The Gold Standard

The basic principle of investing in "alternative assets" in your IRA is that there must be an official "custodian" who has control of these assets for your benefit. There are several companies that provide that service. Entrust (www.theentrustgroup .com) is one of them. The Blanchard Group -- a coin dealer -- has a similar program using its GoldStar Trust (www. blanchard.com). I prefer separating the coin dealer purchase from the IRA custodian, which is how Entrust works.

If you have an IRA with a "checking" feature at a mutual fund company, you can go to a coin dealer, pay for your coins with a check from your IRA -- and then direct that the coins be sent to Entrust by certified mail for storage. Or you can open a new IRA with Entrust, and they'll handle the purchase for you with your coin dealer.

The coins are then placed in a safe-deposit vault in the bank of your choice. The safe deposit box is opened by the trust company as trustee for your IRA. You can watch the coins being placed in the box -- but you don't get a key to it.

As an alternative, Entrust can act as trustee for coins left in the vaults of a certified dealer. They sign the storage agreement with the coin dealer as your trustee. Either way, the IRA holder gets a daily online statement, as well as a year-end valuation for seniors who must start taking a required minimum distribution.

Entrust CEO Hugh Bromma says there is a growing interest in gold and silver bullion for IRAs, even among those most scared about the future of financial institutions: "We can act as custodian for your gold in any vault, even outside the United States."

We plan our retirement in dollars, and we will pay our retirement living expenses in dollars. But how much will those dollars buy in our retirement years? If dollars don't keep their buying power, gold will! And that's The Savage Truth.