Rollover Worries - Tax Implications on Gold IRA

• •I’ve been doing a lot of late-night reading on this but wanted to throw it out to the community for some real-world input.
• •I’m seriously considering rolling over a significant chunk of my late husband’s traditional IRA into a Gold IRA.
• •We're talking probably around $75,000 to $80,000, maybe a little more if I decide to consolidate some other smaller accounts.

I’ve been doing a lot of late-night reading on this but wanted to throw it out to the community for some real-world input. I’m seriously considering rolling over a significant chunk of my late husband’s traditional IRA into a Gold IRA. We're talking probably around $75,000 to $80,000, maybe a little more if I decide to consolidate some other smaller accounts. It feels like the right move, especially after everything that's happened; I want to protect what he worked so hard for. I'm in Raleigh, and the market volatility has me really uneasy, so the stability of physical gold just makes sense to me right now.

My biggest hang-up, and honestly, it’s keeping me up at night, is the tax implications of the rollover. I know it's supposed to be a non-taxable event if done directly from trustee to trustee, but I've read horror stories about people getting it wrong and ending up with massive tax bills. My husband always handled all the financial stuff, and now I'm trying to navigate it all myself, and it's a lot. I’m specifically worried about accidentally taking a distribution instead of a direct rollover and getting hit with income taxes and that 10% early withdrawal penalty even though I’m well past 59 ½. It just feels like there are so many little steps where you could mess up.

Has anyone here done a Gold IRA rollover from a traditional IRA recently? What was your experience like with the tax side of things? Did you use a specific company that was really good at guiding you through the paperwork to ensure it was a clean, non-taxable transfer? Any red flags I should be looking out for? I’m envisioning talking to an advisor, but I prefer to go in armed with a good understanding already.

I just want to make sure I’m protecting this legacy properly without inadvertently creating a tax nightmare. Any advice or shared experiences would be so, so appreciated.