Frequently Asked Questions
For Investors
IRAs
Self-directed IRAs offer the same tax advantages as conventional IRAs. The difference is self-directed IRAs let you invest in a variety of alternative assets historically inaccessible for everyday investors—including art, crypto, farmland, startups, and real estate.
Opening an account with Alto is easy and can be done online in minutes. Simply enter the account creation process on altoira.com by clicking on Get started and follow the step by step instructions and requirements.
Alto prioritizes simple, transparent pricing that we hope makes investing in alternatives feel approachable and affordable.
The Alto IRA charges a quarterly Account Fee based on your invested capital. The Alto CryptoIRA® does charge an Account Fee, but places a 1% Trade Fee on the amount of all buy and sell orders of cryptocurrency. Both accounts may incur additional service fees, if applicable.
For more detailed information, please visit altoira.com/pricing.
You can open a Traditional, SEP, or Roth self directed Alto IRA or Alto CryptoIRA®.
Traditional IRA: Tax-deferred retirement account where contributions may be tax-deductible, and earnings grow tax-deferred until withdrawal.
SEP IRA: Stands for Simplified Employee Pension IRA, ideal for self-employed individuals or small business owners to save for retirement with potentially higher contribution limits
Roth IRA: Retirement account funded with after-tax dollars, offering tax-free growth and – subject to IRS rules – withdrawals during retirement, with potential income limitations for contribution.
Anyone can open an IRA, and as long as you’ve received taxable compensation during the year, you can contribute to it.
You can fund your account with cash contributions, IRA transfers, or via a rollover. Alto makes it easy to transfer or roll over funds from an existing IRA, 401(a), 401(k), 403(b), 457, or TSP account, and we don’t charge fees to transfer money into your account.
This will allow you to create multiple accounts using a single email address. We’re working on making it so all of your accounts can live under one email address, but we’re not quite finished with this feature yet.
Yes! While there’s no limit to the number of IRA accounts a person can set up, there are limits to how much a person can contribute across all the IRA accounts in a given tax year so make sure to keep track of all your IRAs.
No. Internal Revenue Code Section 4975 prohibits borrowing from your IRA.
There is no legal distinction between a conventional IRA and a self-directed IRA. While traditional, Roth, SEP, and other IRAs can all be “self-directed” (meaning you choose what to invest in), most brokerages and custodians don’t allow investments in alternative assets—assets not publicly traded and often illiquid.
The Alto IRA gives you the control and flexibility to invest in assets you know and understand.
Save for certain exceptions, in order to reap the full tax advantages of an IRA, you have to wait until you’re 59-1/2 to take distributions (and in the case of a Roth IRA, have had a Roth account for at least five years). For more details, visit IRS.gov.
Total annual contribution limits for individual retirement accounts are set by the IRS, and should be consulted annually via their materials, which can be found here.
A RMD is the required amount that Traditional IRA owners and qualified plan participants must start distributing from their retirement accounts by April 1 following the year that they turn 73. RMD amounts must then be withdrawn every year after. Generally, RMDs apply only to Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs—not Roth IRAs.
Your RMD is based on your age, your IRA’s previous year account balance, and a “life expectancy factor” that is provided by the IRS. The institution(s) where you hold your account(s) can calculate your RMD. Institutions cannot, however, see IRAs you may hold elsewhere, so ultimately, it is your responsibility to determine the total RMD for all of your accounts.
The IRS documentation on RMDs can be found here, and should be consulted annually.
Alternatives
Alternatives are assets outside the public markets (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.). Alternative investments include shares of art, crypto, farmland, start ups, private equity, real estate, securitized collectibles, and venture capital, among others.
An IRA offers unique tax benefits that make retirement capital an exciting funding method for investments into alternative assets.
Investing in alternatives with an Alto self-directed IRA means you can legally minimize and potentially even eliminate taxes altogether. In Traditional and SEP IRAs, taxes are typically deferred on gains until withdrawal. When investing with a Roth IRA, qualified withdrawals are generally tax-free, with applicable IRS rules to consider.
Investing with a self-directed IRA also gives you access to capital that is otherwise locked away until later in life. This means you can strategically align the long term time horizon of capital earmarked for retirement and alternative assets that have longer than typical commitment periods – an investing match made in duration heaven.
Yes, there are restrictions, but not many. The Internal Revenue Code makes those distinctions. In general, as long as an investor doesn’t purchase life insurance, collectibles, coins, real estate that is designated for personal use, or engage in a prohibited transaction involving a disqualified person (your spouse, direct ancestors, and/or descendants), then an investment is allowed. However, some alternative assets may be limited to accredited investors, which require you to have a minimum net worth or annual income.
This still leaves plenty of alternative investment choices. Alto has built tools into its platform to help you avoid prohibited investments, though it’s always wise to consult a tax professional before moving forward with an investment.
Part of the reason self-directed IRAs have remained relatively obscure until now is that they used to be quite complicated. Alto was created to take the hassle of burdensome paperwork out of the investment process, so everyone can invest in alternatives using their tax-advantaged IRA funds more easily.
Alto will save you the work of acquiring all of the requisite documents, instead collecting them for you via the issuer, on the Alto dashboard.
Alto supports non-accredited investors as well as accredited investors. Anyone can create an Alto IRA account, though some offerings are open only to accredited investors. This determination of whether an individual is suitable for an investment may be made by the company or investment platform issuing the offering.
No. Alto is a provider of self-directed IRAs and does not act as a financial advisor or provide any investment advice.
No. IRS rules prohibit investing in any company that you or the following relatives own: your spouse, your ascendants, your direct descendants, and your direct descendants’ spouses.
Marketplace
Alto Marketplace is provided by Alto Securities, LLC, and connects accredited investors with a curated selection of sought-after private investments, handpicked and vetted by industry veterans. Offerings will range across a variety of different asset classes including, but not limited to, private equity, venture capital, real estate, fine wine, art and more.
Alto Securities is the wholly-owned broker-dealer subsidiary of AltoIRA. As a broker-dealer, Alto Securities can display an array of investment offerings to you to help find the opportunities that intrigue you.
An Alto IRA is a self-directed IRA allowing investors to purchase private securities with retirement funds. Alto Marketplace allows investors to discover and invest in investment opportunities curated by the Alto Securities team.
Currently, yes, as all offerings available on our Marketplace are limited to accredited investors (AIs) only.
Alto’s broker-dealer team both sources sought-after private deals and conducts diligence over inbound deals from issuers. Prior to being made available for your investment on Alto Marketplace, each offering must complete our expert-led due-diligence analysis, which evaluates each offering on the merits of its investment structure, deal thesis, manager track record, and risk factors, amongst other things.
Offerings with “Unlock” displayed on them require additional information before being able to invest into them, and may not be available at all depending on when you first began investing with Alto.
Yes. You can continue seamlessly investing with any of our Integrated Partners from the Invest dropdown on your navigation bar.
Yes. You can continue inviting issuers to post their private deals on Alto from the Invest dropdown on your navigation bar.
Prior to investing in an offering, you will need to confirm your accreditation status. For any offering considered a 506(c) deal under Regulation D you can follow the steps provided while attempting to invest in a deal to confirm your accreditation status. For any offering considered a 506(b) deal under Regulation D, a member of the Alto Securities team will contact you to confirm your status.
506b is an exemption under Regulation D of the U.S. Securities Act that allows companies to raise capital through private placements without registering the securities with the SEC. This exemption provides a way for companies to raise funds without the extensive disclosure requirements and costs associated with a public offering. Under 506b, companies are allowed to include up to 35 non-accredited investors. Companies are required to provide financial and non-financial information to non-accredited investors. Securities issued under 506(b) may be subject to resale restrictions, which limit investors’ ability to resell the securities.
506(c) is another exemption under Regulation D of the U.S. Securities Act that allows companies to raise capital through private placements without registering the securities with the SEC. Like 506(b), this exemption provides a way for companies to raise funds without the extensive disclosure requirements and costs associated with a public offering. Under 506(c), all investors must be accredited. Securities issued under 506(c) may also be subject to resale restrictions unless the securities are registered or another exemption applies.
Each offering on Alto Marketplace has its own page on which you can evaluate the details of the investment opportunity.
From an offering’s page, and once the Suitability Questionnaire has been completed, you can select the Invest button to begin your investment process. This selection will redirect you to Wealthblock to initiate the investment. From the Offering’s page on Wealthblock, press Invest, enter your commitment amount, and press submit. Next, fill in any remaining information, verify your identity, and confirm your accreditation status. Once complete, you’ll be asked to submit an e-Signature and confirm your commitment. Your investment will then be reviewed. Once approved, you will receive an invite to complete your investment with an e-Signature and transfer your funds.
The suitability questionnaire completed before an investor can access offerings on Alto Marketplace allows Alto Securities’ team to determine whether a prospective investor is an accredited investor.
Prior to investing in offerings on Alto Marketplace, investors must complete a suitability questionnaire which confirms their accreditation status, which determines their eligibility to invest in offerings. Alto’s Suitability Questionnaire requires an investor to read Alto’s Customer Relationship Summary, build their investor profile, and confirm or self attest their accreditation status.
No existing functionality is being removed from the user experience in your Alto IRA. A simplified navigation bar will enable you to explore distinctive alternative offerings on Marketplace while continuing to invest through our Integrated Partners, bringing your own deal by inviting issuers to raise capital in our Private Raise Portal, and accessing your dashboard.
Where investors previously sourced investment opportunities outside of the Alto ecosystem, Alto Marketplace allows investors to discover new alternative assets from within our product experience. This change allows investors to easily access the investment opportunities that they are most interested in.
You can reach our Investor Relations team at [email protected], book a meeting here, or call them directly at 629-276-4945 from 8:30 – 5pm CST.
Integrated Partners
You can find a list of our Integrated Partners on our website here, and under the Invest tab on the menu bar located within your Alto IRA account.
Alto prioritizes simple, transparent pricing that makes investing in alternatives feel approachable and affordable.
Investing with one of our Integrated Partners requires a standard Alto IRA. We charge Alto IRAs a quarterly Account Fee based on your invested capital. Additionally, a $10 investment transaction fee is charged for each initial investment into an Integrated Partner offering.
For more detailed information, please visit altoira.com/pricing.
Private Raise Portal
Alto prioritizes simple, transparent pricing that makes investing in alternatives feel approachable and affordable.
Investing in an issuer’s offering through the Private Raise Portal requires a standard Alto IRA. We charge Alto IRAs a quarterly Account Fee based on your invested capital. Additionally, a $75 investment processing fee is charged for each investment made through the Private Raise Portal.
For more detailed information, please visit altoira.com/pricing.
Cryptocurrency
Currently, any United States resident (with the exception of anyone located in Hawaii) who is 18 years or older can open an Alto CryptoIRA.
An IRA offers unique tax benefits that make retirement capital an exciting funding method for investments into alternative assets.
Investing in alternatives with an Alto self-directed IRA means you can legally minimize and potentially even eliminate taxes altogether. In Traditional and SEP IRAs, taxes are typically deferred on gains until withdrawal. When investing with a Roth IRA, qualified withdrawals are generally tax-free (subject to IRS rules).
Investing with a self-directed IRA also gives you access to capital that is otherwise locked away until later in life. This means you can strategically align the long term time horizon of capital earmarked for retirement and alternative assets that have longer than typical commitment periods – an investing match made in duration heaven.
Additionally, unlike when you trade crypto outside a tax-advantaged account, doing so within an IRA allows you to avoid the often-tedious process of reporting trades on your taxes each year.
Alto prioritizes simple, transparent pricing that we hope makes investing in alternatives feel approachable and affordable.
The Alto CryptoIRA® charges a 1% trade fee on the USD amount of any buy and sell order of cryptocurrency. Applicable Service Fees apply.
For more detailed information, please visit altoira.com/pricing.
Alto prioritizes industry-leading security measures to keep your CryptoIRA safe. Undirected cash held at Alto is maintained in FDIC-insured accounts with our banking partners at BankProv and Pinnacle Bank. To the extent cash is held at Coinbase, Coinbase may store cash in pooled custodial accounts at one or more banks insured by the FDIC. For more information on Coinbase’s cash storage practices, please review this webpage. For more on Coinbase’s cash management and risk measures, please review this page. Digital assets held at Coinbase are maintained 1:1 in a combination of hot and cold storage.
Our crypto custodian, Coinbase, maintains commercial crime and cybercrime insurance policies and is a state-chartered trust company under the laws of the state of New York. Additionally, neither Coinbase nor Alto will lend, loan, use, or rehypothecate Alto CryptoIRA assets.
The Alto CryptoIRA provides access to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies through the Coinbase exchange. Digital assets owned by an Alto CryptoIRA are held at Coinbase. Any other assets (including crypto funds) may be purchased with an Alto IRA.
You may open additional Alto accounts to make non-crypto related investments here.
With Alto CryptoIRA, you can invest with as little as $10.
After funding your Alto CryptoIRA, you can invest in up to 200+ cryptocurrencies through the Coinbase exchange. We maintain enough liquidity in our account to accommodate daily trading volumes, and the remainder may be held in cold storage.
Since our CryptoIRA is integrated with Coinbase, and Coinbase does not offer its services to customers located in Hawaii, we are unable to offer Alto CryptoIRA to you at this time. Get on the waitlist here to receive an update when the Alto CryptoIRA opens up to Hawaii residents.
You can still open an Alto IRA account and invest in cryptocurrency through third party partners.
Alto CryptoIRA offers access to up to 200+ cryptocurrencies via our Coinbase integration.
For Issuers
Marketplace
Alto Marketplace, managed by Alto Securities, LLC, connects accredited investors with a selection of private investment opportunities. The firm conducts a thorough due diligence process to evaluate each offering, ensuring a diverse range of asset classes such as private equity, venture capital, real estate, fine wine, art, and more are available.
Alto Securities, a wholly-owned broker-dealer subsidiary of AltoIRA, presents a variety of investment opportunities, enabling investors to explore options that align with their interests.
Alto Marketplace is Alto Securities’ flagship platform, where we actively manage the entire investor onboarding process and present specific investment opportunities to both existing and potential investors through various channels including press, paid advertisements, social media, editorial content, and email marketing. Our licensed investor relations team is dedicated to representing Marketplace offerings on behalf of issuers, focusing on acquisition to streamline the process for you.
Integrated Partnerships enable issuers and investment platforms to embed Alto as a payment method within their native investment workflow, streamlining the process through which people can invest with an IRA. Alto displays its integrated partners on its website and investor portal, however we do not promote specific investment opportunities offered by integrated partners.
The Private Raise Portal enables issuers to raise IRA capital on their own terms without any technical expertise or integration required. Unlike the Marketplace and Integrated Partnerships, issuers can start raising capital within 20 minutes through the Private Raise Portal. The steps are simple to create an Alto issuer account, upload your offering, and invite investors to participate! Alto does not promote the brands and investment offerings of issuers who raise privately through this product, nor does it review the merits, legitimacy, appropriateness or suitability of an investment,thus providing issuers complete control over their capital raising process. Alto simply provides a payment method for issuers to accept investments from investor’s IRA dollars.
Alto’s broker-dealer team both sources sought-after private deals and conducts diligence over inbound deals from issuers. Prior to being made available for your investment on Alto Marketplace, each offering must complete our expert-led due-diligence analysis, which evaluates each offering on the merits of its investment structure, deal thesis, manager track record, and risk factors, amongst other things.
Complete this inquiry form! Our Alto Securities team reviews submissions on a rolling basis and will be in touch if there’s interest to learn more.
Alto charges each issuer a placement fee based on the total committed capital raised for the offering. Placement fee rates are determined during contracting.
Alto prioritizes simple, transparent pricing that we hope makes investing in alternatives feel approachable and affordable.
Investments into Marketplace offerings require an investor to have a standard Alto IRA. We charge Alto IRAs a quarterly Account Fee based on an investor’s invested capital. Investment processing fees do not apply to Marketplace offerings.
For more detailed information, please visit altoira.com/pricing.
Yes! Prior to investing in a Marketplace offering, the investor is required to complete a Suitability Questionnaire and attest to their accreditation as required by our broker dealer. Depending on the structure of the offering, Alto will prompt the investor for supporting documentation for full accreditation verification.
The public can view the offerings on Alto’s Marketplace here on our website. Existing investors can view offerings within their account, too. Upon the decision to invest, the investor will be prompted to create an Alto IRA or log into their existing account to proceed with their commitment. All investors will be prompted to complete a Suitability Questionnaire to confirm their accreditation status. If qualified to invest, the investor will confirm their identity, accreditation status, and commitment amount and then e-sign subscription/purchase documents for approval. Upon approval by Alto’s Compliance team, the investor will be prompted to finalize payment to fund their investment. Investors may be prompted to upload supporting documentation to verify their accreditation. This requirement varies based on the offerings exemption status.
Yes. Investors can continue to seamlessly invest with any of our Integrated Partners or bring their own deal to the Alto platform through the Private Raise Portal.
Absolutely, although please bear in mind that this will entail different processes.
Integrated Partners
Alto Marketplace is Alto Securities’ flagship platform, where we actively manage the entire investor onboarding process and present specific investment opportunities to both existing and potential investors through various channels including press, paid advertisements, social media, editorial content, and email marketing. Our licensed investor relations team is dedicated to representing Marketplace offerings on behalf of issuers, focusing on acquisition to streamline the process for you.
Integrated Partnerships enable issuers and investment platforms to embed Alto as a payment method within their native investment workflow, streamlining the process through which people can invest with an IRA. Alto displays its integrated partners on its website and investor portal, however we do not promote specific investment opportunities offered by integrated partners.
The Private Raise Portal enables issuers to raise IRA capital on their own terms without any technical expertise or integration required. Unlike the Marketplace and Integrated Partnerships, issuers can start raising capital within 20 minutes through the Private Raise Portal. The steps are simple to create an Alto issuer account, upload your offering, and invite investors to participate! Alto does not promote the brands and investment offerings of issuers who raise privately through this product, nor does it review the merits, legitimacy, appropriateness or suitability of an investment,thus providing issuers complete control over their capital raising process. Alto simply provides a payment method for issuers to accept investments from investor’s IRA dollars.
There’s no cost to Issuers or Investment Platforms raising IRA capital through an integration with Alto. We don’t charge a payment processing fee, placement fee, or commissions, so you get every IRA dollar you accept for free.
Integration inquiries are reviewed on a case-by-case basis, with the scope of an integration project aligned upon after approval by Alto. If you’re interested in integrating with us, complete this inquiry form! We review submissions on a rolling basis and will be in touch if we’re interested in learning more.
Private Raise Portal
There’s no cost to Issuers raising capital through Alto’s Private Raise Portal. We don’t charge a placement fee, and we don’t take a cut of your raise, so you get every IRA dollar you accept for free.
Not at all! For too long, investing in alternative assets using a self-directed IRA has been an expensive and laborious process. That goes against everything we stand for. At Alto, we’re on a mission to make alternatives accessible for all, and that starts with pricing that is fair.
We offer simple pricing to investors, calculated and charged quarterly based on a customer’s Total Invested Capital. Additional information can be found at altoira.com/pricing.
Alto does not review the merits, legitimacy, appropriateness or suitability of an offering. It is solely the investor’s responsibility to determine the appropriateness of an offering and they must conduct their own due diligence on an investment. When an issuer creates a deal on our platform, offering documents are required to be uploaded to the offering before an issuer is able to invite investors to participate. Investors who are invited to the offering are presented with the uploaded offering documents. This ensures that the investor has been presented with the appropriate offering documents before directing Alto to execute the subscription document and send funds to an issuer on behalf of their IRA.
No, Alto simply provides issuers the ability to invite investors to view an offering and use their IRA dollars to commit and purchase a deal. Determining an investor’s suitability is the responsibility of the issuer.
Yes! You can either send the investor a unique link to your deal in a personalized email or you can trigger an Alto branded invite directly from your Alto issuer account. Step by step instructions for either option can be found here!
Initiating capital calls within Alto is easy! Please follow these step by step instructions to notify your investors when a capital call is due.
To distribute funds to an investor’s IRA, please follow these simple instructions!