My wife finally came around on the Gold IRA, huge relief

• •I've been trying to convince my wife about the merits of a Gold IRA for what feels like years now, probably since early 2022.
• •The turning point, surprisingly, wasn't some grand financial analysis I pulled together (I'd already done that a dozen times).
• •It was a conversation she had with her cousin, who lives out in Arizona and is a bit of a prepper, honestly.

I've been trying to convince my wife about the merits of a Gold IRA for what feels like years now, probably since early 2022. I'm a lawyer here in Philly, and while I specialize in a different area, my personal finance philosophy has always been about wealth preservation first. With a portfolio hovering around $800k, a significant chunk of our retirement savings is in traditional investments, and the continuous market volatility has honestly kept me up at night more times than I care to admit. I presented all the logical arguments – inflation hedge, diversification, historical stability – but she was always hesitant, worried about liquidity or some vague notion of it being a "niche" investment.

The turning point, surprisingly, wasn't some grand financial analysis I pulled together (I'd already done that a dozen times). It was a conversation she had with her cousin, who lives out in Arizona and is a bit of a prepper, honestly. He's been in precious metals for ages, and apparently, he just laid out a really practical, common-sense argument about protecting against currency devaluation and an unstable global economy. She came home that evening and just said, "Okay, let's look into it seriously. Cousin Mark made a lot of sense." I was absolutely floored and so relieved. It’s funny how sometimes it takes an external voice to validate something you’ve been saying all along.

Now that we're both on board, the next step is actually executing on this. I'm thinking of allocating about 10-15% of our portfolio to precious metals, specifically a mix of gold and some silver, within the IRA structure. We have a few different retirement accounts, so I'm trying to figure out the most efficient way to roll some funds over. Has anyone here dealt with consolidating or performing multiple rollovers into a new Gold IRA? Any pitfalls to watch out for?

I’ve been poring over resources, and I found this "Learning Center" over at https://learn.goldirablueprint.com/?forum to be quite comprehensive for understanding the different types of metals allowed and the rollover process itself. But practical, real-world advice from people who've actually done it is invaluable. Beyond the mechanics, what kind of due diligence did you perform on custodians or dealers? Any particular firms you'd highly recommend or caution against based on your experience?