The Gold IRA Company that puts Customer Empowerment First.
Augusta Precious Metals leads the way in customer satisfaction thanks to their commitment to properly educating customers before and long after your initial transaction: a practice that earned them Money magazine's “Best Overall” gold IRA company in 2022.
Table of Contents
Augusta Review
A properly diversified retirement portfolio should possibly have anywhere from 5% to 20% in precious metals. Exposure to alternative asset classes is one way to diversify your holdings effectively. A gold IRA makes sense because of the tax advantages, but you’ll need a precious metals broker to facilitate the arrangements.
You can look up many different options, but one of the better ones to consider is Augusta Precious Metals. They offer a unique combination of customer service, simplicity, and education for customers. You’ll find that working with them is very easy to do, you’ll learn more as you move along, and their streamlined operations help you gain peace of mind.
Since Augusta Precious Metals streamlines its operations so much, you’ll never get the runaround when dealing with them. Everyone knows which department or team handles what, and they’ll get you in the right direction every time.
Augusta Precious Metals
Bottom Line
I think the transparency this company operates with is their unsung hero of a feature. They don’t hit you with hidden fees or sudden costs that a lot of their peers might surprise you with on a regular basis. This is a company that is very easy to trust, and that’s really important if you’re going to put tens of thousands of dollars of your wealth in their hands.
At a Glance
- Minimum Investment: $50,000
- First Year IRA Fees: $250
- Annual IRA Fees: $200
- IRA Custodian: Equity Trust
- Gold Depository: Delaware Depository
- Promotions: Up to 10 years of account fees waived.
Standout Features: Transparency, streamlined service, and education. Augusta runs frequent meetings, webinars, newsletters, and podcasts to educate customers about precious metals and economy. Streamlined operations make it easy to deal with them and generate overhead savings that they pass on to customers. Learn more here.
PROS
- Money magazine chose them as their Best Overall Gold IRA Company of 2022
- Joe Montana is a celebrity endorser after becoming a customer
- Free access to in-depth educational materials
- Support and loyalty to customers lasts for entire account
- Seriously streamlined services for simplicity
- Highly transparent company
- Impeccable integrity
CONS
- $50,000 minimum investment level might be rather high for some investors
- Small lots of coins and bars not available
Company Overview
Augusta Precious Metals is a company that continues to impress me. I think they’re one of the best in the business, and an overwhelming number of past customers agree based on what I see in the many positive and glowing reviews. Their place on Money magazine as the Best Overall Gold IRA Company in 2022, along with many others who put Augusta at the top of their lists, is well-deserved and unsurprising when you become familiar with all the ways this company excels in this industry.
This company started operations in 2012. Their stated mission is customer education – dedicating themselves to offering customers the knowledge that they need to protect their retirement assets by including precious metals in their retirement savings.
If I had to describe Augusta Precious Metals in two words, it would be transparency and simplicity. While you would expect great customer service at the beginning when someone is trying to win your business, you can count on Augusta to take care of you quite well even long after you’ve signed up with them. The customer service and support you get here last the duration of your account.
While many companies might assign you a personal account representative, you will actually deal with multiple teams and departments when working with Augusta. They break things down that simply so that every role or responsibility has dedicated experts behind it. You’ll still get a personal agent, but they might connect you with different precious metals professionals depending on your needs.
Joe Montana was a famous quarterback who is widely recognized as one of the greatest to ever play the game. He wanted to preserve some of his wealth in precious metals when his financial team discovered Augusta, recommended the company over others and encouraged him to consider the business.
He approached Augusta and wound up having a meeting with Augusta’s lead analyst. This is actually something many Augusta customers get to do. His meeting made him believe that becoming a customer was the right thing to do, and he believed in the company's mission so much that he actually became a paid corporate ambassador as well.
You’ll need a minimum deposit of at least $50,000 to start a gold IRA here. Assuming you only put 10% of your total retirement portfolio into precious metals, then you’d need at least half a million in total wealth to get started here. That might be too much for some investors who have saved less or don’t want to put that much in.
However, if you get a price quote, you won’t see any commission fees. You’ll also see your shipping costs and liability insurance covered by Augusta Precious Metals until you close the account. Expect to pay $100 annually for custodian fees, which I can tell you is quite reasonable by market standards.
What is Augusta Precious Metals?
Augusta Precious Metals is a business dealing with precious metals online. The business was started in 2012. They were founded in the California city of Beverly Hills.
The company is recognized by the industry as a Professional Coin Grading Service, or PCGS, dealer. They operate by the coin-grading standards of NGC, or Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. At the time of writing, Augusta Precious Metals had 45 employees.
Formal incorporation of Augusta Precious Metals happened in January 2012.
The current president of the company is Isaac Nuriani. He gathered more than a decade of experience throughout the financial industry, working for quite a few financial companies before starting this one. He has membership with the Industry Council for Tangible Assets, or ICTA, and an economics degree from UCLA.
Augusta Precious Metals sells bullion from the United States Mint, including minted coins, platinum, gold, and silver. They also sell products gold, platinum, and silver products from the Royal Canadian Mint. The company also trades in metal rounds and bars with a number of private mints around the world.
One thing that impresses me about Augusta Precious Metals is their exclusive distribution agreements with the British Royal Mint and Royal Canadian Mint. These exclusive coins for North America include select Gold and Silver Eagles from the Royal Canadian Mint and British Gold Standard Gold Coins in certain varieties.
Augusta Precious Metals is an advocate for philanthropy. They donate a certain percentage of all their sales to the charity organization K9s for Warriors. This organization trains many PTSD service dogs for veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq in an attempt to empower those veterans to get back to civilian life with personal independence and dignity.
If you’re looking for an education in precious metals, then Augusta is a great choice. While they have many educational resources available, their most impressive offering has to be the one-on-one meetings with high-level analysts in their company.
Services
Augusta Precious Metals offers its customers many different services. I list the ones you should know about in the following paragraphs.
First of all, you should know that they offer gold IRA accounts. These are self-directed investments that are tax-advantaged tools you can use to save for retirement, just like a traditional or Roth IRA. Augusta can come up with the precious metals you want to be administered by a custodian and stored with a secure facility, both of which they can also help arrange for you.
You can also do a silver IRA that’s just like a gold IRA but has silver instead. While silver doesn’t necessarily have the value of gold, I think you should look at its growth rate in recent years. It hits double-digit percentage growth more often than gold and might be a smart move if you’re looking for some growth while still preserving your wealth.
If you want, you can do gold and silver non-IRA cash accounts. In these, you get to buy coins and then store them wherever you wish. I don’t really suggest this since you would miss out on any tax advantages and the safety of a depository.
If you do a precious metals IRA, then Augusta will arrange for the custodian and storage services. Custodian businesses are different from brokers like Augusta, but they have deep relationships with certain custodians. See their website for a map of all the different depositories they have working relationships with so you can pick one out for yourself.
In fact, Augusta can handle nearly 95% of all the paperwork alongside you when creating an account. They also keep communications going strong after the precious metals are bought, so you always know what’s going on with your account.
Augusta Gold IRA Review
No matter how many words I write reviewing the gold IRA options at Augusta Precious Metals, it honestly all comes down to one thing. Trust. Can you trust them?
That’s crucial for many reasons. They’re the ones buying your precious metals, and they’re also the ones moving them to a safe depository. You never actually touch your metals protecting your retirement fund until you collect them at the end of the account (unless you arrange for a visit to the depository to see your metals in person), and you might not even see them then if you simply liquidate them through a buyback program or something else for cash.
Transparency is huge with Augusta Precious Metals. In just the previous section, I mentioned several times where they list out fees and costs that a lot of other brokers don’t even mention to customers. This is where their openness about industry gimmicks and high-pressure tactics fit in – they even produced videos about “gold dealer lies” and “bad reasons to buy gold” to help consumers.
Augusta Precious Metals has had very few complaints via the BCA or BBB since they started operations years ago. That’s an impressive track record. They commit themselves to their reputation, education, and honesty.
They’ve been accredited with the Better Business Bureau going back to 2015. Their BBB rating is A+. That speaks volumes about them.
Also, BBB users give them an average rating of 4.97 on a 5-star scale. None of the reviews are under 4! They are a perfect 5.0 out of 5 with Consumer Affairs.
Check out their reviews on Ethics.net, TrustLink, Google My Business, and Facebook. You’ll find hundreds of positive reviews and thousands of five-star ratings. Very few gold IRA brokers compete with this level of high-quality feedback.
Educating customers is very important to Augusta Precious Metals. They actually have a designated Director of Education: Devlyn Steele, who sits on several Silicon Valley boards.
He has membership in the graduate analytics program of Harvard Business School. He actually conducts personal meetings with prospective and new customers to help them get better acquainted with the common benefits of precious metals. In such meetings, Devlyn is open and honest about what is happening in the economy and how gold and silver fit in, as well as breaking down the common gimmicks and high-pressure tactics used by some companies in the industry.
I’m not sure I’ve seen any other gold IRA broker commit itself so much to education. You’ll always get articles and newsletters keeping you current with your investments and the market.
What I might love most about Augusta Precious Metals is their honesty. Instead of flashing you with video imagery of millions of dollars worth of gold and you can be a part of the wealth, Augusta Precious Metals warns you from the start that gold investing is not for everyone. They want long-term customers who are happy to work with them for years.
They genuinely only want customers who know the potential advantages but are also aware of the possible downsides with a gold IRA. The market traditionally does well over time, but there are still ups and downs. They make sure to warn investors before making any serious decisions.
Gold IRA Numbers
The primary focus of a gold IRA should be protecting your wealth in precious metal format, but you’ll hopefully also see it grow in value while it’s stored away. You can enjoy tax advantages because of the IRA status. However, you will also pay some fees and costs along the way when dealing with Augusta Precious Metals.
Augusta Precious Metals Prices
Check Augusta’s website for their currently available precious metal products and specific prices. In general, you can expect them to have about a 5% markup over what sellers are asking which is different for different products. What’s great about Augusta is how they won’t sneak commission fees in on top of that, and they’re very transparent about their prices.
Augusta Precious Metals Fees
You’ll pay $50 for the custodian application. Annual custodian fees will be around $100 per year after that. They vary based on the specific depository and whether or not you choose segregated storage or not.
Those fees are all within industry standards or even better, but Augusta does something else I think you’ll love. They cover all shipping costs and liability insurance premiums for your precious metals. They also do that for the duration of your account with them.
Augusta Precious Metals Minimums
You can buy precious metals through Augusta for a minimum transaction of $25,000, but you will be taxed on that. For a gold IRA, you need $50,000 as a minimum investment to start the account. However, your gains would be tax advantaged so long as your account stays within the rules.
The $50,000 minimum investment level is pretty steep by industry standards. Yet, it should be something most investors can do if they’re doing a rollover of a previous retirement account that they’ve been saving up for years already.
Augusta Precious Metals Reviews & Complaints Online
Even though other precious metal IRA brokers have records of no negative complaints through certain review outlets, if you look closely, you might notice complaints that were positively resolved. That’s certainly an ideal outcome for any business that has complaints to begin with. However, if you look over Augusta Precious Metals’ records on major consumer websites such as the BBB and BCA, there aren't even any resolved complaints showing.
- Better Business Bureau: The BBB gives them an A+ rating based of an average of 5/5 rating from more than 100 reviews.
- Business Consumer Alliance: The BCA rates them AAA based on 5/5 average rating on nearly a hundred reviews.
- Google: Users here have them at 4.9/5 over 250 reviews.
- TrustLink: Reviewers here have them at 5/5 based on more than 275 reviews.
How to Open a Gold IRA with Augusta
The process of opening your gold IRA with Augusta Precious Metals follows a particular sequence.
1.
Notify Your Previous Admin: If you are doing a rollover from another tax-sheltered account, you’ll need to let them know where to roll the funds over to. That can include other IRA accounts, 401(k) plans, and 403(b) plans. Decide how much will go into your gold IRA.
2.
Open an Account with Augusta: Likewise, contact Augusta Precious Metals to open an account with them. They’ll handle a lot of the gold IRA setup and paperwork for you, but you’ll still need to sign some things. This is when you’ll first learn just how much they keep you up to date with things.
3.
Choose Your Transfer: You can do a direct transfer from one account to Augusta, which is easier and safer to avoid taxes. You can also do an indirect transfer where the funds pass through you en route to Augusta. Just make sure everything happens in the IRS allowed 60 days, so you avoid taxes, fees, and penalties.
4.
Learn Your Choices: Find out from Augusta what the current options are in terms of gold and silver products that they have available. Know what the pros and cons of each product are.
5.
Pick Your Metals: You’ll need to choose which specific precious metal products you want to invest in. However, you’ll also need to decide how much of each. You can go totally gold, totally silver, or mix it up.
6.
Choose Your Custodian: Augusta Precious Metals partners with select custodians across the country. You can pick one that you feel the most comfortable with. This is an area where the transparency of Augusta Precious Metals really pays off.
7.
Decide on Segregation or Not: Not all depositories offer segregated storage. The ones that do will keep your metals separate from that of others. This usually costs a bit extra.
8.
Pay the Fees: If they weren’t waived, you’ll need to pay various fees. This might be an application fee and procurement percentage to Augusta. There are also likely to be starting custodian fees.
9.
Wait, Watch, Grow: Once your precious metals are purchased and in place, then you just wait and hopefully watch them grow in value. Remember the market goes up and down, though. You may see dips as often as rises.
10.
Cash Out: When the time comes to cash out your gold IRA, you might have two choices. First, you could request physical delivery of your precious metals and take personal possession of them. Second, you might be able to just liquidate them for cash.
Augusta Gold IRA Alternatives
Goldco
Goldco has a slight edge over Augusta Precious Metals in terms of the quality of their customer service, and their minimum investment level is lower and easier to attain. However, Augusta usually can beat them in terms of fees and certainly in the level of commitment to educating customers.
- Minimum Investment: $25,000
- Annual Fees: $230 first year/$180 recurring
- Promotions: first year fees waived with qualifying purchase
Joe Montana Endorsement
Legendary quarterback Joe Montana is the prominent celebrity endorsement of Augusta Precious Metals. He is personally a customer of Augusta, and has a great deal of positive things to say about their service.
Montana was looking for a safe place to put some of his accumulated wealth when his team of financial advisors recommended Augusta. He took advantage of the meetings that the company runs and was impressed enough to become a customer. His admiration for the broker's mission to empower retirement savers led him to endorse them publicly by becoming the company's paid ambassador.
His own reputation has hopefully done something to add to the prestige of Augusta Precious Metals. If a retired football star feels comfortable protecting his wealth with them, then you should certainly feel pretty safe doing so yourself.
Final Verdict - Is Augusta Precious Metals Legitimate?
The more you think about securing your retirement, the more you realize that taking steps to protect and possibly grow your wealth isn't enough. You also need to have a general grasp on the economy and how different assets fit in. That way, you can make changes for the future depending on how things are playing out around the world.
Augusta Precious Metals can help you with all of that. Their transparency is why so many people trust them with their money and their educational resources are what help you keep up with the ever-changing economical landscape.
Their customer service levels are among the best in the business, and they streamline operations for many reasons. Part of it is to make life easier for you, as you have one team to turn to for account questions and another for education.
If transparency, trust, and education are all important factors to you, then I strongly urge you to consider Augusta Precious Metals for your gold IRA rollover and portfolio diversification.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Nuriani family.
Caspery, WY.
You can chat through the website or call their toll-free number.