Best Gold IRA Companies: Investment Retirement Accounts to Consider As Golden Years Draw Near

Investing in gold and precious metals is quickly gaining popularity, especially among those who want to diversify their portfolios.

If you think that these investment alternatives are a good option, you should rely on the best precious metal IRA providers.

Don't know where to find them? Here's a list of the best gold companies and some things you should keep in mind when you're getting started.

Ready to protect your retirement savings? Request Free Kit

What Is a Gold IRA?

If you're looking for investment alternatives for your retirement, you've probably heard about traditional IRA accounts and 401(k). With these options, you can put your money into bonds, stocks, index funds, and other paper investments.

Although these accounts are many people's favorite choice, most of them don't allow you to invest in gold or other precious metals. This is where a gold IRA comes in.

A gold IRA is a specialized account to hold precious metals, such as silver, gold, palladium, and platinum. Just like a traditional IRA, these alternatives allow for pre-tax contributions and have similar contribution and income limits.

However, a traditional IRA holds paper investments, while a gold IRA (or a precious metals IRA) contains physical metals.

When you open a precious metals IRA, you can purchase silver or gold. These are high-value assets. Therefore, you have to store them outside your house, whether in a secure depository or with a custodian.

To open an account like this, you'll have to work with a reputable gold IRA company.

Reliable gold or silver IRA providers can help you make the process easier since experts will facilitate every step of the way and walk you through the stages of opening a brand-new account.

The best gold IRA companies know all the IRS rules for retirement accounts, so they give you the help you need to set up the best portfolio possible in compliance with related regulations. Additionally, many reputable companies partner with trustworthy custodians.

Investing in a precious metals IRA can be a fantastic decision for your retirement. Unlike paper assets, gold is a much more stable option. Therefore, it allows you to diversify your portfolio while you're also steadily growing your funds and minimizing volatility.

Overall, investing in a precious metals IRA is a convenient option if you want to protect your retirement funds against unstable decisions. It's also a fantastic alternative if you want to diversify your portfolio. 

If you have a traditional IRA and want to use its funds to buy precious metals, you could also choose a gold IRA rollover. Find more information on that below.

What to Consider When Choosing the Best Gold IRA Company

When you're opening a gold IRA, you should work with a trustworthy, experienced, and reputable gold IRA company.

Choosing a questionable provider could potentially be dangerous, particularly because gold and other precious metals are often expensive and you risk losing your hard-earned money. 

Different factors can indicate whether a gold IRA company is reputable or not. These are some you should keep in mind before choosing your preferred professionals.

Reviews and Reputation

Gold IRA providers could have negative or positive reviews for a reason. When you're searching for a gold IRA company for your retirement account, choosing one with a good reputation increases the chance of you having a positive experience.

A way to evaluate a gold IRA company's reputation is to take a look at the Better Business Bureau (BBB). It's an organization that lets clients write complaints and reviews about companies, and you can see them online.

The Better Business Bureau also rates companies, with A+ being the best rating and F the worst one.

In this article, you'll get to know different companies that you can consider when opening your gold IRA account. All of them have B or higher ratings by the BBB, and they have more positive reviews than negative ones.

Ease of Setup

Precious metals IRAs will offer different options, including straightforward alternatives for you to understand the process and store your gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins. Experts behind these companies want to ensure the process is as stress-free as possible.

Overall, the best gold IRA companies have experienced professionals who will guide you through the process. Therefore, you'll be able to open your gold IRA account in a matter of days.

Furthermore, trustworthy companies offer a specialist you can talk to whenever you need. Therefore, if you have any questions about precious metals IRAs, you can directly contact them and get all the information.

Fees and Costs

Most of the time, you'll have to pay a fee for a gold IRA company's services. This money covers the costs of opening your precious metals account, holding your items in a safe place, and maintaining your account over time.

You shouldn't trust a company that offers its services for free. There's no way to guarantee that professionals will put the necessary time and expertise into helping you open and store a precious metals account.

Moreover, Gold IRA companies that offer free services often don't give you the opportunity to speak with an experienced professional to discuss all your options.

There is another side to this, though. Gold IRA companies that charge an absurd amount of money to help you through the process should not be trusted.

If you come across expensive gold IRA providers, they may focus on the money they're charging their clients instead of offering high-quality services.

Therefore, the best approach to choosing a good company for your gold IRAs is to pick one with reasonable fees.

You'll need to pay certain fees if you want a gold IRA. Here are some of the expenses you have to deal with when you choose this type of retirement account:

• The markup or seller's fee: depending on whether you buy gold bullion, proofs, or coins, there are markups. These are one-time fees and depend on the vendor. Additionally, each form of gold has its own set of requirements you'll have to meet if you want to sell your assets.

• Setup of your retirement account: this is a one-time fee, and it's destined to help you set up your gold IRA. It varies depending on the institution you're working with.

• Custodian fees: these also vary depending on the brokers you hire and on the specific services you need from them.

• Storage: your gold bullion, silver coins, or other precious metals must be in a specialized authorized storage place, which usually charges fees.

• Cash-out costs: clients can close gold IRA accounts and sell their precious metal coins or other gold and silver products to third-party buyers. However, they will pay much less than they would in the open market. Therefore, if prices are not significantly high, you could lose a chunk of capital.

Selection of Silver and Gold Products

One of the many reasons why people open a precious metals IRA is because they want to diversify their investment portfolio. The more options you have, the better.

When you're choosing gold IRA providers, therefore, you should pick a company that offers a wide selection of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium products.

Some companies only offer gold and silver products, but they give you numerous options to choose from when it comes to buying these precious metals.

On the other hand, many companies offer silver, platinum, and palladium alternatives. If you're interested in more than physical gold, picking these providers will mean you have plenty of products to choose from.

Buybacks

Getting started with opening gold IRAs often takes time, especially if you're not an expert in the matter. Therefore, working with a company that offers buybacks may be a fantastic alternative since it would allow you to recover some money if you change your mind after buying a product.

Moreover, some gold IRA companies that offer potential buybacks allow you to sell back your precious metals without any fees.

Thus, overall, the best gold IRA companies offer you potential buybacks and make the process as smooth as possible.

Sometimes, these companies may even offer shipping back the precious metals to the facilities if you purchased them directly.

Types of Gold You Can Have

When it comes to a gold IRA, the IRS has very specific regulations on the types of precious metals you can hold.

Gold, for example, has to be 99.5% pure at least, while silver must be 99.9% pure to be IRS-approved.

Furthermore, you have to purchase it in one-tenth-ounce, one-quarter, one, or one-half gold coins when buying this type of asset for your precious metals IRAs.

Working with top gold IRA companies allows you to ensure the precious metals you're purchasing adhere to IRS standards. Even so, if you want to be extra sure, you can always check the IRS regulations before making your purchase.

Ready to protect your retirement savings? Request Free Kit

Why Invest in Gold for Your Retirement

Many people wonder if investing in precious metals for their retirement is a good idea. You can also open a traditional IRA or a 401(k), so why should you choose a gold IRA instead?

Investing in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium could be a much better alternative for different reasons. Here are some of them.

Maintains its Value Over Time

Precious metals (particularly gold) tend to maintain value over time. Unlike volatile investment alternatives, such as cryptocurrencies and stocks, you won't have to worry about the price of gold suddenly going up or down.

Historically, gold has always been one of the most precious products to have. This opinion hasn't changed much over the past hundred years.

At the same time, gold doesn't corrode and maintains its color, so it's a very attractive option if you're thinking about getting physically-appealing products.

It's a Fantastic Investment Against Inflation

The concept of inflation includes the value of the dollar steadily declining over time. If you buy a 1,000-square-foot home today, for example, it'll cost more than it would have cost a few decades ago.

Consequently, any paper assets you hold must increase their value at a higher speed than inflation. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to remain profitable.

However, gold is a hedge against inflation. Its prices change depending on supply and demand, investor behaviors, and the amount of the product in bank reserves. Therefore, when the dollar's value drops, gold's price usually increases.

Protects You Against Deflation

One of the positives of investing in a gold IRA is not only that this product acts as a hedge against inflation. It can also protect your assets against deflation.

If prices drastically increase because of diminished demand (like it happened during the Great Depression, for instance), people will look for a safe place to hoard their cash.

Keeping your money by dividing it into gold-based investments is often a fantastic idea. That's why during important historical moments such as the Great Depression, the purchasing power of gold has risen.

Helps You Diversify Your Investment Portfolio

The last reason why opening a gold IRA is such a convenient alternative is that it helps you have a more diverse investment portfolio. Have you ever heard the phrase 'don't keep all your eggs in one basket'? If so, then you know why having different options is so crucial!

When you diversify your portfolio, you protect your assets, diminish risks, and increase profitability. Therefore, the best approach is often to invest in both traditional IRAs and gold IRAs.

What Is a Gold IRA Rollover?

In many cases, the gold IRA company you choose won't allow you to open a gold IRA from nothing. Instead, you'll have to transfer funds from an IRA account that already exists or withdraw the money in another account to deposit them into a new IRA. The second option is called a gold IRA rollover.

Gold IRA rollovers have to adhere to the rules and regulations that the IRS states. If you want to roll over funds from an IRA, for example, you can't hold them in your account for more than 60 days. You have to immediately invest them into a new IRA after that.

However, if you choose an IRA transfer, the funds never touch your bank account until they're in the new IRA.

Doing a gold IRA rollover is often more challenging than other alternatives. Transferring funds from one IRA to another one is easier. However, rollovers take less time, and it's even smoother when you're able to trust a reputable company's professionals.

Gold IRAs Are a Growing Trend

Investors who want a diversified portfolio often look into different gold IRA companies because the idea seems attractive to them. Additionally, gold prices move in the exact opposite direction than paper assets.

Having both paper assets and a gold IRA guarantee that you'll have protection against inflation. Although you won't be free of risk, you'll have fewer chances of losing money, especially on a long-term basis.

However, gold IRA professionals have often pointed out that not many clients get precious metals IRAs.

A gold IRA is a convenient option, but it requires complicated transactions that only persistent investors want to pursue. Therefore, when you consult with gold IRA companies, you'll notice that they're not the most popular option. People often prefer going for paper assets.

The financial crisis of 2008 caused major changes, though. Now, precious metals IRAs have a growing popularity. Companies are striving to make transactions more comprehensible and smoother for investors, which has resulted in many more wanting this option to protect their assets against violent changes in the economy and finance world.

Getting Help for Your Gold-based IRA

Brokers are professionals who will act as intermediaries between you and a securities exchange. As mentioned, when you work with a gold IRA company, you'll need their services.

Do Brokers Receive Compensation?

All brokers receive compensation for their services. The exchange may pay them, or they could charge fees and commissions.

Opening a gold IRA requires effort, and you must pay for a broker's services, which means that the whole process may be time-consuming and sometimes costly. However, in the long run, owning precious metals or gold coins and using them to fund your retirement account could be the best option.

The Benefits of Working with a Broker

If you're working with a gold IRA company, getting help from a trustworthy broker is essential.

Brokers can provide unique information about the precious metals market, the consequences, risks, and advantages of your investment decisions, and more.

Years ago, only wealthy people could afford brokers. Nowadays, many professionals offer discounts for their services or give you special offers, with and without personalized advice.

The best alternative is to always go for a broker willing to work one-on-one with you since they can recommend the best options for your gold IRA according to your needs and financial objectives.

Finding a Custodian or Broker

Regardless of whether you buy physical gold, silver, platinum, or palladium, you'll need to take care of its custody. However, the IRS doesn't allow owners to keep their precious metals at home. Therefore, you'll have to store your products with a specialized custodian.

Custodians are usually brokerage firms, credit unions, banks, or any other financial institution that has gained federal approval to provide services to store your precious metals.

In some cases, the best gold IRA companies will suggest specific custodians. However, clients are free to pick whomever they want.

Although precious metals companies can't tell you who you should hire, if you ask, you'll probably get a few options, so make sure you take that in mind when you're opening your retirement account.

It can also work the other way around. If you already have a broker and want a precious metals IRA, they could recommend a company.

Working with a broker who recommends a gold IRA company is not the rule, but it can happen. Some brokers have established relationships with companies for years, so they know a few top-notch options you could consider.

Generally speaking, both companies and custodians will recommend that you find what you want on your own. Therefore, you should pick the most convenient alternatives for your goals.

Picking the Right Professional

When you pick the custodian for your precious metals IRA, the process may be challenging. The best strategy is to take as much time as you need, examine different custodians, and assess their qualifications.

Overall, a precious metals custodian must have insurance, licenses, registration, and other documents to provide services and guarantee they can protect your assets.

Another way to determine a custodian's reliability is to check out their reputation. Look for reviews on the BBB website to see other clients' experiences and what they say. It may give you an idea of what your experience could be like.

Just like with traditional IRAs, when you open a gold IRA, you'll need to work with a broker. However, all the companies you'll learn about in this article act as brokers, so they facilitate all the steps in opening your precious metals account.

Ready to protect your retirement savings? Request Free Kit

Best Gold IRA Companies to Choose From

There are different companies to consider when it comes to gold investments and opening a retirement account. This list is not exhaustive, but it offers the best organizations to trust. Goldco takes the lead, but the other four alternatives are strong options to consider as well.

#1 Goldco: the Best Gold IRA Company

Goldco is a private company that buys precious metals and specializes in the security of your assets and wealth.

With Goldco, you can transfer assets from a tax-advantaged retirement account –for example, a 401(k), a 403(b), or a traditional IRA– and use that to fund your precious metals IRA. This company also allows you to buy gold and silver directly.

You can get both gold and silver IRAs with Goldco. If you want to invest in a gold IRA, the company offers a myriad of gold IRA-approved alternatives to fund your investment account. 

Furthermore, it works with mints that source high-quality gold and silver coins you can purchase for your gold IRA, including the following:

• Gold Maple Leaf coins

• Gold Freedom and Hope coins

• Gold American Eagle coins

• Gold bars

If you prefer purchasing silver coins, you also get fantastic options, for instance:

• Silver Maple Leaf coins

• Silver Lucky Dragon coins

• Silver American Eagle coins

• Silver bars

How to Invest in a Gold IRA With Goldco

With Goldco, investing in gold IRAs is quick and straightforward. Firstly, you can start the process by signing an agreement on the company's website.

Once you do this, a representative from the gold and silver-selling company will explain how it works and walk you through the process. They'll describe the service steps and any essential information to keep in mind.

After that, you'll have to fund your gold IRAs, so you'll need an existing 401(k) account or any other eligible one. In most cases, there are no tax penalties for precious metals rollovers.

If you don't have an existing account to fund your gold IRAs, you can also open a new one and use that to transfer your assets.

You're ready to buy the assets

Reaching this stage of the process means you funded your account, so you're ready to buy gold and silver, or any other precious metals you want. Use your funds and choose the products you'd like to purchase.

You can also directly invest in your gold IRAs by buying gold and silver bars or coins from the Goldco website.

The company will ship them to the depository you choose, or your own home, depending on what you want. However, remember that when it comes to gold IRAs, you must always store your precious metals in specific safe, IRS-approved places.

Depending on the gold IRAs you choose, you may qualify for free storage with Goldco. You can check out a full GoldCo review here.

Key aspects to keep in mind

This company has a wide range of precious metals to pick from: you can get anything from gold coins to silver bars. Therefore, you should consider your financial goals, budget, and preferences to find the best option and make a wise decision if you want to diversify your portfolio.

Moreover, if you want to purchase what Goldco offers, you need to sign an agreement on the website and mail in a check or make a wire transfer to fund your account.

Lastly, one of the best advantages of this company is that it offers free educational kits to help you understand how it works and everything it offers.

Overall, it gives you fantastic, high-quality alternatives as well as kind, supportive staff. Therefore, it's the best option to go for when you decide to invest in a gold IRA.

>> Visit the GoldCo Official Site

#2 Augusta Precious Metals: the Leaders in Good Reviews

Joe Montana founded Augusta Precious Metals over a decade ago and quickly became a premier company to invest in gold IRAs.

Augusta has a team of specialized, experienced financial advisors and has gained thousands of five-star ratings since its inception in 2012.

With Augusta Precious Metals, you can explore cash purchases and gold IRAs. As with other options on the list, you'll need an existing IRA to roll over your funds.

Augusta Precious Metals offers an agent you'll have to talk to when you start the process. They'll not only explain the intricacies of working with this company but also educate you about precious metal IRAs.

The agent will help you create your account and fund it. Lastly, with this company, you also directly purchase high-quality products, such as bars and coins.

Pros and Cons

Although Augusta Precious Metals offers numerous advantages, it also has cons. Take a look at both of them:

Pros

• You get numerous options to choose from

• It offers high-quality products

• An agent can guide you through the process from the beginning

Cons

• The number of options may be overwhelming for a beginner

• You may not know what to choose if you've never invested before

• Transactions can be complicated

>>Visit the Official Augusta Precious Metals Site

#3 American Hartford Gold: Trusted Experts in Gold IRAs

In business since 2015, American Hartford Gold has gained a reputation due to its different options for acquiring precious metals and opening gold individual retirement accounts.

If you look it up in the Better Business Bureau, you'll see that American Hartford Gold has an A+ rating. Plus, it has near-perfect ratings in Trustpilot and Google.

In other words, the company has earned people's trust and positive reviews, so it's a reliable option if you want to open precious metal IRAs.

You can invest in gold coins, silver bars, and other products through this Los Angeles-based company. Moreover, American Hartford Gold allows you to directly buy what you want and it delivers it to your doorstep.

American Hartford Gold doesn't charge any fees for shipping products to your depository. Also, you won't have to pay anything to establish a gold IRA.

If you want to invest in a depository, you'll likely have to pay annual maintenance and storage fees. However, the company doesn't list prices on its website, so you'll have to ask a representative if you want more information.

Pros and Cons

This company is a reputable organization to work with, but it has some disadvantages as well. Take a look at its pros and cons:

Pros

• It's a business operated and owned by a family

• The BBB accredited it and it has an A+ rating

• American Hartford Gold frequently donates to caritative organizations

• It gives you a price-match guarantee along with a buyback commitment 

Cons

• You'll have to pay annual fees

• No international shipping

• There's no way to know the precious metals prices or fee structure just by checking their website

>> Visit American Hartford Gold

#4 Noble Gold: Fantastic Options to Get a Precious Metals IRA

With Noble Gold, you can buy palladium, silver, gold, and platinum products. However, it's a famous company because it offers rare coins, which makes it attractive to Gold IRA investors who are also passionate collectors.

To facilitate the process of opening an account, Noble Gold encourages clients to fill out an online form. You'll only need about five minutes to complete it and get started.

After doing this, the Noble Gold team will call your custodian or broker and offer different alternatives. You'll have to provide the necessary paperwork to open your account. After that, you'll receive an email with your confirmation number and account information.

Noble Gold allows you to roll over funds into your new account or transfer them from an existing one. If you transfer from one custodian to a different one, you won't face any tax penalties.

After funding your account and buying the precious metals you want, you can check your status through Equity Institutional, the company's gold IRA custodian.

Noble Gold also allows you to directly buy precious metals with high levels of recognizability and liquidity. To do this, you can use Noble Gold's survival packs, which are particularly helpful since they include hand-picked alternatives. They can come in handy if you're unsure of what to buy.

This company has several features that have made it stand out from the competition. On the one hand, it gives you some of the best gold prices on the market.

Additionally, the company has received numerous five-star reviews. You can blindly put your faith in it and won't be disappointed.

Lastly, all clients can access a buyback program. If your goals change or want to do something different, Noble Gold is committed to buying back your precious metals.

Pros and Cons

Noble Gold is famous because it goes above and beyond to help clients with their investments. Nonetheless, it has some cons as well, so take a look at them:

Pros

• You don't need to worry about setting up an account because everything is online

• Setting up your IRA is straightforward and hassle-free

• Noble Gold offers rare coins you may not find anywhere else

Cons

• Some people prefer having direct contact with company representatives and don't enjoy everything happening online

• You may want different product options that aren't available

>>Visit the Noble Gold Official Site

Final Verdict

Most gold IRA companies have a similar structure, but each of them offers specific options, advantages, and disadvantages. However, the best one is Goldco. It's the one you should trust if you're interested in saving for your retirement.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is the Minimum Investment if You Want a Gold IRA?

When you open a gold IRA, you don't need a minimum investment since the IRS doesn't state parameters for this. However, most companies have guidelines and rules you have to abide by, so it depends on the institution you're working with.

Augusta Precious Metals, for example, requires clients to invest at least $50,000 when buying physical gold or other metals.

Can You Keep a Gold IRA at Home?

Unfortunately, no. You can't keep your physical gold at home if you open a precious metals IRA. It's one of the aspects you should keep in mind when considering a retirement account since you'll have to find a custodian.

The IRS requires customers to store their gold bullion and other precious metals with an approved custodian. Therefore, you must pick a credit union, a bank, or a similar financial institution.

If you choose to keep your gold bullion at home, you're risking your future. You may have to pay a 10% tax penalty and income distribution taxes, so the value of your gold assets will decrease.

To make the most out of your gold, you should buy it from one of the companies on our list, particularly Goldco.

These organizations ensure security at all times when they're shipping and delivering your bullion, so you'll receive it at your doorstep with no issues!

Which Coins Can You Keep in Your Gold IRA?

As the article previously mentioned, any gold, silver, platinum, and palladium products must meet the IRS standards of purity and quality.

Gold, platinum, and palladium products have to be 99.5% pure, but silver coins must be 99.9% pure. Fortunately, the IRS recognizes certain coins and other precious metal products as abiding by these rules, such as the following examples:

• Chinese gold panda coins

• American Eagle proof and bullion coins

• Australian Nugget/Kangaroo coins

• Australian Gold Philharmonic coins

• Canadian Gold Maple Leaf Coins

• American Gold Buffalo uncirculated coins

The process of choosing your coins is much smoother when you work with reputable gold IRA providers since these companies ensure that you're buying the best products.

In addition, you do not have to worry about complying with IRS standards since the company's professionals will help you at each stage of the process.

What Fees Should You Consider When Opening a Gold IRA Account?

Depending on the company you're working with, you'll have to pay maintenance and storage fees.

You'll most likely have to deal with three different types of fees if you make gold IRA investments. Firstly, most providers require you to pay an initial fee, which covers the work related to creating your account. It usually ranges between $100 and $150. Nonetheless, some companies waive it for larger investment deposits.

Furthermore, many companies ask you for a larger fee. This one covers the cost of keeping your account open after a year.

Lastly, you'll have to pay a storage fee. Some custodians charge a flat annual payment, and others base the amount they charge on how much gold you keep in the account.

IRA providers can also charge additional fees, for example, commissions for buying gold for their customers. 

Overall, gold IRA fees are more costly than 401(k) and traditional IRA fees. Nonetheless, clients often believe it's worth it due to the benefits of gold investing.

Where Do You Store the Precious Metals in Your Gold IRA Account?

After opening your IRA account, you'll have to store your precious metals with a custodian, such as a credit union or a bank. You can choose which broker will hold your products for you.

Some companies work with specific depositories. It's a convenient option because it facilitates transferring your investments to those facilities. However, you can choose if you want to work with these custodians or pick different ones.

Regardless of what you choose, you should always ask a depository for its registrations and licenses before trusting it with your investments. If you fail to perform a background check, you risk losing your assets.

Ready to protect your retirement savings? Request Free Kit