Checkbook IRA Reviews: What 104 Clients Actually Say
MyDirect IRA has 104 reviews on Google and a 5.0 average. You can read every one of them yourself at the link at the bottom of this page, and you should, because a company summarizing its own reviews is worth exactly as much as you would expect.
So here is the honest version. Below are the patterns that show up across those reviews, in the reviewers' own words, including the parts where people said the process was hard. And first, the thing most review pages skip: what a perfect rating does and does not prove.
What a 5.0 average actually tells you
It does not prove nobody ever had a problem.
It proves nobody had a problem bad enough to write about publicly. Those are different claims, and the second one is the only one the data supports.
A perfect average also gets easier to hold when the work is narrow. This is not a firm doing twelve things. It is one person who sets up checkbook IRA structures, has done more than 400 of them, and has spent more than a decade doing almost nothing else. Narrow work with a repeatable process produces consistent outcomes. That is less impressive than it sounds and more useful than a broader firm's four point six.
What the reviews are genuinely good for is telling you what the experience is like before you commit. Read for the specifics, not the star count.
How a lot of these clients found us
Several reviewers arrived the same way, and the mechanism is worth explaining, because it is not what most people picture.
Bobbi H., a Google Local Guide with 33 reviews of her own, opens hers this way:
"I was referred to Ted at MyDirectIRA by my SDIRA custodian when I opted to set up a Checkbook LLC."
Elizabeth R. describes the same relationship from the other direction. Ted "connected me to some great people at uDirect (where our IRA is) who he has worked with previously."
A self directed custodian will not tell you which provider to use. Naming one firm over another starts to look like advice, and a good custodian stays well clear of that line. So they do not make recommendations.
What they do instead is hand you a list. Then you call everybody on it.
That turns out to be a more useful signal than a recommendation would be, for two reasons.
Getting onto a custodian's list at all means clearing whatever bar that custodian applies. They are the ones who see the paperwork from every provider in this space, done cleanly or done badly, across hundreds of clients. They have no reason to include someone who creates work for them.
Then you are compared side by side against every other name on that list, by somebody who is actively shopping and has no reason to be loyal to any of you.
Winning that comparison repeatedly is a different thing from being handed a client.
The fear is almost always compliance, and it usually resolves
Read enough of these and the same anxiety appears before the same relief.
Jane G. says it plainly:
"At first I was hesitant to set up my 401k as a 'checkbook LLC'. I was concerned that I might make a mistake and be out of compliance."
Kerry D. describes the same thing in different words: "The process can be intimidatingly complex."
That fear is rational. The IRS rules around self-directed accounts are unforgiving, the consequences of a prohibited transaction are severe, and there is no simple correction path once you have crossed a line. Anyone who tells you this is simple is either not paying attention or not being straight with you.
What the reviews suggest is that the fear is mostly about not knowing the rules rather than the rules themselves being unmanageable. Jane G. finishes: "I am proceeding with confidence having Ted and MyDirect IRA by my side."
The structure itself is well established. Swanson v. Commissioner (1996) confirmed that an IRA can own a newly formed entity. Ellis v. Commissioner (T.C. Memo 2013-245, affirmed by the Eighth Circuit in 2015) reaffirmed that an IRA may purchase a membership interest in a new LLC, and in the same case drew the line clearly: the LLC cannot pay the IRA owner a salary for managing it. That is self dealing.
Two cases, one saying you can do this and one saying exactly where the edge is. Knowing both is most of what separates a clean setup from an expensive one.
The thing four different reviewers mention without being asked
This one surprised me when I counted it.
Four of the reviewers volunteer, unprompted, that the relationship did not end when the paperwork did.
Anil M.: "I also appreciate the fact that he follows up periodically to check-in on whether things were operating as expected."
Derrick L.: "they are still available to field any questions I have even though my accounts are now setup."
Jane G.: "He is available to me to consult about transactions to advise me about the laws and regulations."
Elizabeth R.: "he continues to be available if any additional questions come up."
Nobody asks a reviewer to comment on post setup support. When four separate people raise the same thing on their own, it is describing something real about how the service actually works rather than how it is marketed.
There is a reason it matters. The compliance questions do not arrive during setup. They arrive eight months later when a tenant wants to pay rent a strange way, or a repair needs paying for, or a family member offers to help with the property. That is when you need someone to pick up.
On price, the reviews are useful precisely because they are not flattering
Anil M. is the most useful reviewer in the whole set, because he did the comparison shopping and reported the result:
"He knew his stuff, was a straight-shooter, and priced middle-of-pack vs. some other folks I interviewed for the service."
Middle of pack. Not cheapest.
That is the accurate position and worth saying out loud. There are cheaper ways to get a checkbook IRA set up. If price is the only variable you are optimizing, this is not the lowest number you will find.
Several other reviewers land in the same place. Derrick L.: "Their fees are also reasonable." Five of the reviews carry Google's own automatic "Reasonable price" or "Great price" tag, which is generated from review content rather than written by the business.
The fee is a flat one time setup cost. It is not a percentage of your account, there is no per transaction fee, and there is no annual fee to MyDirect IRA. That structure matters more than the number over a long holding period, because a percentage based fee grows every year as the property appreciates while a flat fee does not.
The specificity test
Most reviews of most companies are generic. "Great service, highly recommend." They tell you nothing.
The ones worth reading are the ones with details a satisfied customer would only know if the thing actually happened. Bobbi H.'s is the best example:
"When he learned which investment firm I was rolling funds from, he told me specifics about their process and predicted how quickly they would complete my request (he was right). Same for my custodian's timeline."
That is operator knowledge. Knowing which releasing custodian moves in days and which takes weeks is not something you can read in a brochure, and it matters, because the transfer from your existing custodian is almost always the slowest part of the process. Most setups run two to three weeks start to finish, and the variable is nearly always the releasing institution rather than anything on this end.
Steven I. gives the real estate version: "Using Ted Erickson and MyDirectIRA to complete a real estate investment out of my self-directed IRA was an excellent choice."
LaShon A. gives the retirement timing version, having set up a self directed IRA after retiring.
Different situations, same underlying process.
What the reviews will not tell you, and who this is not for
Reviews are written by people who went ahead. They are a poor guide to whether you should.
Some things worth knowing that no review will surface:
MyDirect IRA is not a custodian. A licensed self directed custodian holds the Self Directed IRA account. That separation is deliberate and it means there is no incentive tied to which assets you choose.
MyDirect IRA is not an investment adviser. Nobody here will tell you what to buy, and you should be wary of a provider who does.
Ongoing entity maintenance is yours. The structure gets built and you maintain it. That is not included, and anyone implying otherwise is setting you up for a surprise.
The rules may kill your plan. If you want to live in the property, rent it to your children, or do the renovation work yourself, a Checkbook IRA does not make any of that possible. It is better to hear that in ten minutes on a call than to find out after the money has moved.
If you want the cheapest possible option, or you want somebody to make the investment decision for you, this is not the right fit. That is worth knowing before a call rather than during one.
Read them yourself
Everything above is drawn from public reviews you can verify. Names are shortened here to first name and last initial, but the full reviews, the full names, and the reviewer histories are all visible on the Google profile.
Read the full MyDirect IRA reviews on Google
If the picture there matches what you are looking for, the next step is a twenty minute call. We will cover which accounts are funding your investment purchase and where you are buying, because those two answers determine everything else about the structure. If a checkbook IRA LLC is not the right vehicle for your situation, you will hear that too.
Ted Erickson is the founder of MyDirect IRA. He has spent 13+ years in the self-directed retirement account industry and has established 400+ checkbook IRA structures for clients in all 50 states. He is a licensed California real estate salesperson and mortgage loan originator.
This information is for educational purposes only and should not be considered tax, legal, or investment advice. Consult your own tax or legal advisor before making any investment or plan-structure decisions.
