Gold IRA’s are an important tool for diversifying your retirement portfolio and building a financial future based on more than simply paper investments. When you reach the decision to invest in such a Precious Metals IRA, your first step will be to decide whether to fund it with new money or to roll over a previously existing retirement plan (like a traditional IRA, 401k, or 403b). The next step is to determine what Precious Metals IRA firm you will conduct business with. You should treat this decision seriously, for not every Gold IRA company is the same. Some of them are standouts in the industry while others boast a track record that is more lackluster. There are even some firms in this industry that have been branded as fraudulent by customers.
Besides this, some of these firms are more one-stop shops that will take care of all arrangements in the process. This means that they interact with your chosen IRA custodian and offer storage through another company as well. Other firms may only sell the precious metals and leave the rest of the considerable work to you. Below is our comparison chart of the Top Ten Precious Metals IRA companies to assist you in making the best decision with your money. We have included the most current consumer agency ratings for each of the firms from the respected review boards like the Better Business Bureau, TrustLink, and Business Consumer Alliance (along with others in the in depth reviews). You can see these detailed reviews on each of the ten companies by clicking the “View Full Review” button by each Gold IRA company. You might want to print out this table for handy reference later.
| Our Rank | Company |  |  |  | Total Annual Fees | Full Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | $190-$230 per year flat-rate 1st year free |  |
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| 2 | $250 per year flat-rate | |
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| 3 | $250 per year flat-rate | |
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| 4 | $250 per year flat-rate | |
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| 5 | $200 per year Choice* | |
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| 6 | $360+ per year (scaled) | |
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| 7 | N/A | |
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| 8 | $300 per year flat-rate | |
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| 9 | $225 per year flat-rate | |
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| 10 | $175 + per year (scaled) | |
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There Are Significant Advantages to Maintaining a 5-20% Precious Metals Allocation in your IRA
Owning physical gold as part of your retirement accounts provides you with a number of real advantages. The main arguments for including real, tangible gold in your diversified retirement plan include the following:
- It provides a safe haven investment when there is geopolitical, financial markets, or economic turbulence – There is a good reason why analysts call gold the “crisis commodity.” Investors around the globe quickly turn to the comparative safety it provides as global tensions increase. There is no shortage of those problems today. Central banks and government authorities usually react to these kinds of crises by creating more money out of nothing. Gold may not be simply produced on a printing press. Its supplies are highly limited, which all contributes to its importance in chaotic economic times.
- Gold offers a hedge against a devalued dollar from such money printing – history repeatedly shows that when the dollar declines, this corresponds to an increase in gold’s price. Other assets tend to mimic the dollar’s performance but gold provides a real, proven safe haven should the dollar’s value suffer significantly.
- It hedges both the scourges of inflation and deflation – the track record for gold shows that it performs well both in climates of inflation as well as deflationary periods when it holds up better than you might think.
- Precious metals are a real store of value – the goal for owning gold should not be to become wealthy from the investment. The reason to invest in precious metals is to hold a proven store of value. While the price of bonds and stocks can decline all the way to zero, gold is never valued at zero.
- The supply and demand fundamentals for gold are solid – gold and the precious metals possess a number of commercial applications in many industries including architecture, electronics, medicine, technology, and others. Gold mines and production are limited (and declining). Fewer major gold deposits are unearthed every year now.
- Gold gives you protection as well as diversification for your portfolio – Thanks to gold’s historical tendency to correlate negatively to stocks, the dollar, and bonds, it offers true diversification that other asset classes simply can not. Most investment portfolios are too heavily exposed to stocks today. Successful investors know that you should not put even the majority of your eggs into one (or even two) baskets.
6 Things to Consider When Choosing a Gold IRA Company
Our comparison table above allows you to rapidly compare and contrast the reviews and ratings of the best known Gold IRA dealers in the business. There are six important characteristics to look at before you select one of them. We look at these below.
Consideration #1: Ratings Are Crucial
Consumer board reviews take into consideration the numbers of positive versus negative reviews a Gold IRA company has. Having consistently high ratings from the Better Business Bureau, Trustlink, and the Business Consume alliance are key. It is also useful to consider the experiences that past (and present) clients have had from such websites as Complaint Board, YP, and Yelp. These will speak volumes about the level and quality of service and professionalism these Precious Metals IRA firms provide their customers.
Consideration #2: IRA Storage Options
Thanks to changes in the IRS’ policies, you are now able to store IRA-approved gold, silver, platinum, and palladium bullion coins and bars outside of the U.S. in top storage locations around the world. Some of these include Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, Canada, and Australia. A handful of the Gold IRA dealers make this easier by partnering with a storage company that provides you with international storage choices. Regal Assets even offers direct storage into the DMCC vault in Dubai, among the most secure on earth.
Consideration #3 IRA Fee Structure
We seriously recommend picking out a company with flat annual fees. Other firms will be employing a sliding scale basis of charges that increase along with the size of the account. Medium and larger sized investors (of especially $50,000 and higher) should beware of this in particular. Those who will likely expand their account significantly in the future also need to avoid these sliding scale fees. There are firms that assess even thousands of dollars in fees each year if the account is large.
Consideration #4: Does the Company Allow for Other Kinds of Alternative Investments?
One of the strong selling points of having a Gold IRA account is that it allows for more than only precious metals to be included inside. It is able to facilitate other alternative investments because of its status as a Self Directed IRA. The key is to understand if the firm you will work with also allows for the flexibility of alternative investment products (like digital assets) and other possibly interesting investment ideas. Asking this question upfront can save you frustration and the hassle of changing Gold IRA companies years later.
Consideration #5: Account Setup & Product Delivery Time Frames
There are cases where clients have complained about delays of even 60 days to have their new accounts opened and the precious metals inventoried in storage (or delivered). In the fast moving financial world we live in now, this is not an acceptable amount of time. Several of the Gold IRA companies we reviewed can open your new account in one to two business days and be ready to ship your product to storage within several days.
Consideration #6: Deceptive or Unhelpful Customer Interaction
The sad truth is that there are precious metals companies out there whose staff will encourage you to buy numismatic or collectible coins so that they can earn larger profits. If you come across a company with policies like these, we strongly advise you to avoid such firms and this deceptive form of doing business. Collectible coins are not suitable for many investors and include high mark ups over spot metals pricing. These coins would likely not be allowed in your Precious Metals IRA in the end. You should not be afraid to press the representatives of a Gold IRA company to see if they have your best interest at heart. When someone is pushing you to make a fast decision or to forget bullion coins altogether for “more lucrative” collectibles, we highly recommend that you go to another outfit.
Gold IRA Custodians Are An Important Part of the Package
Gold IRA custodians are another important consideration when you choose a Gold IRA company. This is especially true since a large part of the Gold IRA companies’ fees are dependent on how and what the custodians charge to manage your account. A great number of investors do not pay enough attention to the fees and other costs that come with these custodians. Besides the price of buying the bullion, the majority of the cost in Gold IRA investing will come from the custodian who has the role of storing your metals in a depository that is IRA approved.
These IRA custodians are partnered with the Gold IRA companies that handle the whole transaction. Sometimes the Gold IRA firm will cover the setup fees (or even a first year’s storage) that the custodian charges, as Regal Assets does for clients when it waives these charges for the custodian it partners with. Each of these custodians will assess its own storage, setup, and administration fees. We always recommend flat annual fee arrangements that do not increase as your account value grows. Other custodians still charge the sliding scale fees which can cost you significantly more as your account expands.
This is why you need to investigate these partnering custodian firms carefully. Besides what they charge, you want to know all about their long term storage options and whether or not they allow for offshore storage. Many different options exist when you are picking out these custodian and Gold IRA companies, yet not all of them are the most advantageous or recommended. Since you are contemplating putting as much as from 5 percent to 20 percent of your retirement assets into precious metals holdings, you want to consider all aspects of the costs and arrangements.
The Reasons Behind Our Recommendation of Regal Assets for Gold IRA Rollovers & Bullion Purchases in 2019
The comparison table above reveals that Regal Assets is the number one ranked firm in the Gold IRA Companies industry. There are a few good reasons for this. Regal Assets is unique in having top ratings from all three of the major consumer board companies and so many positive reviews. This includes an A+ rank from the Better Business Bureau, over 500 five star individual ratings provided by TrustLink, and the AAA rating from Business Consumer Alliance. Regal also enjoys its number twenty position in the financial industries ranking from Inc. 500. This tells you everything you need to know about their commitment to all around customer satisfaction, expertise, fairness, and professional treatment of clients. You can learn more about Regal Assets by calling them at 1-877-205-1104.
Wesley Crowder
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