I have both a Roth and Trad. IRA account at E*Trade, recently acquired by Morgan Stanley. As of September 2023, they have migrated all the E*Trade data into the Morgan Stanley system, at least to the extent that they changed all the account numbers, re-designed the statements, and re-defined the email notification criteria, etc. I notice on my new statements, both IRAs are listed as "self directed retirement account" -- but my only "self direction" is deciding which publicly-traded securities to buy or sell. I though "self directed" IRA was a technical term for IRAs that hold things like real estate, gold, etc.? Should I be concerned that my IRAs have somehow been re-classified?
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"You said it, they'll never know the difference. Come on, we'll paint our way out!" - Moe Howard -
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s...rected-ira.asp- Custodians can’t give financial or investment advice for SDIRAs, which means that any research, due diligence, and management of assets rests solely with the account holder.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Investor Alert: Self-Directed IRAs and the Risk of Fraud.
The main difference between an SDIRA and other IRAs is the types of investments that you can hold in the account. In general, regular IRAs are limited to common securities like stocks, bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), and mutual or exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
But SDIRAs allow the owner to invest in a much broader array of assets. With an SDIRA, you can hold precious metals, commodities, private placements, limited partnerships, tax lien certificates, real estate, and other alternative investments.
As such, an SDIRA requires greater initiative and due diligence by the account owner.
- Custodians can’t give financial or investment advice for SDIRAs, which means that any research, due diligence, and management of assets rests solely with the account holder.
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I had an IRA at a broker that was taken over by Charles Schwab, and it is shown as a Contributory IRA at Schwab If it were me I would have them change itComment
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I called them (Morgan Stanley) today to ask. They confirm that to them, this simply means that I am making my own buy/sell decisions, rather than using them as an advisor. It turns out that even my ordinary brokerage account is also now labeled as "self directed". I gave them feedback that this is very confusing, since the term "SDIRA" already has a long-established meaning different from the one they are using, and also that I have never seen another financial institution use this same label on their statements (and like all of you, I have seen hundreds of such statements). Maybe "self managed" or "non-advisor" would be a better term."You said it, they'll never know the difference. Come on, we'll paint our way out!" - Moe HowardComment
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