In this episode of Wealth Unfiltered, Ramez Fakhoury, Vice President of IRA Club, joins us to break down the self-directed retirement account playbook for private real estate. He explains how investors and advisors can unlock the full potential of their retirement dollars by moving beyond the stock market and into alternative assets. Ramez brings a background rooted in hospitality and family real estate, and his path to IRA Club is anything but conventional.
Ramez walks through what IRA Club is: a self-directed IRA custodian, broker dealer, and white-glove administrative partner for individual investors and RIAs. He covers how IRA Club’s three-step process works, the limitations of traditional 401(k) plans, and why only 3% of Americans self-direct their retirement accounts despite $45 trillion sitting in retirement vehicles nationwide. He also introduces IRA Club’s AI trading platform, AI Smart Folios, which buys, sells, and holds based on the investor’s risk tolerance to limit exposure during market drops.
Ramez makes the case that alternatives are no longer optional for advisors who want to serve their clients well. Inflation, market volatility, Social Security uncertainty, and rising taxes are all working against retirement savers, and alternatives are one of the few tools that work in the other direction. For RIAs, IRA Club functions as a neutral, compliance-focused TPA that handles the administrative heavy lifting so advisors can focus on identifying the right opportunities for their clients.
