About us
How We Rank Gold IRA Companies
Exactly how we research and rank gold IRA companies: the sources we use, what we check, how we handle conflicting or missing data, and how our affiliate relationships affect the order.
This page explains where our facts come from, what we check, and how we turn that into a ranking. It also explains the part most comparison sites leave out: how money from the companies affects what you see.
What we cover
We currently review eight companies that sell precious metals for self-directed IRAs: Goldco, Augusta Precious Metals, American Hartford Gold, Birch Gold Group, Noble Gold Investments, Patriot Gold Group, Priority Gold and Lear Capital.
We left out companies that are out of business, in bankruptcy, or subject to recent regulator fraud findings. We’ll drop a company from the ranking if it reaches that point.
Where our facts come from
For every company we keep one record, field by field. Each fact has a source link, the date we checked it, and a status. Sources, in order of preference:
- Primary records: regulator orders and press releases, court dockets and filings, and IRS pages.
- The company’s own documents: fee pages, FAQs, terms, transaction agreements, investment guides.
- Rating bodies: Better Business Bureau (BBB), Business Consumer Alliance (BCA) and Trustpilot company pages.
We don’t use other review or affiliate sites as a source of fact. If the only place we can find a claim is another review site, we either leave it out or say we couldn’t verify it.
How we label what we find
| Status | What it means | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Verified | Confirmed on the source linked | Published as fact |
| Partial | Confirmed but incomplete, or its scope is unclear | Published with a note on what’s missing |
| Conflicting | The company’s own pages, or the company and a rating body, disagree | Published with both figures |
| Company claim | Only the company says it | Published as the company’s claim, not as fact |
| Secondary | Only a third-party site reports it | Not published as fact |
| Not published | We looked and the company doesn’t state it | Shown as “not published” |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Every company figure on this site traces to that record and its check date. If you see a figure without a source, tell us.
What we check
1. Published costs. Setup, annual admin and storage fees; other fees such as wires, liquidation and closure; and whether the company publishes its markup (spread). We compare company figures with the published schedule of Equity Trust, a custodian several of these companies name, to spot outdated numbers.
2. Minimum investment. For IRAs and for cash purchases. Lower minimums open the company to more readers, but we also point out when fees would eat a large share of a small account.
3. Custody and storage. Whether the company names the custodian that holds the IRA and the depository that stores the metal, and whether storage is commingled or segregated.
4. Complaint and legal record.
- BBB rating, accreditation status and date, and complaints over the last three years
- BCA rating and complaints
- Regulator actions (state attorneys general, state securities and financial regulators, the CFTC, the SEC) and lawsuits, from primary records where we can get them
We also note when a company’s description of its own record differs from the record.
5. Customer terms. Cancellation windows, buyback terms, price guarantees, shipping times, and how sales staff are paid.
6. Compliance with IRS rules. We flag claims that conflict with IRS rules, such as suggestions that IRA gold can be kept at home.
7. Customer reviews. We report Trustpilot scores and counts as a snapshot, with the date. We don’t treat them as decisive: they can be solicited, and they change weekly. We don’t publish Google ratings unless we’ve checked them directly.
How we turn this into a ranking
We don’t score companies on a points scale or give star ratings. Any weighting we could pick would either hide a real problem behind an average or make small differences look large.
Instead, we compare companies on the checks above and order them by our judgment of how well each serves a typical reader with $10,000 to $100,000 to move. We explain each placement on the ranking page and in each review, including the company’s weaknesses.
How money affects the ranking
Two companies pay us: Goldco and Augusta Precious Metals. The other six don’t. Those relationships are part of why Goldco is ranked first and Augusta second. We’ve placed it there because its published record supports a top-tier placement, a published flat fee schedule, a $25,000 minimum and BBB accreditation since 2011, but another honest editor could put Augusta first on the same facts. We say so plainly so you can weigh it.
The commercial relationship does not change the facts we publish. We report Goldco’s 72 BBB complaints, its incomplete custodian list, its TCPA settlement and Augusta’s 2019 Minnesota consent order the same way we report every company’s problems. Details are on our affiliate disclosure.
How we keep it current
- We recheck every company record at least every 90 days and update the “facts checked” date on each page.
- We recheck sooner when we learn of a new regulator action, lawsuit, settlement, fee change or rating change.
- When a fact changes, we update every page that uses it.
What we don’t do
- We don’t open accounts or make purchases to test companies.
- We don’t publish customer testimonials or made-up stories.
- We don’t predict gold prices or promise returns.
- We don’t give personal financial or tax advice.
Corrections
If you find an error, send it through our contact page with a source. We’ll check it and, if we’re wrong, correct it and note the change. See our editorial policy.