can I do in the online community?
A: When you first enter myEQUITY, the system helps you get set up so that if you choose to use the online forum, you’re ready to go. However, you do not have to use these educational features. Once you’re set up, you can connect with other investors and discuss education, investment strategies and success stories. Please be aware that the community is not the place to solicit specific investments.

Q: Will there eventually be more features available on myEQUITY?
A: Yes. Our goal with myEQUITY is to give as much value to our clients as possible, all with a single login. As myEQUITY grows, you can expect more education, information, and features to help you become the most successful investor possible.

March 4th, 2013 | 2 Comments »

Be on the lookout for investment scams in the wake of natural disasters.

When natural disasters strike, stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to help their neighbors in need come forward.  When things are at their worst, the best in some people rises up to meet the challenges a community faces during the long recovery. Sadly, as if death and loss were not enough of a tragedy, con artists and scammers come out of the woodwork, adding to the devastation in the lives of disaster victims.

A self-directed IRA gives you the freedom to invest in private equity and private lending, provided you follow the IRS rules.  This ability allows you to use IRA funds to invest in things that benefit your financial future as well as help people in need.  However, as with any investment opportunity, you need to make sure you do your due diligence before parting with even a small portion of your IRA funds.

Investment scams can take different forms.  Swindlers can set up fake companies under the pretense of providing services to help a community rebuild.  Your investment in this ‘company’ only makes it to the pocket of the con artist and not the area in need.  Con artists have no problem exploiting the real pain and suffering in the wake of a disaster to gain an extra advantage in their fraud scheme.

Keep a skeptical eye out for business investment opportunities related to Hurricane Sandy or other future natural disasters.  While it’s natural for some investments to not perform as expected, make sure it was a legitimate investment in the first place.

Here are some online resources from the Securities and Exchange Commission that can help you get started in performing due diligence for a potential investment:
•    Investment Scam related to Hurricane Sandy
•    Questions You Should Ask about Your Investments

March 1st, 2013 | No Comments »

Today, February 26th, Equity Trust Company will sponsor the first of three blood drives for LifeShare Community Blood Service at our Elyria and Berea offices.

With blood supply levels at critically low levels in Northeast Ohio, employees and members of the community are encouraged to donate. According to LifeShare, one pint of donated blood can save the lives of three people.  The life of a newborn can be saved with only a teaspoon.

The mobile blood drives are open to the public and will be held at these locations:

Equity Trust Company – Elyria
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.
225 Burns Road
Elyria, Ohio 44035

Equity Trust Company – Berea
2:00 p.m – 5:30 p.m.
343 West Bagley Road
Berea, Ohio 44017

To donate blood, you must be at least 17 years old, weigh 110lbs and be in generally good health.  All donors must bring a valid photo identification card.

Learn more about LifeShare Community Blood Services at www.lifeshare.cc

February 26th, 2013 | No Comments »