My Gold IRA Rollover Experience (from a UVA prof) - Thoughts?

• •Just wrapped up my 401(k) to Gold IRA rollover, and honestly, the process was smoother than I anticipated.
• •My 401(k) balance was sitting around $380k before the rollover, and I decided to move about $120k into physical gold.
• •I spent a good month interviewing different custodians and dealers.

Just wrapped up my 401(k) to Gold IRA rollover, and honestly, the process was smoother than I anticipated. For background, I'm a professor here in Richmond, and frankly, my university's limited 401(k) options were starting to feel incredibly restrictive given the current market volatility. I've been researching alternative assets for a while now, looking for something that offered a bit more stability and inflation protection, and gold kept coming up in my deep dives into economic history and modern portfolio theory.

My 401(k) balance was sitting around $380k before the rollover, and I decided to move about $120k into physical gold. I spent a good month interviewing different custodians and dealers. The academic in me had to dissect every fee schedule, storage option, and purity guarantee. Ended up going with APMEX for the actual metals and Equity Trust Company as the custodian, primarily because their fee structure for a self-directed IRA seemed transparent enough and they had decent reviews for precious metals IRAs. The whole “checkbook control” option some places were pushing felt a bit too aggressive for my comfort level, frankly – too many IRS warnings about UBIT for that kind of setup.

The actual paper trail was a bit annoying, as expected for anything involving the IRS and large sums of money. Lots of forms, verifying identity, direct trustee-to-trustee transfer requests. But the company I went with seemed to have a good system for guiding me through it all, which was a relief. The gold itself arrived at the depository (Delaware Depository, for anyone curious) a little over two weeks after the funds cleared. It's a surreal feeling knowing that there are physical gold bars out there with my name on them, or rather, my IRA's name on them.

I'm feeling considerably more comfortable with this chunk of my portfolio now. It's not about trying to get rich quick with gold; it's about diversification and hedging against the unknown, especially with all the noise surrounding fiat currencies and central bank policies. Has anyone else here done a similar rollover? What were your experiences, positive or negative? Any specific custodians or depositories you'd recommend or warn against?