Editorial Policy

Last reviewed: June 14, 2026

IRA Investing exists to help people decide whether a Gold IRA belongs in their retirement, and which provider to trust if it does. That is high-stakes territory, so the way we reach a conclusion matters as much as the conclusion itself. This page lays out the rules Tim Schmidt set for the site and the checks Sean Webster, CPA, runs on the tax and account details before anything reaches you.

The test we apply to every recommendation is simple to state and hard to fake: would Tim move part of his own retirement money into the company we are about to endorse? If the answer is anything short of yes, it does not make the list.

1. Who stands behind the work

IRA Investing is run by Tim Schmidt, who has spent more than ten years studying alternative IRA investments and writing about them for ordinary savers. Tim is not a spectator in this market. He rolled over a portion of his own retirement into a Gold IRA, and he keeps physical metal inside a Self-Directed IRA today. His retirement-investing analysis has been cited by USA Today.

Sean Webster, a Certified Public Accountant, serves as our accuracy reviewer. Before a review publishes, Sean goes over the tax treatment, the contribution and eligibility rules, and the account mechanics to confirm we have them right. The plain-English explanations on this site have to survive a CPA’s read, not just a writer’s.

“I started this site because I wanted a source I would actually rely on with my own money. So I built one, and I let people see what I own.” Tim Schmidt, IRA Investing

This is an educational publisher, not a financial advisory firm. Nothing here is personalized advice for your situation. We explain how Gold IRAs work and how the providers stack up, and you decide what fits.

2. Why our judgment is not for sale

No precious metals dealer, custodian, or Gold IRA company can buy a spot on our list, a better score, or kinder wording. We do earn referral commissions from some of the firms we cover, and we say so openly at the top of any page where that applies. But the commission has nothing to do with where a company lands. We have ranked a firm that pays us nothing above firms that pay us well, because that is where the evidence put them.

The five companies we currently review are American Hartford Gold, Augusta Precious Metals, GoldenCrest Metals, Goldco, and Noble Gold Investments. Our full payment arrangement is spelled out in the Affiliate Disclosure.

3. How we examine a company

The method behind these reviews grew out of years of hands-on investing, regulatory digging, and dealing with these firms directly. We treat brochures, press releases, and sales scripts as marketing, not as facts to repeat.

Each provider is run through five areas of inquiry. Within every area we use two kinds of tests. First come hard gates, which are pass-or-fail and cannot be talked around. After that come weighted measures that separate a genuinely strong operator from one that merely clears the bar.

In practice, that means we ask companies for their actual fee paperwork, confirm a custodian’s standing against the relevant authorities rather than its own say-so, look up Better Business Bureau and Business Consumer Alliance records, read customer reviews we did not solicit, contact the sales and support lines ourselves to gauge how they treat a prospect, and verify that client metal sits with a named, qualified depository.

If a claim cannot be backed by an independent, primary source, we either leave it out or label it clearly as the company’s own assertion. We never present an unverified statement as established fact.

4. The scoring rubric and its gates

Six weighted categories produce a company’s score. Before any of that counts, though, the firm has to clear every hard gate. Miss one and it is removed from the recommended list, no matter how strong the rest of the file looks. Clearing the gates only earns a seat at the table. The weighted score decides the seat.

Hard gates (any failure removes the company from the list):

  • Legitimate custodian and IRS compliance. The custodian must be IRS-recognized, with audited reporting and SOC controls where those exist.
  • Genuinely IRA-eligible products. Only metal that meets IRS purity and form rules goes into the account. No collectibles, no numismatic bait-and-switch.
  • A buyback policy in writing. The terms and the payout timing have to be documented, with no penalty for a routine sell-back request.

Weighted scoring categories:

  • Fee transparency, 22 percent. Setup, yearly maintenance, storage, and sell-back costs are all stated in plain terms before you put money in.
  • Storage quality and segregation, 20 percent. Credentials of the depository, written proof of insurance on the bullion, and a real choice between segregated and commingled vaulting.
  • Customer service, 20 percent. Reps who know the product, no pressure tactics, written confirmations of every order, and cooling-off periods that are actually honored.
  • Regulatory and complaint history, 20 percent. No open FINRA, SEC, or BBB matters, with complaint counts weighed against how large the firm is.
  • Quality of investor education, 18 percent. Materials that cover risk, taxes, price swings, and suitability honestly, rather than one-sided sales copy.

On the pricing side, we pull live spreads on the bullion people commonly buy for IRAs, such as the American Gold Eagle, the Canadian Maple Leaf, and PAMP Suisse bars, both when we first review a firm and at each yearly refresh. A company that hides its spread, or marks well above spot with no good reason, loses points under fee transparency.

5. What counts as a fact

No assertion lands in a review unless we can trace it to a primary source. To us, a primary source is one of the following: an official regulatory filing, the company’s own published fee schedule or terms, an IRS document, a depository’s certification, an audited financial statement, or something Tim or the review team experienced and recorded firsthand.

  • Custodian approval. Checked against the IRS roster of approved nonbank trustees and custodians. A company telling us it complies is not evidence on its own.
  • Fee schedules. Collected by requesting the actual account paperwork. We log the date we received it and call out any gap between what was advertised and what the documents say.
  • Depository credentials. Matched against established vaults such as Brink’s, Delaware Depository, IDS, and CNT, then checked for insurance and audit frequency.
  • Regulatory record. Run through FINRA BrokerCheck, SEC EDGAR, the BBB, and the BCA each time we review or update a firm.
  • Product eligibility. Compared to IRS Publication 590-A and IRC Section 408(m) so that every item sold for IRA use clears the purity and form requirements.
  • Customer feedback. Drawn from independent listings on Google, Trustpilot, and the BBB, never from testimonials a company hand-picked. Suspicious patterns, like a sudden burst of reviews, get flagged.
  • Spread and pricing. Spot benchmarks come from KITCO and the London Bullion Market Association on the day we check, and we hold each company’s quote up against same-day spot.

When a firm makes a boast we cannot confirm, such as “lowest fees anywhere” or “the number one Gold IRA,” we do not echo it as truth. We say the company claims it and that we could not verify it independently. And if a company’s own documents clash with its public marketing, we show both and point out the contradiction.

6. The review process, start to finish

Every company goes through the same seven stages, in the same order, so that one review can be compared fairly against another. Working through all seven usually takes a few weeks per firm.

  1. Regulatory screen. Before investing real time, we make sure nothing disqualifying is already on the record, checking FINRA, the SEC, the CFTC, and state filings. A firm with an open enforcement action may never make it past this point.
  2. Document request. We approach the company as a would-be investor and ask for the full opening package: fee schedule, storage agreement, buyback terms, and a sample statement. We note how quickly the materials arrive and whether anything has to be pried loose.
  3. Service test. We deal with the sales and support teams by phone, by email, and by chat where it exists, watching for pressure, manufactured scarcity, unsolicited pushes toward collectibles, and any dodging of direct fee questions.
  4. Independent feedback. We gather and read customer reviews from the BBB, BCA, Google, and Trustpilot, paying close attention to complaints about delayed distributions, surprise charges, or support that goes quiet.
  5. Source verification. Every factual point is confirmed against the primary sources described in section 5, including a live spread check, depository confirmation, and custodian verification. Gaps get written down.
  6. Scoring and drafting. The firm is scored against the weighted rubric and the draft is written. Sean Webster reviews the tax and account details, and Tim reviews and signs off on the whole thing. Anything that reads like personalized investment advice is rewritten to keep the content educational.
  7. Publishing and watching. The published review shows when it was last verified. From there we keep an eye on BBB activity, regulatory moves, and fee changes, with a complete re-review at least once a year, sooner if something significant happens.

7. Who each company suits

There is no single best Gold IRA company, only the best one for a given investor. We write with three reader types in mind, and when we call a firm a good choice, we say which type it serves.

  • The protector. Mainly wants to guard savings against inflation. Looks for low minimums, simple fees, and total clarity. Has no appetite for pricey numismatics or tangled product lineups, and cares most about a smooth process and a dependable buyback.
  • The diversifier. Treating gold as roughly a tenth to a fifth of a wider retirement mix. Wants bullion at the core with room to add silver or platinum, and values responsive support and solid learning materials as much as the price.
  • The opportunist. Fine with larger minimums and a broader product range. May want numismatics where it makes sense, understands what premiums cost, and has the time horizon and nerve for price swings. Wants the widest product range and experienced, hands-on guidance.

Each company review carries a “best for” note that ties the firm to one or more of these readers, based on its minimums, its product range, its fee model, and how it serves clients.

8. Behaviors that get a company dropped

Some practices cost a firm points, and a few end its candidacy outright. We deliberately probe for these during a review and we report them straight when they turn up.

  • Pressure selling. Manufactured urgency, fake deadlines like “the price jumps tomorrow,” or a string of uninvited callbacks after one inquiry.
  • Pushing collectibles into IRAs. Nudging investors toward high-premium coins that may not even qualify under IRC Section 408(m).
  • Hidden or murky fees. Costs that are not put in writing before funding, or numbers that change between the phone call and the paperwork.
  • Unapproved custodians. Routing clients to custodians the IRS has not recognized, which can expose them to prohibited-transaction penalties.
  • No written buyback. Any refusal to commit the buyback terms to paper before the account opens.
  • Open regulatory trouble. Live enforcement matters, unresolved BBB complaints touching fiduciary conduct, or a recurring habit of slow distributions.
  • Undisclosed conflicts. Reps paid more to sell numismatics without saying so, or referral deals quietly steering what gets recommended.
  • Storage that cannot be traced. An inability to show paperwork tying a client’s metal to a specific, named, IRS-compliant vault.

9. Keeping reviews current and fixing mistakes

This industry does not sit still. Owners change, fees move, custodian deals come and go, and a firm’s regulatory standing can shift. A review that was accurate the day it ran can mislead a year later if no one tends it. We treat that upkeep as part of the job.

  • Yearly re-review. Every recommended firm gets a fresh full review at least once a year, and each review shows a “last verified” date for when we last checked.
  • Updates triggered by events. When we learn of something that matters, a BBB downgrade, a new filing, a fee hike, a custodian switch, we revise the affected review within 30 days of confirming it.
  • Corrections out in the open. If we find a factual error in a published piece, we fix it quickly and add a dated note at the foot of the article. We do not quietly rewrite history.
  • Feedback welcome. Readers and reviewed companies alike can reach us. A firm that thinks we got something wrong can send documentation, and we will look into it and revise if the evidence holds up. What we will not do is move an editorial position because someone applied commercial pressure.

How we are paid, in plain terms

IRA Investing takes part in affiliate programs with some of the Gold IRA companies we cover. When a reader follows one of our links and goes on to open an account with a recommended firm, that firm may pay us a referral fee.

That money does not move our rankings, our scores, our wording, or our recommendations. Placement is earned through the rubric alone. A firm paying a fatter commission will not outrank a firm paying less, or nothing, unless our data says it should. Every page that carries an affiliate link wears a clear notice right at the top. We do not tuck disclosures away in the footer. The complete list of partners and the disclosure wording live on the Affiliate Disclosure page, our Disclaimer covers the educational nature and limits of everything we publish, and our Privacy Policy explains what happens to your data when you follow one of those links.

These standards reflect how IRA Investing operates as of the date shown at the top. If you have a question about our methodology, write to info@irainvesting.com and we will give you a straight answer.