Augusta Precious Metals is a premier gold IRA company founded by Joe Montana, a hall of fame quarterback, and his team of financial advisors. This company has received thousands of five-star rankings since 2012 and has won several awards for its IRA services.
Augusta Precious Metals offers gold IRAs and cash purchases. Like the other companies on our list, Augusta Precious Metals requires you to have a qualifying IRA and roll over your funds to your new gold or silver IRA.
First, you'll have the opportunity to talk to a live agent who can guide you in your gold or silver purchase. Your agent can also give you helpful economic guidance to educate you about precious metals IRAs.
Next, you can create your new IRA with the help of your live agent. You'll need to have at least $50,000 available to invest in order to qualify for an Augusta Precious Metals IRA account.
Once you've created your account, you'll need to fund it with money from your existing retirement account. Then, you can buy gold or silver by submitting an order from Augusta's order desk.
Augusta also allows you to buy physical gold and silver outside of an IRIf you choose to go this route, you can still receive guidance from the company's gold and silver professionals, free and secure delivery, and complete control over your precious metal assets. You'll simply need to follow these steps to buy gold or silver directly:
Augusta sells a range of gold and silver bullion and coins that you can purchase directly or use to fund your IRThese gold and silver products include:
Ira Approved GoldAugusta works with trustworthy custodians such as Equity Trust, Gold Star Trust Company, and Kingdom Trust who can administer your new IRAdditionally, Augusta can serve as your liaison with your custodian, giving you access to the custodian at any time.
The Augusta Precious Metals website also includes a video resource library filled with helpful videos from Delvyn Steele, a Harvard-trained economist. If you're looking for insight into what's going on in the economy, these videos are an excellent resource to review.
Overall, we recommend Augusta Precious Metals for anyone looking to open a precious metal IRA with a reputable company.
Noble gold sells gold, silver, palladium, and platinum coins along with valuable rare coins. You can purchase these precious metals through an IRA or buy them directly through the Noble Gold website.
This company follows a simple process to help facilitate gold IRAs for its customers. You can get started with Noble Gold by filling out an online IRA setup form. This form only takes about five minutes to complete. If you aren't sure of all the answers, the company can call you to guide you through the process of finding the necessary information.
Next, the Noble Gold IRA team will call your new custodian to set up your account and acquire any additional paperwork you may need to complete. The company will also email you your new self-directed IRA account number.
Gold Ira ScamWith Noble Gold, you can either transfer assets directly from an existing custodian to your new IRA or roll over funds into your new account. You shouldn't face any tax penalties when transferring funds from one custodian to another.
Once you fund your account and purchase your precious metals, you can check their status at any time through Noble Gold's custodian, Equity Institutional. This custodian offers online access to your account 24/7/365.
If you'd rather buy precious metals directly, you can take advantage of Noble Gold's Royal Survival Packs. These packs include hand-picked selections of precious metals with high levels of liquidity and recognizability. Purchasing these packs is especially helpful if you're unsure which metals to buy.
Noble Gold offers several features that set it apart as one of the best gold IRA companies. First, this provider offers some of the best gold prices on the market and provides fast, secure shipping. Noble Gold has also received hundreds of five-star reviews from satisfied customers, allowing you to feel confident in its practices.
Even better, Noble Gold offers a buyback program to every client. If your retirement goals or savings change over time, you can rest assured that the company will buy back any gold or other precious metals that you previously purchased.
Overall, Noble Gold is an impressive gold IRA company that goes above and beyond to help its clients purchase profitable investments.
Gold Ira Retirement PlanYou've probably heard of 401(k) and traditional IRA accounts. These retirement accounts allow you to invest in index funds, stocks, and other paper investments to fund your retirement account. However, most traditional retirement investment accounts do not allow you to invest in gold.
That's where gold individual retirement accounts (IRAs) come in.
Gold IRAs are specialized individual retirement accounts that hold precious metals, such as gold, silver, platinum, or palladium. Like traditional IRAs, these accounts typically allow for pre-tax contributions and have similar income and contribution limits.
However, unlike traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, which hold paper assets, gold IRAs contain physical precious metals. When you purchase precious metals through a gold IRA, you must store them outside your home, with a custodian, and in a secure depository.
A reputable gold IRA company, such as one from our list, can help you facilitate your gold purchase and walk you through the steps of opening your new gold IRA account. These companies know the ins and outs of IRS rules for retirement accounts, giving you the guidance you need to maintain a profitable portfolio. Many gold IRA companies also partner with custodians.
Investing in gold IRA accounts can provide numerous benefits for your retirement goals. Gold often provides more stable growth than paper assets, allowing you to diversify your portfolio while minimizing volatility.
Home Gold IraAdditionally, gold IRAs come with unique tax benefits. Your contributions and gains are not taxable, and in many cases, your contributions may also be tax-deductible.
All in all, investing in a gold IRA is a wise option to consider if you're looking to stabilize and diversify your portfolio. You can also consider a gold IRA rollover, in which you transfer funds from your existing IRA to a gold IRWe'll discuss this concept more below.
How we ranked the top gold investment companies
If you're looking to open a gold IRA or other precious metals IRAs, it's essential to use a reputable, trustworthy company to facilitate the process. Gold IRA investments can be expensive and choosing a questionable provider may be a costly mistake.
When we chose the five best gold IRA companies to add to our list, we searched for a range of factors that indicate that a company is reliable, knowledgeable, and reputable. Specifically, we examined the following factors while creating our list.
Companies typically develop positive or negative reputations for a reason. When searching for a gold investment company to facilitate your IRA, choosing one with a positive industry reputation can ensure that you have a positive experience overall.
One way to evaluate a company's reputation is to look the company up through the Better Business Bureau. The Better Business Bureau is an organization that allows consumers to write reviews and, often, complaints of businesses online. The Better Business Bureau also rates organizations on a scale from A+ to F, with A+ being the best rating.
When we chose the five best gold IRA companies to add to our list, we examined each company's Better Business Bureau reviews and ratings. The companies that made our list all have B or higher BBB ratings and tend to have more positive gold IRA reviews than negative ones.
One way to evaluate a company's reputation is to look the company up through the Better Business Bureau. The Better Business Bureau is an organization that allows consumers to write reviews and, often, complaints of businesses online. The Better Business Bureau also rates organizations on a scale from A+ to F, with A+ being the best rating.
Reliable precious metal IRA companies do everything they can to gain new clients, including making the setup process as easy and stress-free as possible. These companies allow new clients to set up gold IRAs within a few days or less and offer qualified assistance from investment professionals.
The gold IRA companies that made our list feature easy setup processes. These companies also allow you to talk with a specialist directly throughout your account-opening process, ensuring that you can quickly receive the guidance you need.
Gold Ira Buyers GuideMost gold IRA companies charge fees for their services. These fees cover the costs involved in opening your account, maintaining your account over time, and securely holding your precious metals.
If you come across an IRA company that offers its services for free, you may not be able to trust that it will put the necessary expertise and time into facilitating a reliable gold IRAdditionally, companies offering free services often do not provide the additional assistance and knowledge you would receive from a higher quality company.
On the other end of the spectrum, companies that charge outrageously high fees may not be trustworthy either. These companies may be more focused on maximizing profits than providing quality services for customers.
When we chose the gold IRA companies to add to this list, we focused on organizations that charge reasonable fees for their services.
Gold Bullion IraOne of the reasons many people choose to open gold IRAs is to diversify their investment portfolios. As a result, it makes sense to work with a gold IRA company that offers a diverse selection of gold, silver, and other precious metal products.
Some of the companies on our list only offer silver and gold coins but provide an extensive selection of each coin type. Other companies allow you to invest in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium in coins or bars. Additionally, one of the companies on our list—Regal Assets—also allows you to invest in cryptocurrencies.
You can feel confident that all the companies that made our list offer a varied selection of precious metal products.
If you're unsure what type of precious metal to purchase within an IRA or feel hesitant about the process, you may want to work with a company that offers potential buybacks. These companies allow clients to sell their precious metals back to the companies without incurring additional fees.
The best gold IRA companies offer buybacks and make the buyback process as hassle-free as possible. These companies may even offer to ship your precious metals back to their facilities for free if you purchased them directly.
Several of the companies on our list offer easy and reliable buybacks, giving you a cushion to fall back on if you decide to sell your precious metals back to them.
Finding a broker or custodian for your gold-based IRA
When you purchase precious metal IRAs, you'll be in charge of storing the precious metals. However, the IRS does not allow gold IRA holders to keep their precious metals in their homes. Instead, your best option is to store your assets with a gold IRA custodian.
Why We Chose It: Noble Gold Investments, founded in 2016, includes an accessible blog along with a comprehensive catalog of coins and bars investors can buy.
Real-time account information is available through the gold IRA custodian. Customers pay two annual fees: An $80 account fee and a $150 fee for insurance and segregated storage, in which customers’ holdings are stored individually rather than pooled together.
In addition to Delaware Depository and Brinks, two well-known precious metals depositories, Noble Gold also has its own depository in the state of Texas, giving customers an additional choice for storing their precious metals.
Why We Chose It: Advantage Gold, founded in 2014, has top-notch reviews, including nearly 1,200 reviews on TrustPilot alone. Nearly all — 98% of them — are five-star.
The company sells gold, silver, platinum and palladium. It uses STRATA Trust Company and Equity Trust Company as gold IRA account custodians, and Brinks Depository and Delaware Depository vaults.
Gold IRAs function much like traditional retirement accounts, but your investment is backed with gold and other precious metals, including silver, platinum and palladium. Click below to get started.
American Hartford Gold is not on our main list because it has a larger spread between how much it pays to buy metal and how much it charges customers for that same metal than some other companies we examined.
Top 10 Gold Ira CompaniesRed Rock Secured is not on our main list because its website doesn’t have enough information about costs and fees to make a comprehensive evaluation.
Goldco is not on our main list because its time estimate to complete a rollover is up to two weeks, a longer period than some other companies take. There is a dearth of information about costs and fees on its website.
Lexi Capital is not on our main list because its site says the company does not keep “regular” phone hours but requires exchanges or returns to be approved by phone within three days.
Patriot Gold Group is not on our main list because it employs scare tactics to sell precious metals. It has very few customer reviews on TrustPilot or the BBB.
A gold IRA is a niche investment product. This specialized IRA can help diversify a portfolio because precious metals, including gold, are often considered an investment to beat inflation. But make sure to do your due diligence when researching whether a precious metals IRA account makes sense for part of your retirement funds.
Many of these companies allow investors to buy precious metals that include silver, platinum and palladium in their IRAs in addition to gold. A gold IRA is distinctive because the account holder owns the actual precious metals, as opposed to stocks or shares of funds in mining companies.
Convert Roth Ira To GoldLike a traditional IRA where you might hold stocks, bonds or mutual funds, a gold IRA is a tax-preferred investment vehicle — and the only option for holding precious metals in an IRYou might also come across the term “precious metals IRA” used instead of gold IRAlthough the former is technically accurate, the phrase “gold IRA” is the one that tends to stick in the public imagination.
Gold IRAs are classified by the Internal Revenue Service as self-directed IRAs. According to IRS regulations, self-directed IRAs can hold alternative investments such as precious metals. (In their tax treatment, a gold IRA is different from a Roth IRA, which is an after-tax savings vehicle. See Money's picks for best Roth IRA accounts.)
The process of setting up a gold IRA involves several parties. First, you open up the account and buy precious metals from a company like the ones highlighted here. If you elect to fund the account with assets currently in another IRA, the gold IRA company will help you manage the rollover (more on that process below).
The gold IRA company also coordinates the involvement of the financial firm tasked with being the account custodian, as well as the depository institution where the precious metals you purchase are held. (You are not allowed, per IRS rules, to keep IRA gold at home.)
Gold IRA companies differ in that some let you choose between multiple custodial firms and depositories, while others require you to use a custodian and depository of their choosing.
A number of different kinds of retirement accounts can be used to fund a gold IRA via a rollover. You can roll over money held in a 401(k), 403(b), 457, pension or Thrift Savings Plan account without triggering a tax liability or penalties.
How Can I Buy Gold With My Tradtional IraA gold IRA is a product best suited for sophisticated investors. If you have questions, consult with a financial advisor who is a fiduciary to decide whether gold makes sense in the context of your existing retirement investment portfolio. Gold IRA companies are not investment companies that have a fiduciary duty to act in your best interest. Their sales representatives should not be relied on for financial advice.
If you rollover a 401(k) to a gold IRA — as in, sell the entire balance of a conventional account containing stocks, bonds and/or mutual funds in order to invest in gold — you’re making a very big change to your investment profile. Doing so should be extensively researched beforehand. If you're unsure, take some time to learn the difference between an IRA vs. 401(k).
A conventional retirement account gives you the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of assets. This confers some important benefits, allowing you to:
Some gold IRA companies refer to their offerings as "diverse" because you can hold more than one kind of precious metal in it. From an investing perspective, this is not diverse, because precious metals — even different ones — are part of the same asset class. Gold also does not generate income, unlike dividend-earning assets.
Be sure to factor in the costs of cashing out as well: When you reach the age of 72 and must begin taking RMDs from your retirement accounts, you need to have your gold coins and gold bullion sent to you. That entails paying for shipping and insurance, or liquidating some of your gold.
Most gold IRA companies will buy back gold they sold you initially, but buybacks are generally at the wholesale price, which often is around 30% lower than the prevailing retail price.
Buy Gold Within Your Ira And Store It At HomeBefore opening a gold IRA, consider the context of your broader wealth-management strategy, and set realistic expectations about how much you anticipate your investments growing, and how long you should plan to hold those assets.
If you’ve decided a gold IRA is right for you, you can contact your retirement plan administrator to initiate the rollover or have the gold IRA company perform a direct rollover between the two companies. This kind of institution-to-institution transfer is recommended because you never take control of the funds yourself, which spares you the risk of a potential tax penalty.
If you do choose to handle that distribution yourself, the IRS has strict rules you have to follow: You have a 60-day window from the date you receive the funds to roll that money over into another qualified retirement account, or the IRS will treat that distribution as a withdrawal and charge you taxes plus an early withdrawal penalty if you are younger than 59 ½ years old.
You can roll over just part of the balance of another retirement account to fund a gold IRA — although keep in mind that some gold IRA companies have minimum order sizes of $50,000, which might limit your ability to retain enough funds in your old account to maintain a portfolio allocation that will sustain you in retirement.
The precious metals in a gold IRA are generally coins and bars, some of which carry higher mark-ups than others. You can choose a mix of gold and silver, and some gold IRA companies also have platinum and palladium available that you can buy and hold in your IRWhen you must begin taking required minimum distributions, you can choose to liquidate the gold or have it shipped to you. In most cases, you will pay for shipping, so make sure to factor in that expense.
Most gold IRA companies will buy back gold or other precious metals they sold you, but buybacks are generally conducted at the wholesale price, which is about a third cheaper than the retail price.
Unlike a gold ETF, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of gold, a gold IRA lets you hold the physical precious metals in an IRS-approved depository institution. If you want more flexibility with your precious metals, you might want to learn how to buy gold outside an IRIf you don't want the complications of investing in physical gold, you can research how to buy a gold ETF.
Gold IRA expenses are generally higher than the expenses associated with conventional retirement accounts like 401(k)s. If you have a gold IRA, you will incur costs to manage and maintain the account, as well as to store and insure your gold. Precious metals prices can also be volatile over time.
Unlike a gold ETF, an exchange-traded fund that tracks the performance of gold, a gold IRA lets you hold the physical precious metals in an IRS-approved depository institution. If you want more flexibility with your precious metals, you might want to learn how to buy gold outside an IRIf you don't want the complications of investing in physical gold, you can research how to buy a gold ETF.
There are a number of types and forms of precious metals the IRS has approved as IRA-eligible. Certain coins and bars manufactured by the U.S. Mint, the corresponding agency of certain other countries, or designated private minting companies, can be held in a gold IRA.
The IRS has extremely detailed regulations that dictate which coins and bars can be held in a gold IRThe aim of these precise requirements on size, weight, design and metal purity is to ensure that retirement savers are keeping investment-grade assets, rather than collectibles, in their accounts.
How To Buy Gold Coins For An IraWe evaluated gold IRA companies’ websites, along with consumer advocacy organizations the Better Business Bureau and Business Consumer Alliance, as well as consumer-review sites such as TrustPilot. We considered each of the gold IRA companies’ reputation, transparency and the quality of online education and resources they provide.
In addition, we compared the companies' respective fee structures and minimum balances, when available, as well as how easy it was to find this information from their websites. We also analyzed the user-friendliness and responsiveness of their customer service.
We regularly update our list of best gold IRA companies to ensure that our highlighted picks continue to meet these requirements.
gold IRA is a specific type of individual retirement account called a self-directed IRIt is similar to a traditional IRA that might hold stocks, bonds or mutual funds. A self-directed IRA confers the same tax benefits as a traditional IRA but allows you to hold precious metals and other alternative assets in compliance with IRS regulations.
Thrift Savings Plan Gold IraLearn everything you need to know about what is a gold IRA in this guide, including how to open one, how to fund it and why you might want to invest some of your nest egg in precious metals using this method.
Surprisingly, a gold IRA doesn’t have to just hold gold — in fact, you don’t need to hold any gold at all in one. Given that you can also hold silver coins or bullion, platinum and palladium in a gold IRA, a more correct term is technically “precious metals IRA.”
But the phrase “gold IRA” is more commonly used as a kind of shorthand to refer to this kind of self-directed IRAs with a traditional IRA, your gold investments are purchased with pre-tax dollars. The alternative to the tax deferral a traditional or self-directed IRA affords is a Roth IRA, which is funded with money on which you have already paid taxes. For more detail, check out Money's best Roth IRA accounts guide.
The IRS rules that govern gold IRAs are extremely detailed. Your IRA gold coins and bars need to conform to regulations on size, weight, design and metal purity.
By putting strict parameters around what defines IRA gold, the IRS can ensure that people are holding investment-grade assets in their self-directed gold IRA, as opposed to collectibles, which are not eligible for any kind of preferred tax treatment.
A traditional gold IRA is the most common type of gold IRA (and the kind discussed throughout this guide unless otherwise specified). It is funded with pre-tax dollars, and you pay income tax on withdrawals in retirement.
A Roth gold IRA is funded with after-tax dollars. The money grows tax-free and you do not pay taxes when you take distributions in retirement.
A SEP gold IRA is a type of IRA intended for people who are self-employed or small business owners. It is also funded with pre-tax dollars, but the contribution limits are different and business owners can contribute on behalf of their employees.
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