An individual retirement account (IRA) such as the traditional IRA, Roth IRA, simplified employee pension (SEP) IRA, and savings incentive match plan for employees (SIMPLE) IRA, provides investors with tax benefits for retirement savings and most IRA custodians typically limit investments to common securities such as stocks, bonds, certificate of deposit ("CD"), and mutual or exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Certain investors, however, wish to invest their resources in other asset classes and choose to do so through a self-directed IRA. While a self-directed IRA has the capacity to house diverse alternative investments such as real estate, cryptocurrency, gold, and private equity; however, it also comes with potential pitfalls from a legal perspective that investors should be aware of.