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Checkbook IRA Valuation

Checkbook IRA Fair Market Valuation

At the end of each year or in the case of certain reportable distribution events, the IRA-owned LLC or Trust entity must be valued.

Forge Trust Co. uses this value to produce IRA associated reporting.  The LLC/Trust is the investment asset held by the IRA.

Because Forge Trust Co. has no view to the internal dealings of the LLC/Trust and there is no publicly available source of market value (such as an exchange), it is your responsibility to provide a statement of fair market valuation for the entity when required.

Online Reporting Portal

Use the following link to report your LLC valuation online:

IRA LLC Valuation Portal

You will be asked for your IRA account number and confirmation of your SSN and birthdate.

You will then be presented with a form into which you can enter the total value of the LLC/Trust.

Paper Reporting for Taxable Events

If you your account is subject to Required Minimum Distributions,  or if you are are performing a special transaction such as a Roth conversion or in-kind distribution of an IRA LLC/Trust to yourself, then a certified valuation is required.  This is because the event has tax consequences and therefore a need for more precise valuation.

The paper valuation form is required and will need to include the signature of a licensed professional such as a professional appraiser, CPA, or Attorney.

Safeguard Advisors cannot certify valuations.

Use the following IRA LLC Valuation Form for this purpose:

IRA LLC Valuation Form

The form provides specific instructions for completion and delivery.

There is a $35 charge for processing of the paper form.

How to report your IRA LLC/Trust Value

Simply sum up the holdings of the LLC/Trust.  This would include cash in the entity bank account as well as the value of any investment holdings such a real property, a promissory note for a loan or mortgage issued by the entity, tax liens, etc.

For non-cash assets, an estimate of value from a 3rd party with knowledge of the asset class should be used.

  • For real property, this will simply be a realtor price opinion (realtor comps). Tax assessed value and online valuation sites such as Zillow are not accurate and should not be used.
  • If the LLC/Trust owns partial interest in a property or has a mortgaged property, only the equity value held by the entity is reported.
  • A note is valued using the outstanding principal balance.
  • Precious metals, cryptocurrencies and other similar assets will generally have a market-reportable spot price that can be used for valuation.
  • If the entity holds an interest in a private placement such as another LLC, LLP, etc., the investment sponsor or general partner should provide you with a statement of the entity’s holding value.

A formal appraisal is only required if a taxable event such as a Roth IRA conversion or Required Minimum Distribution calculation is taking place.

Supporting documents used to generate the valuation are not generally required to be submitted with the valuation form.  You should retain any such records with your plan documents, however.