Gold IRA company reviews

All of the Gold IRA companies claim to be the best. 

To support their claims, they cite glowing customer reviews and the business awards they have received from companies that you have never heard of.

Since they are all claiming to be better than their competitors, how do you sort through their claims and identify the actual best Gold IRA companies of 2022?

As a starting point, you need to understand three important facts:

Because of these three factors, it is critical that you keep the age-old adage, “Caveat Emptor”, in mind as you search for the best Precious metals IRA companies.

Now in full disclosure, Gold Well Live (this website) is also an affiliate marketer. We will receive compensation if you establish a Gold IRA with a company that we refer you to.

There are two things that set Gold Well Live apart from other affiliate marketers:

With that said, let’s talk briefly about Gold IRAs and how they came about.

What is a Gold IRA

A Gold IRA is a self-directed IRA (Individual Retirement Account) that allows investors to hold physical Precious metals (Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Palladium) using their tax-advantaged retirement savings. These IRAs can hold any of the approved metals, or a mix of the metals. The names “Gold IRA”, “Silver IRA”, and “Precious metal IRA” are used interchangeably but they all refer to the same thing.

There are two pieces of tax legislation that set the foundation for Precious metal IRAs. First, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974 and, second, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.

Now that we know how self-directed Precious metal IRAs were created, let’s talk about the different roles within the industry.

Although Gold IRA companies are unregulated, all of the other roles have to register with the SEC or other regulatory agencies.

Most of the Gold IRA companies have established relationships with Broker-Dealers, Custodians, and Depositories. They will recommend that you use their preferred companies but they will work with any company that you specify.

Gold IRA vs physical Gold

When an investor compares a Gold IRA vs physical Gold they are really comparing physical Gold purchased inside a Retirement account against physical Gold purchased with after-tax, non-tax-advantaged money. In both cases the investor is purchasing physical Gold, the only difference is who holds the Gold and how the Gold is treated by the IRS.

The primary drawback to a Gold IRA is the IRS requirement that a third-party Custodian holds the physical metal. Ideally, we want to take personal possession of the metals we invest in and store them in a secure location that is easily accessible.

Unfortunately, if we want to purchase Precious metals using tax-advantaged funds we have to store the metal with a Custodian.

Gold IRA fees

There are fees involved with any IRA whether the account is holding traditional Investments (Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual funds) or physical Precious metals. Investment management companies typically charge an annual fee which covers both maintenance of the IRA and the services of the Custodian.

Because a Gold IRA involves physical Precious metals, there is an additional fee to cover secure storage and insurance of the metal. This fee is paid to the Depository where the metal is stored and $100 to $200 per year is typical.

Let’s compare the fees in a $50,000 IRA account holding securities (Stocks, Bonds, and Mutual funds) against the same size account holding physical Precious metals.

As you can see, the annual fees on a Gold IRA are likely to be higher than a traditional IRA but keep in mind that this comparison uses a $100 per year fee for holding Mutual funds. Most Mutual funds charge more than 0.2%.

The higher fees for a Gold IRA are a tradeoff you will have to accept if you want to secure your retirement savings with physical Precious metals. When you are shopping for the best Gold IRA company you can use the fees they charge as a comparison factor.

~ Hidden fee in a Gold IRA ~

There is a hidden fee in Gold IRAs that can cause far more damage to your overall Investment results than the annual fees we just covered. That hidden fee is the premium that you pay to purchase the Precious metal products in your IRA account.

When you see a quote for the price of Gold, that price is for a 400-ounce bar. Silver price quotes are based on a 1,000-ounce bar. These quoted prices are referred to as “spot prices”.

The most common Precious metals products that investors purchase are one-ounce bars and Coins and these products carry a premium over the spot price. The premium covers the cost of turning the large bars into one-ounce bars and Coins. On the low end, premiums are 3 to 6%, but premiums run as high as 80% on special edition proof Coins.

Now understand that we have to pay these premiums whether we are buying Precious metals to bury in our garden or to hold inside our Gold IRA. Every investor pays a premium unless they are willing to purchase 400-ounce bars of Gold and 1000-ounce bars of Silver.

The objective, however, is to minimize the premium that we pay for our Investments. Another way of stating this is that we want to get the most ounces of metal possible for the least amount of money. Paying a 38% premium for a fancy Gold Coin doesn’t make sense when we are trying to maximize the return on our Investment.

Top Gold Investment companies

There are two ways we can gain exposure to the price of Gold:

Between these two options, the first one is the best way to gain exposure to the price of Gold. There is a great deal of volatility in mining stocks which makes them inappropriate for most investors.

The most common Gold Trusts and ETFs are the Sprott Physical Gold Trust (NYSE: PHYS) and the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD).

Best Gold IRA company

There are a number of factors to consider when selecting the best Gold IRA company to work with. Because there are so many to choose from, it makes sense to start your research with the process of elimination and cross a bunch of the candidate companies off the list.

There are two criteria that you can start with:

The BBB is the oldest and most highly regarded business rating agency in the world. They have been evaluating the trustworthiness of companies since their beginning in 1912. If a Gold IRA company doesn’t have an A+ rating with the BBB, cross them off the list – there are better companies to work with.

In order to maintain an A+ rating with BBB a company has to publicly respond to customer complaints. The company’s response to this negative feedback provides us with insight into how the company operates on a day-to-day basis. After you read enough negative reviews you may notice two common complaints:

The second complaint, high pressure sales tactics, is more challenging to avoid. Good salespeople are effective at moving individuals to make a purchase decision and most people have a hard time saying “No”. If you notice that the company has received a lot of complaints about high pressure sales tactics, cross them off the list.

~ Focus on education ~

Most people have limited knowledge about how to invest in Precious metals so the best Gold IRA companies emphasize education as part of their business model. They provide educational resources on their website and have knowledgeable representatives on staff who are willing to spend time with prospective customers and answer their questions.

If you visit the websites of a few Gold IRA companies you will notice the ones that are serious about education. They will provide Gold IRA guides and a library of videos for you to watch as you learn about Precious metals.

Shown below are a few Gold IRA companies that meet the criteria we have covered in this article. In particular, these companies recognize the importance of educating consumers about how to invest in the Precious metals.

You can use the companies above as the starting point for your Gold IRA research. These companies have IRA specialists available to answer your questions. If you have questions you would like to ask Gold Well Live, use the contact form and we'll respond within 48 hours.