Palladium is thirty times rarer than gold. Most of it goes into catalytic converters for gasoline engines; the rest into electronics and clean-energy equipment. Unlike gold, which is chiefly a money metal with thousands of years of monetary record, palladium’s price moves on factory-floor supply and demand.

That difference is the whole point. Palladium can zig when your gold and silver zag — it's tied to a different set of levers. It's also a more restless metal; the motion runs in both directions, and the motion is sharper. The trade-off is part of the decision.

The IRS holds palladium to the same strict purity floor as platinum under IRC Section 408(m)(3)(B): .9995 fine, or 99.95 percent pure. Anything below that line can’t sit inside a retirement account. Approved products at the .9995 standard include Canadian Palladium Maple Leaf coins, PAMP Suisse bars, Credit Suisse bars, and Baird & Co. bars.

Every self-directed custodian we work with handles palladium — it's a standard holding inside a precious metals IRA. You don't need a separate account or a separate depository. Same vault, same paperwork, same rollover mechanics as gold and silver. See the full rule sheet for the code that governs the account itself.