What is a gold IRA? Here are 5 companies that can help you grow your portfolio

We are living through uncertain economic times. Just this October, Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) hit 6.2% – that’s the fastest rate of inflation for 31 years. This reduces the value of any cash we have squirrelled away in an IRA or savings account.

The harder we work, the more we can save, and the better our retirement. That’s what people say, isn’t it?

Well how about letting some assets do the work for you?

With a special kind of self-directed IRA called a gold IRA, you can aim for a stress-free retirement by hedging against inflation and market uncertainties – as well as doing your best to protect your savings against crashes in the conventional stock market.

A gold IRA allows you to invest in real physical gold, silver, platinum and palladium. That means chunky bars or mint coins. Retirement investors say you can’t beat that feeling of having wealth locked up in physical precious metals. And that reassurance is backed up by data.

Gold, for example, has steadily climbed in value for decades. Gold is viewed as a safe haven when inflation rises or when things go south with the general economy. When financial markets were just recovering from the Covid crisis last year, for example, the price of gold hit an all-time-high of over $2,000 per ounce.

What 4 things must I get right with a gold IRA?

1. You need to master the paperwork. This is about tax, so you have to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s.

2. You must appoint an IRS-approved ‘custodian’ to handle 1. above.

3. You need to buy the right sort of precious metals. You have to get the right level of purity, depending on the metal and whether it is stored as bars or coins.

4. You have to store your gold in a special repository approved by the IRS. 
   

What is the best type of gold IRA company?

The easiest way to set up and run a gold IRA is to appoint a company that offers an all-in-one service.

Sure, you have to pick a ‘custodian’ company that runs the paperwork; that’s the big IRS requirement. But luckily some companies will act as a custodian as well as sort out the other two issues: sourcing the right type of precious metals and storing them for you in an IRS-approved vault. You can go ahead and buy your own gold and arrange your own storage, but that can involve lots of phone calls trying to get different companies to work together.

Below we take a look at 5 big names in the precious metals world: Regal Assets, JM Bullion, Kitco, APMEX and Goldsilver.com.

Top gold IRA companies: summary

Best all-in-one gold IRA provider: Regal Assets

Best for market news: Kitco

Best for choice of IRS and non-IRS bullion: JM Bullion/APMEX/Goldsilver.com

Best for easy website: Regal Assets/Goldsilver.com/APMEX

Of the firms reviewed, we recommend Regal Assets without hesitation. For a flat fee of $250 per annum with no hidden fees, Regal Assets does it all for you:

• Sets up your gold IRA.

• Gives you nothing but IRS-approved bullion to choose from (so you don’t get it wrong and buy bullion the IRS won’t accept).

• Arranges storage in an IRS-approved vault.

#1 Regal Assets – Best Overall Gold IRA Provider

Phone: 1-877-205-1104

Locations: Los Angeles (CA), Waco (TX), Toronto (Canada) and Dubai (UAE)

‘Regal Assets Logo from www.regalassets.com’

Telephone: 1-877-205-1104

Founded in 2009, Regal Assets was made a Forbes Financial Council member in 2018 and is an Inc 500 company. The firm counts celebrities as clients: NBA player Karl Anthony Towns JR, actor Jordyn Wood and Hollywood producer Rob Weiss. The firm has attracted more than 1500 five-star reviews on Birdeye.

Experts from GoldIRAguide.org say that Regal Assets is ‘the number one-rated gold and retirement investing firm in North America’ as well as ‘an international phenomenon in alternative asset management.’

Regal Assets is different from a traditional precious metals dealer. The firm offers only IRS-approved bullion, so you can’t make a mistake with your gold IRA. What’s more, Regal Assets is authorised to act as a custodian for your gold IRA, supplies a wide choice of bullion AND arranges for IRS-approved storage of your precious metals haul. With this firm, you do not have to do the running: Regal Assets will do it all for you.

A speciality of Regal Assets is IRA rollovers. An IRA rollover is when you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a special precious metals IRA. 95% of the firms’ business comes from masterminding this process, and the service is free. Investopedia.com gave Regal Assets the title of ‘Best Gold IRA Company for IRA rollovers’ in 2021.

Ever heard of a cryptocurrency IRA? Regal Assets was the first company in the precious metals IRA sector to offer crypto coverage too. That means you can invest in 22 different crypto coins (and counting) as well as load up on precious metals. You choose what to mix and match. Or Six Regal Assets portfolios allow you to choose a ready-made investment combination to suit your budget.

Tyler Gallagher, founder and CEO of Regal Assets, explains, ‘it can be confusing to navigate all the IRS rules and regulations when it comes to owning alternative assets as part of a retirement account. We developed a process involving multiple accredited partners in which we handle everything on behalf of the client, from working with their existing IRA or 401k custodian, to the storage of their assets at a secure and accredited depository.’

#2 JM Bullion – Fast-growing US Precious Metals Dealer

‘JM Bullion Logo from www.jmbullion.com’

Telephone: 1-800-276-6508

Founded in 2011, JM Bullion has been doing great business ever since. The firm ships in excess of 60,000 bullion orders monthly to customer’s homes, with free shipping for orders over $199. With over 300,000 customer reviews on its website, the firm has attracted an overall satisfaction rating of 4.8/5.

What’s really useful about the JM Bullion site is that precious metals for your IRA have their own clearly-marked section. That means you can’t buy bullion that the IRS won’t accept for your IRA.

As a specialist bullion retailer, JM Bullion works with partners to provide IRA custodianship (New Direction) and IRS-approved storage (TDSVaults).

#3 Kitco – Best for Market News

‘Kitco Logo from www.online.kitco.com’

Telephone: 1-877-775-4826

Founded in 1977, Kitco boasts 45 years of successful trading in bullion and a deserved reputation as the best source of gold and commodities market news. Kitco’s online news hub is stuffed with real-time price information, feeds from top news outlets, interactive charts and in-depth articles. If you want to get educated on gold, Kitco is the place for you.

Kitco CFO Nizar Tabet says, ‘we want to provide the best price and are very transparent in our pricing. We want to show customers exactly what they are paying for, so on our website we provide information services and live market prices.’

With a Canadian focus, Kitco offers gold IRA custodianship through a range of partners. IRS-approved storage of precious metals can then be made available via one of these custodians.

#4 APMEX – Joint Best for choice of IRS and non-IRS bullion

‘Apmex Logo from www.apmex.com’

Telephone: 1-800-375-9006

Founded in 2000 in Oklahoma City, the American Precious Metals Exchange has been doing business online for 17 years. The firm’s selection of bullion (both bars and coins) is huge, and the website is very easy to use.

IRA-approved bars and coins have their own website section. If you want to stock your IRA, do not stray away into APMEX’s giant showcase of rare coins (tempting though it is). Rare coins are considered by the IRS to be ‘collectibles’ and therefore not permitted in a precious metals IRA.

APMEX can provide IRA custodianship via business partners. Storage can be arranged too via IRS-approved provider Brinks.

#5 GoldSilver.com – Joint Best for choice of IRS and non-IRS bullion

GoldSilver Logo from www.goldsilver.com’

Telephone: 1-888-319-8166

Founded in 2005, Goldsilver.com is another online bullion stalwart. The firm, headed by Youtube precious metals celebrity Mike Maloney, offers a massive selection of bullion backed up by a website that is packed with information and easy to use.

Usefully for IRA investors, Goldsilver.com steers clear of the ‘numismatics’ (rare coins) that the IRS does not approve for IRAs.

Goldsilver.com president Alex Daley says, ‘we don’t carry collectibles and other high- or subjective-mark-up products that you find at far too many gold retailers. Instead we focus on the highly-recognized, low premium, widely-traded bullion coins and bars.’

The firm works with a number of IRA custodian partners and promises a simple process to co-ordinate purchase and storage of bullion (via IRS-approved Brinks) with setting up a gold IRA.

Conclusion

Best all-in-one gold IRA provider: Regal Assets

Gold IRAs make a lot of sense as part of retirement planning. You wouldn’t want to put all your savings in gold (any more than you would with any other asset class). But you can have as many IRAs on the go as you want. The value of gold in particular is known to correlate inversely with the stock market. That means that the price of gold tends to go up when stock markets fall. That’s a great feature to have in a diversified retirement portfolio.