Quick answer: Silver has been a legally eligible IRA asset since the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 expanded precious metals IRA eligibility beyond gold coins alone – that’s real, verifiable history; broader claims about its role currently ‘expanding’ depend on industry account data that individual readers usually can’t verify directly.

The verifiable legal history

Before 1997, IRAs could generally only hold certain gold coins. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 broadened eligibility to include silver, platinum, and palladium meeting specific fineness standards, codified in IRC Section 408(m) – this expansion is a matter of public legislative record, not industry marketing.

What’s harder to verify independently

Claims about current growth trends in silver IRA account openings typically come from individual custodians or dealers citing their own data, which isn’t independently auditable by an outside reader the way government statistics are. Treat specific growth percentage claims with appropriate skepticism unless tied to a named, checkable data source.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did silver become eligible for IRAs?
The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 expanded IRA-eligible precious metals to include silver (along with platinum and palladium) meeting IRC Section 408(m) fineness standards, effective for tax years after 1997.

Can I trust a dealer’s claim about industry-wide silver IRA growth?
Treat dealer-sourced growth statistics with some skepticism unless they cite independently verifiable data, since the dealer has a direct interest in the reader believing demand is expanding.

Source: IRS – Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs

Written by Samuel, Certified Public Accountant. Published August 2026.