Securing Your Future: The 7 Best Gold IRA Companies of 2024
Table of Contents
Best Gold IRA Companies Takeaways
Our top picks, listed alphabetically, include Advantage Gold, American Hartford Gold, Augusta Precious Metals, Birch Gold Group, Goldco, Noble Gold Investments and Orion Metal Exchange.
Why Invest in a Gold IRA?
- Self-directed gold IRAs allow you to diversify your retirement plan.
- The best companies operating in this space facilitate insurance and secure storage, as required by the IRS.
- Precious metals held in these accounts must be minimum purity standards.
Best Gold IRA Company Reviews
Advantage Gold Review
Founded in 2014, Advantage Gold boasts top-notch reviews, including more than 1,700 reviews on TrustPilot alone. Nearly all — 98% of them — are five-star ratings.
Advantage sells gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. It uses STRATA Trust Company and Equity Trust Company as gold IRA account custodians, and Brink’s Depository and Delaware Depository vaults.
American Hartford Gold Review
American Hartford Gold doesn’t charge its gold IRA customers outlandish fees.
How to Hold Physical Gold in an IRA?
Unlike investing in a gold ETF, which can track the performance of gold or hold gold-mining companies, a gold IRA lets you take ownership of physical precious metals, provided you keep them in an IRS-approved depository institution. If you want more flexibility with your precious metals or want to keep them at home, learn about how to buy gold outside an IRA. If you don’t want the complications of investing in physical gold, you can research how to buy a gold ETF.
Gold IRA Cost
Gold IRAs typically charge higher fees than those charged for other asset classes you may find in an IRA, like index funds composed of stocks. If you have a gold IRA, you will incur costs to manage the account, as well as maintenance fees, and costs for secure storage and insuring your gold. Precious metals prices can also be volatile over time and aren’t guaranteed to increase in value.
IRA-Eligible Gold
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. Importantly, gold coins must have at least 99.5% purity with one exception: American Gold Eagle coins. Silver, platinum, and palladium must have 99.9% purity to qualify for a gold IRA.
Is a Precious Metals IRA the same as a Gold IRA?
The term “gold IRA” may be used interchangeably with the phrase “precious metals IRA.” Although the latter is technically accurate, “gold IRA” is often used as shorthand to refer to self-directed IRAs that hold a combination of gold, silver, platinum, and/or palladium.
Summary of Money’s Best Gold IRA Companies
More from Money:
How to Start Investing in Gold for Beginners
Everything You Need to Know About Gold ETFs
