Best Gold IRA Companies

Many of the gold IRA companies require consultations before you know all of the costs. It is a good idea to find out which storage facilities each company uses in addition to prices and customer service for each.

Noble Gold Investments was established in 2016, and its founders have over 20 years of combined experience in buying gold and silver. It specializes in IRA-approved metals, such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium. New investors can receive a free investment kit to better understand how Noble Gold works and which precious metals are best for their retirement portfolios.

Getting started with Noble Gold is simple; it takes about five minutes to fill out your application. Within 24 hours, a Noble Gold advisor will contact your new custodian to get your account set up. At this point, you will know if there is any special additional paperwork you need to submit.

All IRA-approved metal investments are stored in a secure, IRS-approved vault in a segregated storage system. Storage locations are in Texas, Delaware and Mississauga, Ontario. You can view your investments online 24/7, 365 days a year. Additionally, you can schedule to see them in person.

The first-year IRA opening fee is $50, and there’s also an initial wire transaction fee of $30. Annual account maintenance costs $100, and the annual storage fee is $150. So, combined annual fees for a precious metals IRA with Noble Gold are $330 in the first year and $250 per year after that.

Gold and other precious metals are also sold directly to investors using a flat fee structure, but actual prices are not posted online. Investors can choose between coins and bars. The company offers a buyback program for investors who want to liquidate their precious metals in the future.

Goldco, a popular pick in the precious metals industry, allows investors to roll over their 401(k), 403(b), 457 plan and pensions worth at least $25,000 to a precious metals IRA. Goldco has made over $1 billion in precious metals placements within the past decade.

Goldco works with all major self-directed IRA custodians. All metals owned by your IRA are stored securely in a depository until you are eligible to take distributions at age 59 ½. At that time, you will be able to choose your distributions as cash or in the form of precious metals.

A one-time startup fee of $80 is charged for new self-directed IRAs, and the annual IRA storage fee is $200. Goldco does not charge an additional wire transfer fee or annual maintenance fee.

Since Goldco is a full-service precious metals firm, you can also buy gold and silver to keep in your home, though no prices are listed, and these investments will not be part of your IRA. It also offers a buyback program that is guaranteed to give you the highest offer for your precious metals.

You can sign up for a free investment kit if you’d like to learn more about investing in precious metals.

With Patriot Gold Group, you can work directly with one of the company’s owners to open or roll over a precious metals IRA. With a minimum investment of $25,000, most IRA account holders will pay no annual fees in the first year, and then $200 per year in combined storage, insurance and administration fees after that. Plus, you will be able to set up your account within 24 hours.

As an investor, you can choose between a precious metals IRA or non-IRA gold, silver, platinum and palladium investments. Shipments of non-IRA precious metals are free, and free storage is provided to investors who purchase around $100,000 or more in precious metals.

Gold and silver prices are not posted directly on the site, and you will need to request a quote on the pieces you want to invest in. This part of the website seems clunky and hard to navigate. Customer service is available through phone, email or online chat.

Established in 2012, Augusta Precious Metals helps investors diversify their portfolios with gold and silver investments. Investors must purchase at least $50,000 in either non-IRA purchases or IRA purchases. There is no maximum purchase limit.

All purchases must be made over the phone, and both bullion and premium prices are locked in once your order is confirmed via phone and payment is received. For IRA investments, your precious metals will be delivered with free shipping and insurance to one of 11 storage facilities within the U.S. You can choose the facility location and even visit it if you make arrangements with the custodian. All precious metals are insured against covered losses.

Custodians charge $250 for the first year to administer your gold or silver IRA and $200 for each year after that. Your annual fee does not change no matter how large your investment account becomes. Additionally, fees may apply for Augusta to serve as a liaison between you and the IRA storage facility.

Augusta offers buybacks, though it will not guarantee buybacks.

Orion Metal Exchange, started in 2017, has co-founders with over 40 years of combined experience in the precious metals industry. Orion Metal Exchange is a full-range gold dealer offering precious metal IRAs and non-IRA investments for personal purchases. Nonretirement purchases can be stored in an insured storage vault or delivered with insured home delivery.

Orion Metal Exchange offers a full-service, in-house IRA department for the life of the account. Every IRA commercial depository and third-party storage facility is insured by Lloyd’s of London for the value of the precious metal holdings. A precious metals IRA is subject to a one-time setup fee of $50. Annual storage and insurance fees range from $170 to $270, depending on the type of storage facility chosen (though higher fees are charged for investment values of $500,000 or more).

Customers can choose from several coin options online. You must make a minimum purchase of $10,000, and shipping is a flat-rate cost of $39. Investing a minimum of $30,000 will help you take advantage of all the promotions the company offers. For IRA-approved coins and precious metals, you will need to call customer service and lock in a rate. Investors can add gold, silver, platinum and palladium IRA-approved metals to their IRA.

When you are ready to sell or liquidate your precious metals, Orion Metal Exchange can help with that, too. It offers fee-free buybacks for its customers. To do this, customers need to do a 30-second phone call with the company for a guaranteed buyback price.

Advantage Gold is based in Los Angeles and offers IRS-approved gold, silver, platinum and palladium for self-directed retirement accounts. Investors can see which coins Advantage Gold has to offer online, but all purchasing has to happen over the phone or in person.

It works directly with STRATA Trust Company and Equity Trust as its IRA custodians. STRATA charges $95 annually for precious metals IRAs, either $100 or $150 annually for storage (depending on the type of storage you choose), and a $50 account setup fee. Equity Trust charges $50 for an account setup fee and $80 annually for account management. Investors can choose nonsegregated storage for $100 per year or segregated storage for $150 per year.

You must keep your self-directed gold IRA stored in an IRS-approved third-party depository. Advantage Gold uses Brink’s Global Services, which is located in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, and Delaware Depository in Wilmington, Delaware.

Advantage Gold customers have the option of a simple buyback process. At any time you wish to sell back metals bought from Advantage Gold, it will pay the fair market value for them. All it takes is a quick form via fax or email, and the process should be complete within 24 hours.

Red Rock Secured is a private precious metals company based in Southern California. Red Rock does not list purchase prices for precious metals on its site, but it does offer a competitive fee structure for its gold IRA: First-year annual fees are waived for all accounts (including storage fees). Those who invest $50,000 to $99,999 are given three years of no annual fees, and a flat annual fee of $200 is charged after one to three years elapse. Red Rock Secured estimates nearly 90% of its clients qualify to pay zero fees for life. Investors can purchase IRS-approved gold, silver, platinum and palladium.

Red Rock Secured currently works with Equity Trust as the custodian for its gold IRA.

Customers can receive a free one-on-one consultation before opening up a gold IRA. There is not much information listed on the website about the rollover process, account minimums, fees or how to purchase precious metals.

A gold IRA is a self-directed individual retirement account that holds gold (or other approved metals) instead of paper assets. This means you can use a gold IRA to purchase actual, physical gold. However, you don’t hold the gold yourself — it’s stored in a secure depository. (If you want to buy gold directly and hold it yourself, you can buy it from a gold dealer.)

Even though your gold is stored securely, there are some risks. While gold has historically held its value during inflation, it can be volatile in the short term and hard to sell at times.

How does a gold IRA work?

A gold or silver IRA functions much like other individual retirement accounts, but your investments are in gold and other precious metals, including silver, platinum and palladium.

Most people start a gold IRA by rolling over from an existing IRA or 401(k). Most gold IRA companies have a required initial minimum investment. This can be as high as $50,000, but it really varies by company. Your gold IRA company or gold dealer can then help you purchase the metals for your IRA. Once you open the account and purchase your precious metals, the physical metals are stored in a secure storage facility called a “depository.”

You can expect different commissions and fees for account setup, storage and account maintenance. Your IRA custodian, or trustee, manages the account and will be your main point of contact.

When you want to access your investments, contact your custodian or trustee and fill out the necessary forms. You can then sell your precious metals or take possession of the physical gold, silver, platinum or palladium. You may have to pay penalties if you withdraw funds before the age of 59½ or if you haven’t had the account for a certain amount of time.

If you want to invest in gold as part of your retirement plan, here are tips for navigating the world of gold IRAs.

Investing in a gold IRA has many of the same risks and benefits as any retirement account. That means you get some significant tax benefits, but your money is mostly locked away until you’re of retirement age. Still, there are some unique pros and cons to a gold IRA.

Perhaps the most significant benefit of a gold IRA is it allows you to diversify your retirement portfolio into a different kind of investment. Gold IRA companies like to emphasize the stable value of gold relative to paper assets in times of economic uncertainty.

However, gold and silver prices have their own potential for volatility, and they don’t pay dividends or produce steady income. Precious metals IRAs also tend to have higher fees and storage costs compared with traditional or Roth IRAs.

The ConsumerAffairs research team started with a list of 18 gold IRA companies. To narrow this list down, we first eliminated companies with an overall satisfaction rating below 3.5 stars, leaving 12.

We then required our top picks to have at least twice as many 5-star reviews as 1-star reviews on our site over the last year (September 15, 2020, through September 15, 2021). In total, we analyzed more than 800 verified reviews.

To make the final selections, we scored companies based on the difference between their 5-star and 1-star reviews factored by the ratio of 5-star reviews to all other star ratings.

Our recommendations are based on recurring themes in the positive reviews or standout features identified by our editorial team. For example, our pick for IRS rollovers has a relatively high density of the words “rollover” and “transfer” in recent 5-star reviews. Our pick for “low minimum investment” has the lowest minimum investment requirement of all our picks.