Gold Alliance Review [2024]: A Trustworthy Place for Gold Investments?

Gold Alliance is a precious metals dealer that sells gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. However, instead of selling them as jewelry, they’re offered as a haven or safety net to help protect your investment portfolio from stock market volatility.

Gold Alliance can help you purchase precious metals in two different ways to help you diversify your portfolio. You can buy platinum, palladium, silver, and gold coins or bars or use a self-directed individual retirement account (IRA) to invest in gold and silver.

Learn more about what this company offers and if it's the right fit for you in this Gold Alliance review.

Key takeaways:

• Invest in precious metals by buying coins and bullion or using a self-directed IRA.
• Gold Alliance has a customer rating of 4.96 out of 5 stars with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and a similar rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot.
• Gold Alliance offers a separate platform, Gold Allied Trust, with educational materials to help you learn about precious metals and the different ways to purchase them.
• Gold Alliance’s IRA fees are higher than non-gold IRA options.

Gold Alliance: Is it worth it?

What is Gold Alliance?

Gold Alliance is a precious metals investment company that helps consumers buy silver and gold bars and coins, in addition to other precious metals such as platinum and palladium.

You can also invest in gold and silver through a Gold Alliance IRA account. The IRA accounts Gold Alliance offers are self-directed individual retirement accounts (SDIRA).

Gold Alliance was founded by Joseph Sherman, Kevin Troy, and Fred Abadi in 2002 and is headquartered in Reno, Nevada.

The Gold Alliance company has a 4.96 out of 5-star rating from customer reviews with the BBB and a 3.5 out of 5-star rating from Trustpilot. It is the highest-ranked gold company and the third fastest-growing company in Nevada, according to Inc. Magazine’s 2022 Inc. 5000 list.

How does Gold Alliance work?

Gold Alliance offers two ways to invest in alternative assets like precious metals.

• Buying gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins and bullion
• Investing in a gold and silver self-directed IRA

In addition to the products it offers, Gold Alliance also has an education portal that aims to provide more information about precious metals.

Purchasing precious metals

When considering investing money in precious metals, not all coins are created equal. While several of the coins Gold Alliance sells are of interest to coin collectors, not all of them are eligible to be put into an SDIRA.

Gold Alliance offers several IRA-eligible coins, including:

• Gold American Eagle 1/10 oz
• Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf 1 oz
• Canadian Gold Buffalo 1/4 oz
• Silver American Eagle 1 oz
• Canadian Silver Maple Leaf 1 oz

Collectors who want to purchase coins directly, but not to put in an SDIRA, can choose between coins made of common bullion, limited mintage, 90% silver, or collectible, based on their interests.

Once you make your purchase, Gold Alliance will ship any coins outside of an SDIRA to your home or your preferred third-party depository.

Selling precious metals

If you want to sell precious metals outside of an IRA to Gold Alliance, you can call and request a quote. Once you agree to the quote, the price is locked and will not change based on market fluctuations.

Gold Alliance will send you shipping instructions to send the coins to its account at the Delaware Depository. Once the coins have been received and confirmed as authentic, Gold Alliance will issue a check or wire transfer.

Investing in a precious metals IRA

Investment brokers and financial advisors are often only licensed to sell traditional investment options like stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and mutual funds.

If you want to invest in precious metals, you’ll need to open a specialized retirement account, such as the precious metals SDIRA that Gold Alliance offers.

SDIRAs are similar to a Roth or traditional IRA in that they limit how much you can invest each year.

To set up an SDIRA, you’ll need an account custodian. This is a licensed person or organization that manages your retirement account and assets. Gold Alliance is not a custodian itself, but it has partnerships with three companies that offer SDIRA custodianship:

• Preferred Trust
• Equity Trust
• Goldstar Trust

Funding your precious metals IRA account

You can select which custodian you want to work with, and your custodian along with Gold Alliance can help you roll over funds from a traditional retirement account like a 401(k), 403(b), or Simple IRA.

The rollover may be tax- and penalty-free if you use:

• Trustee-to-trustee transfer: This is a transfer that moves retirement savings directly between financial institutions, which is why it avoids taxes and penalties.
• 60-day rollover: This is a method that allows you to move funds from one IRA to another without taxes or penalties. If the funds are not deposited into another IRA within 60 days, they will be subject to taxes and penalties.

Keep in mind that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires that the physical metals included in a silver or gold IRA be held by a bank or IRS-approved depository. You can’t store them yourself.

You can choose any IRS-approved depository that you like, but Gold Alliance recommends using the Delaware Depository. This depository is IRS-approved and is insured and underwritten by Lloyds of London, one of the oldest insurers in the world.

Once you fund your account, your SDIRA custodian is only responsible for holding and administering the accounts' assets and can’t offer financial advice.

Withdrawing funds from your precious metals IRA

SDIRAs have the same withdrawal rules as Roth and traditional IRAs, such as incurring a 10% penalty if you withdraw funds before reaching 59 1/2 years old. If you have a traditional tax-deferred SDIRA, you’ll also have to take required minimum distributions when you reach the age of 72.

SDIRAs also have more complex tax rules that you must follow or face extra taxes, fees, penalties, or even lose the account’s tax-deferred status. That’s why it’s essential to understand the exact nature of your SDIRA.

When you’re ready to sell your precious metals, Gold Alliance offers a buyback program. It will send you a quote with a buy-back price and put the offer's details in writing. Once you agree to the quoted price in writing, Gold Alliance will work with the IRA custodian to help you facilitate sending the coins to them and transferring the money to your account.

Precious metals IRA fees

After you pay for your purchase of silver or gold, holding them in an SDIRA with a custodian will incur yearly maintenance and storage fees. These fees vary between different custodians.

For example, if you choose EquityTrust, you’ll pay a $50 account set-up fee and either $100 or $150 a year in storage fees, depending on the type of storage you choose.

You’ll also pay a variable annual maintenance fee, depending on the amount in your account. This fee starts at $225 for a balance of up to $14,999 and goes up to $2,250 for balances over $2 million.

Additionally, there is a liquidation fee per asset when you sell your metals that’s maxed out at $30. You also pay shipping costs plus an additional $10, with a minimum charge of $50. Lastly, there is a $250 termination fee when you close your account.

Keep in mind: The various fees you pay to open, maintain, and benefit from your precious metals IRA will typically negatively impact the performance of your precious metals IRA.

Gold Alliance's educational materials

In addition to buying and selling precious metals, Gold Alliance also has educational tools available on its primary website and its educational portal, Gold Allied Trust.

Both websites have multiple articles and tools for people researching gold purchases or investments. This includes articles about how gold and other precious metals can protect a portfolio against inflation, current events related to precious metals, and educational materials.

Gold Alliance also has a gold-ounce price calculator and precious metal price charts.

How much can you earn with Gold Alliance?

Although precious metals can be a way to hedge against inflation and market volatility, there is no guarantee that precious metals will hold their value, especially if you need to sell quickly.

Gold performance

Gold and other precious metals often do well when the stock market is in decline, as they tend to behave as safe havens where investors seek to store value. But these precious metals can also be volatile.

Buying gold doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll see any profit on your initial investment, and you may lose money if you have to sell when the price is lower than when you bought it.

For example, gold prices increased by 24.43% in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was in full swing. After that, gold prices fell by 3.51% in 2021 and 0.23% in 2022. Keep in mind that past performances don’t guarantee future results.

Gold Alliance says that precious metals are a long-term investment and recommends holding your purchases for several years to get the best chance of seeing a positive return.

Risks to keep in mind

Purchasing physical coins can leave you vulnerable to theft, fraud, or damage. On the other hand, using an SDIRA comes with similar fraud risks because they are largely unregulated.

An alternative option can be buying gold stocks or shares of companies that mine gold or sell mining royalties. These stocks are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), so you’re less likely to lose money through fraud.

How to get started with Gold Alliance

To get started with Gold Alliance, you must be at least 18 years old.

Because Gold Alliance doesn’t put pricing on its website, you’ll need to call its toll-free number to speak with a representative about opening an SDIRA or purchasing coins or bullion.

1. Call 888-3504-7453 toll-free to speak with a Gold Alliance team member
2. The team member will likely request your contact information, such as your full name, phone number, email, address, and more.
3. Gold Alliance will help you determine the custodian that best meets your needs and send you an application and a prepaid FedEx envelope to send your application back.
4. Once your application has been processed, Gold Alliance says it takes a day to complete the account setup and up to five business days to complete a rollover.
5. Fund your account by completing a trustee-to-trustee transfer or sending a check.

Alternatives to Gold Alliance

Gold Alliance may not be for you if you aren’t comfortable assuming responsibility for your SDIRA and its tax rules and requirements. You may also want to look elsewhere if you’d rather work with a different custodial company than those offered by Gold Alliance.

If you’re interested in diversifying your portfolio, other companies can help you by investing in gold stocks or ETFs or other alternative assets like fine art, memorabilia, and more.

Stash

Stash is an investment app that gives users access to standard stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrency as well as some alternative assets. Stash doesn’t offer SDIRAs but can help you invest in commodity or gold ETFs. It offers investments in U.S. companies, emerging and foreign markets, bonds, and cryptocurrencies. Stash offers automated investing and fractional share purchases.

Learn more in our Stash review.

Public

Public is an app and investing platform where you can choose from stocks, treasuries, cryptocurrencies, ETFs, and alternative assets like music royalties, NFTs, and art. It doesn’t offer SDIRAs or precious metals as Gold Alliance does, but it can help you diversify your portfolio and explore alternative assets without high fees.

Check out our Public review for more details.

FAQs about Gold Alliance

Gold Alliance review: Bottom line

Gold Alliance is a legitimate company that has high ratings on the Better Business Bureau reflecting overall customer satisfaction. The company allows you to invest in physical gold and actual precious metals, which aren’t traditionally found on investing apps and platforms.

However, keep in mind that Gold Alliance isn’t an investment platform itself. Rather, it’s a precious metals dealer. The precious metals it offers may benefit investors looking to branch out and diversify their portfolios. However, investing in these metals via a precious metals IRA comes with high fees, higher fraud risks, and increased tax complexity.

Make sure you do your due diligence and work with a certified financial planner to understand the pros and cons of precious metals and how to best work with a company like Gold Alliance.

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4.5

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4.5

FinanceBuzz writers and editors score products and companies on a number of objective features as well as our expert editorial assessment. Our partners do not influence our ratings.

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