Gideon Strategic Partners, a wealth management and financial planning firm based in Santa Monica, Calif., has announced it is expanding its services through a partnership with Strata Trust Company, an IRA custodian that helps investors diversify their retirement accounts with alternative assets.
With the addition of Strata’s services, clients of Gideon, which serves qualified investors and high-net-worth individuals and families, will have access to investments in a range of alternatives, including real estate, precious metals, crowdfunding, private equity and debt, and structured settlements. These would be held in self-directed traditional and Roth IRA accounts that also offer clients tax efficiency, Gideon said.
“This partnership enables our clients to hold alternatives in a tax-efficient manner,” said Robert Amoruso, Gideon's CEO and managing partner, in an interview. “It adds a lot of value to what we provide our clients and differentiates us. It is important for our clients, who are looking to diversify” to have these opportunities.
Many traditional custodians choose not to hold alternative assets because of the difficulties involved in doing the transactions, the uncertainty of the assets' valuations and the standard-of-care requirements. Strata says its focus on self-directed IRAs helps clients and advisors avoid these hurdles.
Gideon oversees more than $650 million in assets and provides concierge-style services to high-net worth individuals and businesses using a holistic, multidisciplinary and technology-driven approach to financial planning.
Amoruso added in a statement, “Sophisticated investors recognize the role alternative investments play in a diversified portfolio, but their advisors’ flexibility to deploy these specialized vehicles in their retirement planning is limited with traditional custodians. Strata fulfills a crucial niche for our clients, empowering them to branch out beyond publicly traded securities as they tailor their approach to retirement saving to fully take advantage of rules governing IRAs.”
Since it works with self-directed IRAs, Strata does not market investment products or offer investment advice. Advisors and their clients typically use the firm to execute transactions when the rationale behind the investments has already been determined beforehand.
“When we advise across both investment selection and investment structuring, it is a tremendous asset to be able to offer a range of options to achieve our clients’ objectives,” said Amoruso.