Our company ratings includes BBB, Trustlink & Business Consumer Alliance scores for many of the most popular and well-known IRA providers and IRA brokers.
Bookmark this page of consumer protection ratings and phone numbers for your reference.
Where you’re ready to begin your comparison research, this reference chart can help you quickly contact your favorite gold ira companies. Interested in how we rank our list?
2018 Consumer Protection Ratings: Last Updated On 03/19/2019
855-465-3472
800-355-2116
800-375-9006
800-885-5327
800-444-8317
888-319-8166
888-978-3404
800-963-9798
866-764-9135
866-764-9135
How should I assess the best companies?
Here are several main factors to consider when evaluating a precious metals firm:
1. Track Record and Reputation of the Gold Company
Choosing a IRA custodian with an excellent track record and reputation is paramount.
We have three impartial sources we use to gauge how well various gold ira companies stack up against each other: the Better Business Bureau, TrustLink, and the Business Consumer Alliance. The highest ratings possible are A+ for the Better Business Bureau, 5-star ratings TrustLink and AAA for the BCA. Individual customer reviews are also available on each site. Using these impartial sources to guide your judgement is probably a great way to choose among reputable gold IRA companies and ira custodians. Any good vendor should place a premium on customer service and your investment preferences. Don’t let hidden fees lower your returns; make sure any gold IRA company states all its account fees upfront. Standard annual charges in the precious metals industry are $250 for storage and administration fees. It’s also best to avoid percentage based fees, as these could be disastrously high for those with larger investment amounts. A good custodian stores their customers’ physical gold in a licensed and secured depository such as the Delaware Depository, the largest depository in the United States outside of New York. The Delaware Depository is also a licensed depository of the CME Group as well as the ICE Futures US, and backed by a billion dollar all-in insurance coverage policy. (See also the new Texas Gold Depository, currently exclusively available to Noble Gold.) Easy to buy, hard to sell; don’t let it happen to you. Paper returns are worthless unless they are able to be realized. Investors should be assured that they would be able to quickly and easily liquidate their gold holdings at prevailing market prices. What is a good buyback policy? A company that commits to buying back their clients’ metals at the highest spot price of a particular trading day, with no additional fees. We have noticed that a number of gold ira companies either “hide” behind a big corporate wall, or even worse, attempt to obfuscate who the people are behind the company. As in any “relationship” in life, you’ll want to look for someone giving you the right trust signals: For this reason we tend to prefer some of the small outfits that have a more personal relationship with their clients and are willing to use email to maintain relationships with their account holders. It is not surprising then, that in such uncertain times, that more and more people are looking at various methods of both safeguarding and growing their wealth (or income), particularly those who are at or nearing retirement age. Gold is one such investment avenue that has become increasingly popular, and the goal of this site is to provide our readers with the best possible information on the various questions that people have concerning investing in gold. We will be looking at: In order for us to explain what exactly a gold investment company is, we first have to be clear about what exact method of investment we are looking for. Gold investment and gold ira companies can be a generic catch-all term so we have to break it down to specifics prior to answering that question. Before even considering evaluating a gold ira companies, investors have to be sure which method of gold investment they are interested in first when working with their chosen firm. Basically, there are four primary methods that an investor has at his or her disposal to answer the question: why invest in gold? They are: A simple and the most direct method where an investor directly purchases physical gold, mostly in the form of coins and bullion. An investor can either buy directly and store their purchase on their own (a simple safe deposit box will usually suffice), or they can purchase the metals via a self-directed IRA, known as a ‘precious metals IRA’ or ‘Gold IRA’. In the second case, the funds in said IRA (which can be funded via rollovers from other retirement accounts such as TSPs, 401(k)s, or other IRAs) are used to purchase investment metals from a Gold IRA custodian and dealer, and although the investor owns the gold directly, under IRS regulations, the investor cannot physically possess the metal and it would be stored with the custodian. When investing in physical coins and bullions, investors should ensure that the gold they purchase is of high quality, at least 99.5% (24 karats) pure. If investing via a IRA, the gold is ensured to be of high quality as that is mandated under IRS regulations. Hence, in this case a investment company would refer to a Gold IRA custodian. An indirect method as the gold is owned by the ETF and not the investor. The investor instead purchases shares in the fund, and the value of the shares would trade in accordance with the market price of gold. Each share usually corresponds to 1/10 of an ounce of gold. Investors can purchase shares directly from the ETF or via a regular IRA. In this scenario, the investment company would refer to a specific gold ETF; popular ETFs include names such as SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust. An even more indirect method for investing in precious metals, and also a somewhat more complex investment type. ETNs are a type of debt security traded on exchanges which returns are linked to a market index or some other benchmark, in the case of gold ETNs, the benchmark would be the price of gold. It is worth highlighting that unlike gold ETFs, the issuer of the ETNs does not actually own any physical gold and such issuances are reflected as unsecured debt obligations on the issuer’s books. But unlike traditional debt instruments such as bonds, ETNs do not pay out regular interest payments and trade more like stocks. The investment company in this case would then be the issuer of the gold ETN; investors should note that as there is no physical metals involved, investors are directly exposed to the counterparty risk of the issuer. For more information on ETNs in general, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, FINRA, has issued a relevant investor alert. This is the simple method of investing in equity issuances of gold miners. If choosing to utilize this indirect method, investors should ensure they perform the necessary due diligence on each specific mining company, as each would have different profiles such as operating costs, production levels, and future mining projects. Generally speaking, gold miner stocks are more volatile compared to physical precious metals as they represent a leveraged investment. In this method, the investment company would refer to the individual mining company. Now that we’ve broken down what exactly a ‘gold investment company’ can refer to, you may be wondering which method is most appropriate for you. In our view, investing via a Gold IRA is the most beneficial as it allows for direct ownership of physical gold as well as favorable tax treatments. For more, kindly refer to our guide on ‘Gold IRA Investing’. Hence, in the next section of this guide we will be focusing on the criteria for choosing the best companies and custodians. From here on out, we will be referring to Gold IRA custodians when talking about various providers of retirement options, as we believe that IRAs are the ideal choice for your foray into investing. When evaluating gold ira companies, there are 4 main criteria that we look at, namely: In any industry, reputation is key. In the information age of today, peer reviews are one of the best ways to obtain first-hand information on the reliability and trustworthiness of a precious metals dealer. In the case of Gold IRA custodians, we like to check the custodians we are evaluating with three impartial sources: the Better Business Bureau, the Business Consumer Alliance, and TrustLink. When selecting a custodian, we encourage all potential investors to cross-reference their potential companies with the three databases above. The highest rating possible on the Better Business Bureau would be A+ or a 5-star rating for the latter two. If an investment company has managed to achieve the highest rating on all three, that would be a highly positive indicator as to its reputation and track record. Potential account customers can also further scrutinize individual customer reviews on each site for a deeper picture. Hidden fees have the potential to really diminish your net returns on your investment. Hence, it is important to select a company that is upfront on the fees they charge. Looking for gold ira companies that charge in the neighborhood of $250 per year for your account, for both administrative and storage fees, is a good starting point. Especially, be on the watch for gold ira companies charging a percentage, rather than flat fee, which can quickly accumulate beyond an acceptable limit. Whenever there are physical precious metals, there is always danger of theft. Therefore it is paramount that a good IRA custodian stores their customer’s holdings in a licensed and secured depository. A good example of one such depository is the Delaware Depository, the largest depository in the United States outside of New York, which is also a licensed depository of the CME Group as well as the ICE Futures US, backed by a billion dollar all-in insurance coverage policy. Potential customers should always ensure that their Gold IRA custodian only stores investments in depositories with a similar reputation. Many commodities are easy to buy, but hard to sell. To take an example, most agree that diamonds are easily bought, but their resale value is often extremely low compared to their retail value. Of course, in the case of diamonds, this is because of collusion within the industry to keep supply artificially low, and further, diamonds are not a publicly traded commodity. Nevertheless, the fact remains; the ease of liquidating your investment is a major factor to consider before investing in the first place. In the case of precious metals, investors should be confident that they will be able to liquidate their investment at prevailing market prices if they agree to do so. Hence, investors should choose a Gold IRA custodian with a generous buyback policy; an ideal custodian should be committed to buying back any client’s gold at the highest spot price of a particular trading day, with no fees attached. If you are serious about adding a precious metals IRA (gold, silver, platinum) to your portfolio, we invite you to take a look around this site; we have many detailed articles, guides, and resources to help you make an informed choice for your own financial goals and needs.
2. Upfront and Reasonable IRA Fees
3. Precious Metal Storage Safety
4. Generous Buyback Policies on metals
5. Sincere ‘Trust Signals’
Work With Top Gold IRA Companies By Carefully Evaluating Your Gold Broker or IRA Provider
Exactly what is a gold company?
1. Gold Coins and Bullion
2. Gold Exchange Traded Funds (“ETFs”)
3. Gold Exchange Traded Notes (“ETNs”)
4. Gold Miner Stocks
What should I be looking for when evaluating my options?
1. Strong Ratings From Impartial Sources
2. Look For Favorable Fee Policies on Your Account
3. Make Sure Your Preferred Gold Broker Has Ample Storage Safety Options
4. Ask Your Preferred Broker About Ease of Liquidation
More and more investors are investing in gold to protect and safeguard their wealth and lower their overall risk – are you doing the same?
