Retirement funds can be tricky to protect and grow, especially when your investment opportunities are limited. With a precious metals IRA (individual retirement account), you can invest in gold and other physical metals to secure your funds and build them further.
Goldco specializes in offering retirement account services to convert your 401k, IRA or 403b into investment opportunities. They offer top of line consultancy services to guide you through the entire process.
Our extensive Goldco review should give you a good idea of why they should be your first choice. We have included detailed sections to clarify any confusion you might have regarding a precious metal IRA.
What Is Goldco?
Founded in California back in 2006, Goldco offers precious metals IRA services for anyone looking to invest funds out of their existing retirement accounts. IRAs or Individual Retirement Accounts offer you a wider range of investment choices, and that is where Goldco steps in.
The firm specializes in offering beneficial investment opportunities into precious metals such as gold, platinum, silver, and palladium. If you have an existing 401k, 403b, or even an existing IRA, the consultants here will roll over the funds to a new gold IRA to secure and multiply them.
With matters like these, you want to be able to trust the firms fully when handling your existing retirement account. There is no firm better than Goldco, which has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. Their consultants are solely focused on protecting your funds and doing what is in your best interest.
What’s more, they have a Triple-A rating on the Business Consumer Alliance network due to their superb customer reviews. Almost all of their customers applaud their quality of service and how dependable they are.
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Why Invest in a Precious Metals IRA with Goldco?
As the volatility of the stock market keeps increasing, people are actively seeking stable and secure methods of investment. If you’re someone who is considering a stock market investment with the funds in your existing retirement accounts, let me try and change your mind.
The market volatility of stocks is so high that some shares change their value by the hour. This produces a lot of uncertainty, and with your money tied up, you might just lose it if the stock market crashes.
Instead of taking this leap of faith, why not look for a safe and secure shot at growing your retirement account funds? This is why gold and silver IRAs are growing in popularity, because of the guaranteed returns.
Did you know the value of gold and silver rises when the stock market is in a bad state? This is another reason why you should allow Goldco to expand your investment portfolio and allocate funds to buy gold.
Precious metals like gold and silver tend to hold out their monetary value for long periods of time. And so, having a gold IRA would be more beneficial than a traditional IRA.
With Goldco assisting you along the way, your cash will be locked in and protected for any future rainy days. The thing with gold and silver is that they never lose their demand. Whether it’s for jewelry or building new tech hardware, the demand for these precious metals is always going up.
As a result, when you buy gold coins, they are easier to liquidate when compared to other investments like shares or real estate.
Goldco Gold and Silver IRA Services
Amongst their offerings, Goldco specializes mainly in setting up gold and silver IRAs. Precious metals funded IRAs give you the ability to push off taxes and claim other additional benefits.
Also, when an account holder dies, their retirement savings in gold and silver can be inherited by their relatives without having to pay additional taxes.
By tying up your funds in gold IRAs, you are able to save your money in a medium which can be liquidated fast. When working with Goldco over any other company dealing with precious metal investments, you will feel a sense of transparency and dependability.
Every IRA specialist is trained to assess your options and retirement savings to give you the most suitable option.
To begin, all you need to do is visit their website, and head over to the services section. Once you’re there, fill out all the necessary forms to open your very own Goldco Gold IRA.
How to Get Started on Your Goldco Precious Metals IRA?
Once you have submitted all your necessary documents as per the gold IRA requirements on Goldco’s website, wait for them to reach out to you. Their team or IRA specialists will cater to your needs and wants when discussing the right investment options for you.
After your account has been verified, you add funds to it using credit or cash. This is where things get a little tricky. The cash being debited to your account is a sign that you are ready to invest in precious metals of your choosing.
According to your budget, you can either invest in gold bars and coins, silver bars and coins, or even a combination of both. Take a look at the past performance of gold or silver and then try to predict the outcome.
It is a common practice to go for bars given how attractive they can be and also for the wide range of sizes available. But if you had to make a smart call, we would advise you to go with the coins in your gold or silver IRAs.
This is mainly because coins are like hidden treasures. Some of them have a high demand from collectors who are always on the lookout for old and antique pieces.
Moreover, coins are considered to be more stable in terms of value fluctuation because they are linked directly to the currency. The exchange rate of the coins may bring more value than what they would’ve been worth as gold bricks. Also, try going for silver instead of gold if you’re looking to get larger returns on your investment.
With that being said, you cannot just keep heaping piles of gold and silver bars or coins in your precious metal IRAs. Unfortunately for all of us, a regulating body known as the IRS (International Revenue Service) has placed a restriction on how much one can own.
These restrictions become quite hard to match up to, and that’s where Goldco exceeds their competitors.
The IRS has certain criteria which need to be met in order for a precious metal to be included in a gold IRA. For instance, IRS regulations state that any gold coin or bar having a purity level below 99.5% will be considered invalid.
For silver coins and bars, the purity level was set to 99.9%, meaning anything below that would be illegal to include in the precious metal IRAs.
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Goldco’s Precious Metals Offerings
Here are some of the gold/silver coins and bars offered by Goldco to be added to your precious metals IRA.
Silver
- World War I Coin
- World War II Victory Coin
- Lucky Dragon Coin
- Maple Leaf Coin
- Australian Saltwater Crocodile Coin
- American Eagle Coin
- American Eagle Proof Coin
- American Bald Eagle Coin
- Perth Mini bars in sizes ranging from 1-100 oz
- Royal Mint Silver Britannia Lunar Series: Year of the Ram Coin
- Royal Mint Silver Britannia Lunar Series: Year of the Monkey Coin
- Royal Mint Silver Britannia Lunar Series: Year of the Rooster Coin
- Royal Mint Silver Britannia Lunar Series: Year of the Dog Coin
- Royal Mint Silver Britannia Lunar Series: Year of the Pig Coin
Gold
- Buffalo Coin
- Lucky Dragon Coin
- Australian Saltwater Crocodile Coin
- American Eagle Coin
- Maple Leaf Coin
- American Eagle Proof
- American Bald Eagle Coin
- Perth Mini and PAMP Suisse bars in in sizes ranging from 1-100 oz
- Royal Mint Gold Lunar Series: Year of the Monkey Coin
- Royal Mint Gold Lunar Series: Year of the Rooster Coin
- Royal Mint Gold Lunar Series: Year of the Dog Coin
- Royal Mint Gold Lunar Series: Year of the Pig Coin
Silver or Gold IRA Rollover Process
Starting a Goldco gold IRA from scratch is fairly easy, but don’t be concerned if you have a pre-existing IRA elsewhere. Once you’re at Goldco, they will open your self-directed IRA and take control of whatever needs to be done to transfer funds to your new account.
This, however, may take a while because your IRA specialist will need to verify your retirement savings account and whether it’s eligible. Not every IRA can make it through the rollover process, and so you will need to get a good read out of their website to know the criteria.
This will help you understand the criteria better in order to process the IRA rollover faster into your new gold or silver IRA.
After you successfully pass the verification round and are eligible for the rollover, funds will start to accumulate in your savings account.
Now you can use these funds and invest in precious metals to enjoy all the tax benefits of your previous IRA (and more). The added benefit now is that you have successfully diversified your portfolio and spread out your risks.
As mentioned before, you can select your own mix of gold or silver bars and coins. However, if you’re unsure as to what might work best for you, allow Goldco to aid your decision-making process. They will communicate all the benefits and drawbacks clearly so you can decide how you want to invest your money.
In addition, you will work hand in hand with Goldco to look for an IRS approved storage to keep your gold and silver coins. This is further explained in detail in the IRA storage section below.
Deposit and Withdrawal Rules
Once your silver or gold IRA has been funded for and stored in IRS approved storage, you need to look into the deposit and disbursement laws. These rules must be strictly followed, or else you will be penalized by the IRS.
As an investor, if you own multiple IRAs, you can continue to invest in them and your precious metals IRA. However, you must be careful to stay well within your quota of contributions.
Any individual below the age of 50 can contribute a maximum of $6000 worth of physical investments annually. They will be charged no penalties for such contributions.
But, you must know that this is your total quota for IRA contributions. Basically, this means if you hold multiple retirement savings accounts, your total contributions must sum up to $6000 or less.
The same rules apply for anyone over the age of 50, except they have an increase in the contribution cap and can put in a maximum of $7000.
Now let’s talk about how and when you can withdraw assets from your precious metals IRA. As per the IRS, the minimum age for tax-free withdrawal is 59 1/2 years. Anyone looking to pull out funds under their own personal circumstances before that age will have to incur a 10% fee as well as taxes on the total sum withdrawn.
IRS-Approved Precious Metals Storage
In order to legally own all the physical precious metals you invest your retirement funds into, it needs to be stored in an approved storage.
When you’re working with Goldco, they will take care of all your precious metals needs, from buying to storing. While they don’t have their own IRS approved storage facility, they have a list of affiliated storage services.
After your funds have passed through and you’re an owner of physical precious metals like gold or silver, Goldco consultants will transport them to your desired storage facility. Once you have paid for the metals, you don’t have to worry about a thing.
When you reach the designated age for withdrawal, you can choose to take out physical coins and bars from your storage or have them liquidated for cash.
Goldco Cost Structure
One thing I noticed while visiting their website is that none of the costs are given in detail. Since the services vary from person to person, Goldco prefers talking about costs once they’ve verified your documents.
Initial Gold IRA Set-Up Fee
There are some common fees that will be incurred by most of you who avail of their basic services. For instance, they have a $50 account fee, which is the same for any new IRA accounts to be opened.
Minimum Investment
You can either purchase an IRA worth $25,000 or $50,000. There are certain benefits of going to $50,000 mark, for example, your first year fees are waived, and going above this would also give you 5% back in free metals.
Storage Fee
After buying the physical precious metals, you would also have to pay a fee for storing them. This can switch between $100 to $150 annually based on whether you want segregated storage or non-segregated storage.
You must know that Goldco will reimburse you for the first year storage fees in precious metals which will be shipped to your storage.
Additional Goldco Services
Other than providing competitive Gold and Silver IRA services, Goldco investing offers tons of other funding opportunities. Their IRA specialists can advise and guide towards funding a Simple IRA or American IRA and also SEP IRAs.
Essentially, a SIMPLE (Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees) IRA is like all other traditional retirement accounts that allow both the employer and employee to contribute. This is an ideal setup for small businesses that don’t have enough funding to pull together a full-fledged retirement plan for their employees.
On the other hand, a SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) IRA is a full retirement plan designed by financial companies for businesses. This allows the business to secure their employees and owners with retirement benefits.
That isn’t all there is to Goldco. The precious metals company is also a direct seller of their precious metals. So if you were to look into the business of gold and silver coins and bars, you could go over to Goldco and directly buy a mix of their precious metals. Also, if you’re up for it, they will even set up a storage option as well!
Their website can come in quite handy if you’re looking into purchasing precious metals. They have a page that shows the recent pricing trends of gold and silver. As an investor, this will give you an overarching view of the market and help you pick out the right time to invest. It will also give you an idea of how well your investments are doing in terms of their past performance.
Goldco Customer Reviews
As I started to look into Goldco review pages, my decision to recommend them became solid. Most if not all of their customers have been satisfied with their IRA specialists and their behavior. I found very few poor Goldco reviews but let’s face it, no company can be perfect.
Goldco is accredited with the BBB (Better Business Bureau) and has an A+ rating; their consumer rating is an astonishing 4.88/5 based on 196 reviews. Also, they have a Trustpilot score of 4.8/5 based on 590 customer reviews.
With little to no major complaint as per the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Goldco is one of the best precious metals IRA companies out there.
If that wasn’t enough, the Goldco team has a Triple-A rating from the BCA (Business Consumer Alliance). To back that up, the Goldco review Google page has more than 300 positive customer reviews, which gives them an average of 4.3 stars out of 5.
Their Trustlink page has over 250 Goldco reviews, and that has averaged a perfect score of 5 out of 5 stars.
Goldco Pros and Cons
Pros
- First-year fees are waived for investing $50,000 in gold or silver coins/bars
- IRA consultants are transparent and well-behaved
- Easy set-up procedures for new silver or gold IRAs
- 5% back in precious metals for new customers
- IRA specialists are guaranteed to follow strong ethical business practices
- Strong reputation across multiple review platforms
Cons
- Their list of gold and silver coins/bars available isn’t known publicly
- They don’t have their own storage option
- Minimum investment of $25,000 might be too high for some people
- They don’t let you add precious metals purchased through other companies
Goldco Competitors
- Augusta Precious Metals (See my full review of Augusta Precious Metals)
Without a doubt, Goldco’s closest competitor is Augusta Precious Metals. This company is famous for their transparency and outstanding customer service. One of the main differences between Augusta and Goldco is the minimum investment amount. With Augusta, the minimum is $50,000, which is twice the minimum investment for Goldco.
- Silver Gold Bull
When we compare the reviews from customers, Silver Gold Bull comes close, but it doesn’t match up to the large customer base of Goldco. Other than that, they are quite famous for their attractive promotions and discounts, which allow customers to get self-directed IRA services at a much cheaper rate.
- Gold Alliance
If we had to rank them, Gold Alliance would be closely tied with Silver Gold bull. While they seem to have difficulties competing with Goldco’s pricing and customer care facilities, Gold Alliance makes the entire purchase and registration process much easier.
Their processes are more streamlined, which allows them to process funds much faster.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does Goldco sell precious metals to investors?
Yes. They sell directly to investors looking to put their money into the precious metals business without having to create an IRA. Additionally, they also offer storage services from their list of affiliated storage spaces to these investors.
- How long does Goldco take to process a Gold IRA?
The entire process from start to finish would take a minimum of 2 weeks to a maximum of 3 weeks.
- Can I rollover my 401k to a Gold IRA?
The specialists will create a new Goldco precious metals IRA and try to transfer all eligible funds from your existing retirement account/ 401k to the new one. Once the fund comes through, they will begin advising you on which precious metals to pick.
- What kind of metals can I keep in my precious metals IRA?
Having a precious metals IRA means that you can pretty much store any precious metal your company offers. The most common ones being gold and silver, Goldco also offers other precious metal IRAs for platinum and palladium. You can mix and match the precious metals according to your preference.
- What are the eligibility criteria for a Traditional Precious Metals IRA?
Anyone under the age of 70 with a taxable income can file for a precious metals IRA.
- How does Goldco make money?
The profit for Goldco lies in their selling operations. When they sell you physical gold or silver for your IRAs, they are keeping a small margin to cover up their costs.
- Is Goldco Precious Metals different from GoldCo Direct?
The company was formerly known as Goldco Direct. It was later changed to Goldco Precious Metals. The reason you might come across the old name is that the records have not yet been updated on certain websites.
- Can I physically withdraw the metals?
In order to withdraw the metals from your gold or silver IRAs without having to pay a fee, you would need to be over the age of 59 ½ years. Since your metals are kept in a storage space under your name, they will be available for you whenever you want.
- Can I sell my precious metals to Goldco when I want to liquidate?
To build upon their customer relationship, Goldco strongly encourages customers to let them buy back their precious metals. They are also more likely to give you better prices than any other precious metal buyers.
- How can I keep my precious metals safe in my IRA?
You don’t need to worry about the metals in your silver IRA once they have reached the IRS-Approved storage facility. The storage services approved by the IRS are well-guarded and kept safe from intruders.
- Can I get distributions in cash?
Yes. You can either get your distributions in physical gold, silver, palladium-based on the mix of metals in your IRA, or you can get them converted to cash.
- Are IRA Custodian services available at Goldco?
Unfortunately, they do not provide IRA custodian services, but they do have a list of third party custodian service providers. It is best to use their suggested custodian service as you’ll be reimbursed for the first year storage fees.
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Final Words
A retirement portfolio is nothing someone thinks about in the prime years of their lives, but they regret it later. Goldco is a transparent and well-reputed precious metals company that will ensure fund security and growth to give you satisfactory returns when you’re retired.
I hope my Goldco review has helped clear up any misconceptions or confusion. If you’re ready to open your precious metals IRA with Goldco, feel free to get started here!