Gold Alliance Review Summary
Gold Alliance is one of the oldest companies in the gold IRA sector that we've come across. In our Gold Alliance review, you'll learn about their products, fees, ratings and reviews around the globe. Overall, we found that Gold Alliance is one of the top retirement-focused gold investing companies. We gave them 4.5/5 stars.
Quality
Pricing
SUPPORT
Security
selection
Key takeaways from our review of Gold Alliance:
- Gold Alliance is a true IRA investor's company as opposed to just a bullion dealer.
- They have one of the most retirement-oriented websites we've seen. We've reviewed a ton of gold investing companies on this site, and Gold Alliance stands out from the pack with it's strong focus on retirement investing.
- For a gold IRA company, you'll probably be surprised by how diverse their inventory is.
The best way to get learn more about Gold Alliance is to request their free Gold Information Kit and Investment Guide.
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Pros and Cons
Cons
What is Gold Alliance?
Gold Alliance is the exact opposite of a bullion dealer simply branching off into gold IRAs.
From the moment you land on their page, you'll have little doubt what the company is about, and that's retirement investing with gold and precious metals.
The design of the website, the overall company feel, it's all there to ease would-be retirement gold investors into opening an account.
And we mean that as a good thing. The main page is riddled with positive reviews, showing that they place an emphasis on their customers. If they didn't, they wouldn't feature them on the front page, right?
That's not all there is on the front page, though.
A brief visit will tell you that the company has been featured in various outlets such as Forbes and Yahoo Finance, as well as fairly prestigious lists such as Inc 5000 and faith-instilling bodies such as ethics.net.
They also line up the consumer watchdog sites they're on as if to tell us they have nothing to be ashamed of. And we have to agree, but more on that later.
Founders of Gold Alliance
The CEO of Gold of Alliance is Joseph Sherman, who is also a founding member of the Precious Metals Retail Association (PMA). Sherman is a law graduate who appears to have branched off heavily into finance. Though she is not listed, he mentions that he works alongside his wife whom he's been married to for 27 years. This means, we'd guess, that she also has a position in the company.
Besides being a member of the National Ethics Association (NEA) and the Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA), we also found it interesting that Sherman is committed to informing the public of a financial reset in the works.
Other executives mentioned on the Gold Alliance website include Director and Partner, Fred Abadi, a graduate of California State University, and Kevin Troy, also a Director and Partner. We could not find a LinkedIn page for Kevin.
Some of the other details that are available are that the company operates out of Nevada, which is somewhat unusual in a California-dominated sector, and that it's been in business since 2002. Two decades of experience is, like we said, more than most, and it does seem like they've put it to good use.
Company Information
Gold Alliance Related Links | |
|---|---|
Gold Alliance Website: | |
YouTube: | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnLD4C5QyT0yzr5sKae-m6A |
Blog: | https://goldalliance.com/blog/ |
Gold Alliance Address: | 50 W Liberty St Ste 420 Reno, NV 89501-1922 |
Gold Alliance Custodians & Storage Fees
Again a little difficult to uncover, Gold Alliance apparently works with three custodians: GoldStar Trust Company, Equity Trust Company and Preferred Trust Company. Equity and GoldStar have both made it onto our top gold IRA custodians list.
For storage options, Gold Alliance works with all US depositories allowed by the IRS to carry IRA metals - there are 7 options from coast to coast.
The fee structure, from what we've gathered, is as follows:
Gold Alliance Fee Structure | |
|---|---|
Account setup fee: | $50 |
Annual maintenance fee: | Varies, from $75 - $225 |
Annual storage fees: | $100 for segregated, $150 for non-segregated storage |
Discounts: | 5% discount for certain rollovers/accounts |
Minimum purchase in an IRA: | $20,000 |
Minimum purchase outside of IRA: | $10,000 |
Gold Alliance Products
Besides the gold IRA, which we'll cover separately, gold, silver and platinum bullion are all available as the company's products. The categories of items are a little strange, but each of the items is listed in the "Products" category, making navigation fairly easy.
While there is no pricing (you have to call to request pricing), we like that the items are as well laid-out as they are and we definitely like the diversity of products.
Here's an overview of what you can find in each of the three categories:
Gold
- American Gold Eagle bullion, 1oz, 1/2oz and 1/4oz, and proof, 1oz and 1/2oz, individual and set
- American Buffalo, 1oz
- Canadian Maple Leaf, 1oz
- Austrian Philharmonic, 1oz
- South African Krugerrand, 1oz
- Various Canadian and Australian wildlife themed gold coins in multiple denominations, including some of the rarer varieties
- 5-set of Liberty Gold coins
- 5-set of 20th century numismatics gold coins
- Several other 19th and 20th century U.S. gold coins in different dominations, including ones you don't see often
- 1oz and 10oz gold bars from unspecified mints, though Credit Suisse appears to be among them
- American Silver Eagle, 1oz
- Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, 1oz
- Corresponding silver versions of Canadian and Australian wildlife-themed coins, various denominations
- America the Beautiful, 5oz
- Silver collectibles, contemporary and 19th and 20th century U.S. mintage, individually listed, various denominations
- Different "junk silver" coins, individually listed
- Silver bullion bars, 10oz and 100z, unclear mint of issuance
- Silver rounds, Sunshine Mint, 1oz
Platinum
- Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf, 1oz
- Platinum Britannia, 1oz
- Platinum bars from what looks to be Credit Suisse, 1oz
Gold Alliance IRA Instructions
How To Open a Gold Alliance Gold IRA |
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1. To begin, click here to access Gold Alliances free investment kit and gold guide. If desired, you can opt for a free consultation without any obligations if you're only considering opening a Gold Alliance retirement account |
2. Once you've made up your mind, Gold Alliance will assign you an Account Executive who will help you open a self-directed IRA, including assisting you with things like paperwork |
3. This Account Executive will also intermediate between you and the custodian and depository to minimize the hassle on your part |
4. Gold Alliance will likewise assist you with funding your new account by rolling over any number of existing or inactive employer-sponsored plans |
5. The Account Executive will help you purchase precious metals based on your desires and generally be available for as long as the account is open |
6. You can sell the investment metals back to the company in what seems to be a no-questions-asked policy |
Gold Alliance Ratings
As we said, Gold Alliance's reviews are mostly spotless.
Furthermore, the company is very active on watchdog sites, replying to reviews in detail. We can start with the Better Business Bureau, where they have a 4.96 out of 5 star rating based on 177 customer reviews. That's a fairly large number of reviews, suggesting they have a high volume, which would make sense for a company that's in good standing and has been in business since 2002.
There are no complaints on the BBB site, and another thing we found interesting is that Gold Alliance posted a customer alert asking customers with issues to email their representative before filing a complaint. Even the specific representative's name is provided. This is the kind of concern over customer care, and feedback, that we like to see.
An AAA rating on the Business Consumer Alliance website, with a 5-star rating based on 13 reviews and no complaints, and similarly positive feedback on Google and Trustpilot. There is a fairly elaborate negative review on Trustpilot, which we'll let you be the judge of.
Gold Alliance Reviews
As mentioned, Gold Alliance features positive reviews on their website, including video ones. In these reviews, there will be a caption that says something like "real customer, not a paid actor". If this caption was only available in the news...
We like this review from Google Reviews that's on their front page:
"Gold Alliance Treated me like a king…”
And this one from Trustpilot:
" Helpful For Beginning Investor”
"To anyone who reads this review: Also take caution that Trustpilot only had ONE review in February of 2021 against GA! I also learned that businesses can "reset" their reviews at many review sites, including Google."
Best Alternatives To Gold Alliance
There's no shortage of alternatives to Gold Alliance to consider, and we've written about quite a few of them on this website.
Here's a few of the best precious metals retirement companies:
# 1 - Augusta Precious Metals (Most Trusted)
Augusta Precious Metals is our top gold IRA company recommendation. They have a great reputation, are great for high networth individuals, and have been around since 2012. They are almost completely focused on precious metals as their name suggests. Augusta Precious Metals is extremely well rated by both the Better Business Bureau as well as the Business Consumer Alliance.
We gave Augusta Precious Metals 5 Stars based on a number of factors, including: Team, Pricing, Support, Security, and Selection.
Pros
Cons
# 2 - American Hartford Gold (Best Customer Service)
American Hartford Gold is easily one of the most trustworthy gold IRA dealers, with near pristine ratings and reviews online, great product inventory, and super a super helpful team with great customer service. It's obvious they care about their customers. On the other hand, if you're looking for platinum or palladium, you're out of luck. We gave AHG 5 out of 5 stars.
We gave American Hartford 5 Stars based on a number of factors, including: Team, Pricing, Support, Security, and Selection.
Pros
Cons
# 3 - Birch Gold Group (Best Choice For New Investors)
Birch Gold Group is a company with almost two decades of history. They’re gold IRA specialists with a great reputation that charges low fees and has an excellent as well as easy buyback program. Birch Gold Group is recommended for new investors since they’re easy and efficient to work with, have low fees and you can start a gold IRA with them for as low as $10,000.
We gave Augusta Precious Metals 4.5 Stars based on a number of factors, including: Team, Pricing, Support, Security, and Selection.
Pros
Cons
# 4 - Lear Capital (Trusted and Established)
Lear Capital is one of the oldest names in the gold IRA industry. Founded in 1997, Lear has made a name for itself for many years as a trusted provider with a solid reputation in customer support and account management. We recommend them for all your gold IRA needs, but if you're looking for platinum or palladiums, look elsewhere.
We gave Lear Capital 4.5 Stars based on a number of factors, including: Team, Pricing, Support, Security, and Selection.
Pros
Cons
Gold Alliance FAQs
It's unclear, but we'd assume so. Some websites list Gold Alliance as "Not accepting online payments", whatever that means. No payment methods are listed on the website from what we've found.
Depending on the site we're seeing. They have a rating just short of 5 stars on the BBB page and a 5-star one on the BCA page. On Trustpilot, it's more of a mixed bag. We'd say a 4.8 or 4.9 star rated company is more accurate.
Gold IRAs are the primary product that Gold Alliance offers and their specialty. It's what the company revolves around and focuses on. Despite this, they have an inventory of coins that can be difficult to find even among regular bullion vendors.
Final Thoughts - Is Gold Alliance Legit for gold IRAs?
Overall, Gold Alliance is one of the more reputable and longest-standing gold IRA companies we've come across.
They take a fairly unique approach to displaying customer satisfaction, going as far as to post video interviews with customers who they swear aren't actors. And who are we to doubt that?
Given the strength of their inventory, we'd like to see a lower minimum purchase than $10,000 for non-IRA customers.
Many will undoubtedly be drawn to some of the items, which, outside of collector's coins and bars, are generally priced lower. Still, as a primarily IRA company, we can only fault them so much for having a somewhat limited business offering outside of an IRA.
Verdict: Retirement investors will, by most accounts, be taken care of well here.
If you're looking for a company that caters to high networth individuals, Augusta Precious Metals is a great choice, or if you're looking for some unique promotions, check out Red Rock Secured.
