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Augusta Precious Metals Gold & Silver IRA: Is it the right investment for your needs?

Have you wondered how to have a more secure future after watching stocks, bonds and cryptocurrency lose value? Precious metals, including gold and silver, are helpful in volatile markets as an asset class that can often hold value when other asset classes lose value. Additionally, precious metals can be a powerful hedge against inflation.

Why choose Augusta Precious Metals over other gold IRA dealers?

Zero fees for up to 10 years - every customer qualifies.

They allow you to do IRA distributions as metals, shipped directly to you.

They allow you to select between segregated or aggregated storage of your metals.

Money magazine’s “Best Overall” Gold IRA Company in 2022

Investopedia’s “Most Transparent” Gold IRA Company in 2022

A+ BBB Rating, AAA Rating from Business Consumer Alliance

Check Out These Customer Testimonials

This article looks into a top Gold IRA company - Augusta Precious Metals - to discuss the pros and cons of the company as well as pros and cons of precious metal investment in general.

Augusta Precious Metals Services

Augusta Precious Metals, with decades of industry experience, has been incorporated since 2012. They are a precious metals broker. They can help you with the entire process of buying precious metal coins and bars directly, storage of the coins and bars, and can also help you with the rollover process for moving an old retirement account to a Gold IRA. Augusta Precious Metals allows you to purchase bars and coins directly or allows you to purchase bars and coins within a Self-directed Gold IRA or Self-directed Gold Roth IRA.

The ways you can purchase precious metals:

  • Choice between bullion bars, bullion coins, ingots, numismatic coins and jewelry
  • Metals to purchase include gold, silver, platinum
  • Choice between purchasing metals directly outside of a retirement account or through rolling over old retirement accounts into a Gold IRA or Gold Roth IRA. The Internal Revenue Service does not allow numismatic coins and jewelry to go into a self-directed IRA but the other forms of metal can be put inside the Gold IRA or Gold Roth IRA.

Why Precious Metals?

The value of precious metals is often not correlated with stock market indices, such as the S&P 500 index, and historically, precious metal values tend to increase during times of market instability. Additionally, some of us want the safety of actual physical gold, as opposed to a gold exchange traded fund for example, because of the possibility of market manipulation with inverse and leveraged ETFs, Reddit trading impacts and more.

Many people want an option detached from financial markets and institutions. This is where physically owning gold and silver and keeping it in a secure storage facility can become important.

Where are the precious metals stored?

Augusta Precious Metals does not hold your metals directly, but they walk you through the entire process of where to store it and facilitate the relationship so you don’t need to worry about extra work. August Precious Metal’s servicer for storage is Delaware Depository, known as one of the most secure security facilities in the country. It is a high-security facility and they are fully insured by Lloyd’s of London.

You are able to select if you want to have your metals segregated in a separate deposit box for a slightly higher fee or have your metals aggregated with other coins of the same type.

What is a Gold IRA?

A Gold IRA is a term for a self-directed IRA that is used specifically to buy gold, silver and other precious metals. A regular IRA can hold precious metal exchange traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds but not actual gold or other precious metals. While some gold funds track the value of gold fairly close, and are considered suitable investments for some, not everyone wants to rely on the stock market for their gold and precious metal holdings.

A Gold IRA or Gold Roth IRA is helpful if you want to move some of your current retirement accounts, such as 401(k)s, 403(b)s or IRAs to precious metals and keep the tax-advantages of an IRA. If you decide to move over old retirement accounts, you can roll over an existing IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), Roth 401(k), 403(b), Roth 403(b) or other qualified retirement accounts to a self-directed Gold IRA (or Self-directed Gold Roth IRA).

Augusta Precious Metals partners with Equity Trust Company as the custodian for the self-directed IRAs.

Why Choose a Gold IRA over gold ETFs in an IRA?

Some investors fear that gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) will no longer remain correlated to the actual value of gold, especially if there is an event in the stock market causing a major bear market. Other investors simply want to get away from traditional financial institutions and financial professionals and have more control and autonomy in a self-directed IRA compared to having an IRA at a traditional financial institution.

Also, it’s possible you could have lower fees in a self-directed IRA (depending on amount invested). This is where holding physical gold and precious metals can be advantageous- it adds diversification by holding physical bars, which some investors prefer in a world that is increasingly going online and digital.

What is the difference between a Gold IRA and a Gold Roth IRA?

IRA is short for Individual Retirement Account and it is a tax-advantaged way to invest for retirement. A Traditional (pre-tax) IRA allows you to contribute to a retirement account on a pre-tax basis, get tax-deferred growth, and then your contributions and earnings are taxed as ordinary income when you withdraw funds, which is helpful if you are in a lower tax-bracket in retirement compared to earning years.

A Roth (post-tax) IRA has after-tax contributions, tax-deferred growth, and tax-free withdrawals. Withdrawals before age 59.5 for both Traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs result in tax penalties in many cases.

Fees

If investing in a Gold IRA or Roth IRA, there is a flat fee of $250 the first year, followed by a fee of $200/year after that. This is the fee for aggregated storage. If you desire segregated storage through Delaware Depository that is an additional $50/year.

If investing outside of a Gold IRA, the fee is simply 0.5% of the total value, which is the Delaware Depository Storage fee.

Additionally, there is a fee reimbursement program:

  • If investing over $200,000, then fees are reimbursed in silver coins for three years.
  • If investing over $500,000, then fees are reimbursed in sliver coins for five years
  • If investing over $1,000,000, then fees are reimbursed in silver coins for ten years.

When purchasing metals, the spread (difference between the bid and ask price) is shown so you can calculate the purchase price fee. Consumers sometimes don’t think about this fee (or even know it exists) so it is helpful that it is published.

Augusta Precious Metals Pros:

The process for getting onboarded includes a 30-minute educational webinar, which most customers find extremely beneficial.

Multiple recent awards, including those from Money magazine & Investopedia.

If investing over $200,000, there are various levels of fee reimbursement programs, paid in silver coins.

They allow you to do IRA distributions as metals, shipped directly to you.

They allow you to select between segregated or aggregated storage of your metals.

They offer a transparent low flat fee of $200/year for aggregated storage or $250/year for segregated storage. This fee is very competitive, especially with the fee reimbursement program.

When purchasing metals, there is a transparent system to show you the spread, which can guide your decision about which coins and metals to buy.

They are rated A+ by BBB, have 4.8-4.9 stars on Facebook and Google, and IRA Gold Advisor named Augusta the “Most-Trusted Gold IRA Company.”

Offers both Roth Gold IRA and Traditional Gold IRA rollovers.

Augusta Precious Metals Cons:

While most people find immense value in the 30-minute educational webinar, some people would just rather have all their questions answered without a webinar.

Minimum rollover amount $50,000 for Self-directed Gold IRAs, which is higher than competitors.

They don’t offer palladium (however, there is not much of a demand for it).

Diversification Considerations

When many see headlines of war, inflation, falling stock markets, falling bond markets and falling cryptocurrency markets, it can be tempting to move your entire retirement portfolio to gold or other precious metals to avoid the other volatile asset classes.

While having gold and precious metals in your portfolio can be helpful, it is important to diversify your investments between stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, various precious metals and perhaps consider other alternative asset classes as well. It is generally not recommended to move all of your retirement accounts to gold and silver out of market fear.

Therefore, most agree that gold should only a portion of retirement portfolio and not all of it. It is important to speak to a financial professional about how much gold, silver, and other precious metals are right for your unique situation. The percentage of gold vs. silver vs. stocks vs. bonds (and more) will be determined by looking at your entire financial picture including your age, net worth, tax bracket, location, cash flow needs, estate plan and more.

Conclusion

For investors with at least $50,000 to rollover, August Precious Metals is a top choice. This company stands out because they have a transparent fee structure with low fees and also emphasize client education. It is also helpful that they give you the option for whether or not you want to store your metals segregated or aggregated. They have experience in the industry, high reviews, and being endorsed by Joe Montana is always a plus!

If you're interested in learning more, we recommend clicking on the link below and requesting more information or calling Augusta Precious Metals directly at 877-506-5229.

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877-479-2627

100 MADISON AVE, NEW YORK, NY 10016 

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