You always face liability whether your plan is an IRA or qualified plan, such as a 401(k) plan. If, for example, your plan owns real estate and a person is injured on that property, the plan or IRA would have the same liability issues that you would have to deal with, if the property was owned personally. You can protect your real estate IRA investment by doing the same things to protect it and your property, such as purchasing insurance, or by having your IRA create a limited liability company that purchases a 100% of the investment properly. Limiting liability for assets in your IRA or plan should be discussed with competent professionals, such as attorneys.