Guide · Updated October 2026
How to Choose a Gold IRA Rollover Company
Most “best gold IRA companies” pages are written backwards: they start with a ranked list and reverse-engineer the reasoning. This page does the opposite. It publishes exactly how a gold IRA rollover company should be judged — five weighted criteria, the documents that prove each one, a ten-point red-flag checklist, and a comparison table you can fill in yourself — before this site publishes any scores of its own.
That last part is deliberate. The scored side-by-side comparisons this hub is being built for are being compiled now, under the methodology published on this site, and they will appear on this page when the underlying fee schedules have been verified and dated. Until then, nothing here is for sale and no company is rated. What you get today is the full evaluation kit, ready to use on any candidate.
What Actually Goes Wrong in a Rollover
Rollovers rarely fail at the “gold” stage. They fail at the paperwork stage, usually in the first week, when a company that only knows how to open IRAs mishandles the plan the money is leaving. Two families of failure account for nearly all of the damage, and both are preventable with process rather than luck.
Failure family one: plan-type mishandling. Employer plans are not interchangeable. A 401(k), a 403(b), a 457(b) and the federal TSP each move through different administrators, different forms and different rules. A generalist desk tends to default to whichever process it runs most often. The results look like this: a TSP account handled with a generic distribution form when the TSP releases money only through its own paperwork — the TSP-70 is the post-separation withdrawal request — and nothing moves for weeks; a 403(b) treated like a 401(k) despite its contract-based recordkeeping with a carrier chosen by a former employer; a nongovernmental 457(b) presented as rollover-eligible when the rules do not permit it until the money is paid out. Every one of these mistakes costs time, and some of them cost money.
Failure family two: indirect-rollover traps. When a distribution is paid to you instead of transferred directly, a countdown starts. You generally have 60 days to redeposit the funds into an eligible plan without treating the distribution as taxable income. If the money came from an employer plan, 20% is withheld for federal tax, and to move the full balance you must replace that withholding from your own pocket and reclaim it at filing. An IRA-to-IRA 60-day rollover is allowed only once in any 12-month period, no matter how careful the reason. Miss the window and the distribution becomes taxable — plus a 10% additional tax on the taxable part before age 59½.
The fix for both families is the same: a direct, trustee-to-trustee transfer as the default path, executed by people who have filed your plan’s specific forms before. The mechanics — direct versus indirect, the 60-day window, the withholding trap, the step-by-step sequence — are covered in detail in the Gold IRA Rollover 101 guide, and the IRS’s own rollover rules are the controlling source. When you evaluate a company, you are really evaluating whether its process protects you from these two failure families.
The Five Criteria, Explained
Every company reviewed on this site is scored 1–5 on the same five weighted criteria published in the methodology. The weights are fixed and were published before any company was scored: rollover expertise and support (25%), fee transparency (25%), transfer speed and process (15%), custodian and depository network (15%), and customer feedback and ratings (20%). You do not need to wait for our scores to apply them. Here is each criterion in depth: what it measures, what to verify, and the document that proves it.
| Criterion | Weight | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Rollover expertise & support | 25% | Can this company move money from your plan type without breaking it? |
| Fee transparency | 25% | Can you see every cost, in writing, before you fund the account? |
| Transfer speed & process | 15% | Is the process described step by step, with realistic timelines? |
| Custodian & depository network | 15% | Where exactly will the metals sit, and under what terms? |
| Customer feedback & ratings | 20% | What does the complaint pattern — not the star average — show? |
Rollover expertise and support (25%)
This carries top weight (tied with fees) because it is where transfers actually break. The criterion measures whether a company handles your specific plan type — 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), TSP — runs a direct-rollover-first process, and staffs real transfer specialists rather than a general sales desk.
What to verify. First, that the company has handled your exact plan type, not just “all retirement plans” in the abstract. Second, that the process defaults to a trustee-to-trustee transfer, with an explanation of when an indirect rollover would even be considered. Third, that the person you are talking to can name, without checking with someone else, the forms your plan administrator will require and who initiates each step.
The document that proves it. A written transfer-process description that names your plan type, identifies who is responsible at each step, and lays out the sequence from your plan administrator’s release to the depository’s receipt of funds — together with the actual transfer forms they would file. The methodology is explicit that marketing copy does not count: plan-type claims are verified against process documents or direct disclosure. If a company cannot produce this description in writing, that absence is itself the finding.
Fee transparency (25%)
The criterion measures published setup, administration and storage pricing, and whether the company discloses how metals are priced over spot — with no surprise spreads and a written fee schedule before funding.
What to verify. That the complete price list — one-time charges, recurring charges, and the pricing policy for the metals themselves — is available in writing before you commit to anything. That the buyback policy is stated, not implied. That promotional pricing (“first year free”) comes with the standard schedule attached, so you know what happens when the promotion ends.
The document that proves it. A dated written fee schedule covering every charge the company and its partners can assess. In this site’s scoring, this criterion has real teeth: under the published hard cap, a company with no published fee schedule cannot earn a full fees score regardless of everything else it does well. Apply the same standard yourself — a missing schedule is an automatic finding, not a negotiable detail.
Transfer speed and process (15%)
The criterion measures realistic timelines for each step, how wires versus checks are handled, and how often transfers stall — and why.
What to verify. A step-by-step timeline: account opening, funding request to your plan administrator, release of funds, receipt at the depository, and purchase of metals. Realistic durations for each step, not one blended number. What happens when your plan administrator is the slow link, and whose job it is to chase the paperwork. How funds move — wire or check — and what each choice costs in time.
The document that proves it. A written process description with per-step timeframes. Be skeptical of a single “7 to 10 days” claim that covers only the company’s internal steps: the slow link in most stalled transfers is the releasing plan, and an honest process description says so and explains how it is managed.
Custodian and depository network (15%)
The criterion measures the choice of IRS-approved depositories, whether segregated storage is available, and the insurance coverage behind the storage arrangement.
What to verify. Which custodian will hold the IRA. Which depositories you can choose among, and whether segregated storage — your specific bars and coins identified as yours — is an option alongside commingled storage. What the insurance actually covers: a storage facility’s crime or theft coverage is a very different thing from coverage of your account’s value, and the difference should be stated, not gestured at. Under IRS rules an IRA requires a qualified custodian, and IRA-held metals sit at an approved storage facility — not at your home.
The document that proves it. A list of named depositories — banks or trust companies — with the storage agreement you can read before funding, plus an insurance summary in writing. A company that offers exactly one depository and one storage arrangement is not automatically disqualified, but the choice is theirs, not yours. A company that cannot name its depository at all fails this criterion outright.
Customer feedback and ratings (20%)
The criterion measures the volume and shape of BBB, Trustpilot and ConsumerAffairs records — complaint themes and resolution behavior — rather than the headline star number.
What to verify. Read the one-to-three-star reviews first; that is where the pattern lives. Themes worth tracking: fees disclosed only at sellback, transfers that took far longer than promised, pressure complaints during the sales call, and disputes about buyback prices versus quoted examples. Then check the company’s side: does it respond substantively, and do complaints show as resolved?
The document that proves it. Your own dated notes from records you pull yourself — the BBB profile, Trustpilot, ConsumerAffairs — not screenshots a salesperson sends you. Weight unresolved and recurring patterns over the volume of five-star reviews, and note the date you checked, because these records move. This is also how our own feedback scoring works: the pattern is the evidence, the average is the packaging.
Red Flags Checklist
Any single item on this list is a reason to pause a sales call; two or more together are a reason to stop it. All ten come from the same root: costs and terms that only become fully visible after your money has moved.
- Deadline pricing and pressure. “This metal price holds only until end of day,” “we can only open two more accounts this week.” Legitimate fee schedules do not expire during a phone call, and real availability is not a countdown timer.
- “No fee” claims. If a company advertises zero fees, its revenue lives in the dealer spread — the markup over spot at purchase. A “free” account with a wide spread is the most expensive kind. Ask, in writing, what markup applies at purchase and what buyback price applies at sale.
- Undocumented storage promises. “Your metals are fully insured and stored securely” — with no depository named, no storage agreement to read, no insurance summary. The promise is the marketing; the document is the only proof.
- Collectibles and rare-coin upsells. The tax code generally bars IRAs from holding collectibles, with narrow exceptions for bullion and coins meeting fineness standards. High-premium graded or proof coins pitched “for numismatic value” — or with the false claim that bullion can be confiscated but collectibles cannot — are among the oldest and costliest patterns in this industry.
- Home-storage IRA pitches. Any arrangement marketed as keeping your IRA’s gold at home, in a safe or a “LLC-owned” vault you control, blurs a rule the IRS has scrutinized actively: IRA-held metals require a qualified custodian and approved storage. Treat the pitch as disqualifying, not as a feature.
- Guaranteed returns or price predictions. Nobody can promise where gold’s price goes next. “Historically doubles within a few years of every crisis” is a sales line, not a source. If the projection is central to the pitch, the pitch is the product.
- Refusal to send the fee schedule in writing before you commit. “We’ll email it once you open the account” inverts the purpose of the document. The schedule exists to inform the decision, not to confirm it.
- A schedule with blanks. Lines marked “included,” “varies,” or “call for current pricing” where numbers belong are how wide spreads hide inside an otherwise professional-looking document.
- Vague plan-type answers. “We handle all plans” without naming the process, the forms, or the default transfer path for yours. This is precisely how indirect rollovers happen by accident — and how the 60-day clock starts without anyone intending it.
- A complaint pattern you can verify. Not one angry review — a repeated, current theme across BBB, Trustpilot and ConsumerAffairs: surprise spreads, stalled transfers, sellback outcomes below the quoted example. Check dates and resolution status, not just counts. A pattern that stopped two years ago and was resolved is a different finding than one that is live this quarter.
None of these items requires insider knowledge to check. Every one of them is verifiable with a written request, a public complaint database, and a willingness to walk away from a call that feels like a countdown.
Your Own Comparison Table
Copy the table below, add one row per candidate, and fill every cell from a written document — never from a phone conversation. The columns mirror the five criteria above; if you weight the rows, use the published percentages: 25 / 25 / 15 / 15 / 20.
| Candidate | Plan types handled | Published fee schedule (Y/N) | Direct-rollover-first process | Depository choices | BBB–Trustpilot pattern |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate A | — | — | — | — | — |
| Candidate B | — | — | — | — | — |
| Candidate C | — | — | — | — | — |
| Candidate D | — | — | — | — | — |
How to fill each column:
- Plan types handled. Your exact plan type — 401(k), 403(b), governmental or nongovernmental 457(b), TSP — confirmed in writing, plus the forms the company expects your plan administrator to require. “All plans” is not an entry.
- Published fee schedule. Y only if you hold a dated written schedule covering setup, administration, storage, and the spread or buyback policy. Anything verbal, partial, or “coming after you open the account” is N.
- Direct-rollover-first process. Y if the written process description defaults to a trustee-to-trustee transfer and explains when an indirect rollover would apply; N if the described flow sends a check to you first and figures it out later.
- Depository choices. Named institutions, whether segregated storage is offered, and who insures what. A depository named in writing beats a depository implied on a call.
- BBB–Trustpilot pattern. A short phrase, not a star average: “transfer delays, mostly resolved” or “fees disclosed at sellback, unresolved this year.” The phrase is the finding.
Reading a completed row is deliberately simple. Any N in the fee-schedule or plan-type column means the candidate pauses until that item is fixed in writing — those two cells are where rollovers fail. The remaining columns inform the weighting: two candidates can both be “fine” and still differ by a full point once the pattern column is filled in honestly. This table is also, item for item, what our own published reviews will document when scored comparisons go live.
Fee Types You Will See
Gold IRA costs cluster into four buckets — setup, administration, storage, and the dealer spread — plus a short list of pass-through charges. The first three are usually published somewhere; the fourth usually is not, and it is usually the largest over the life of the account.
- Setup / account creation. A one-time charge for opening the self-directed IRA. Promotions frequently waive it; ask what the standard, unpromoted amount is so you can see the real price of the relationship.
- Annual administration. The custodian’s recurring fee for maintaining the account — flat, or tiered by account value. If year one is discounted or waived, get years two and beyond in writing on the same schedule, because the standard rate is the one you will actually live with.
- Storage. Annual, priced flat or by account value, and split by arrangement: segregated storage keeps your specific bars and coins identified as yours; commingled storage pools fungible metal of the same type. The choice affects both the fee and how precisely your holdings are identified. Ask for both options and their terms at each named depository.
- The spread (dealer markup). The gap between what you pay over spot at purchase and what you receive at sale. This is where “no fee” companies earn their revenue, and it is the cost least likely to appear on a published sheet. The honest question is concrete: for the exact products proposed, in writing, what is the ask today and what is the bid today? A company that answers that in writing has answered the most important fee question in the industry.
- Pass-through charges. Wire fees, depository account closures or transfers out, and liquidation fees when you sell. Small individually, but they belong on the schedule, because “small unlisted” and “small listed” age very differently.
For how these costs fit into the full mechanics of a transfer — including what the move itself does and does not cost — see the cost section of the rollover guide.
Plan-Type Notes
A company can be excellent at 401(k) transfers and still mishandle a TSP withdrawal. Plan-type fit is a separate question from company quality, and it gets answered first. Here is what differs, and where the detail lives on this site.
401(k). Usually the cleanest path: a direct rollover into the self-directed IRA, with the assets moving custodian to custodian and never touching your hands. The wrinkle is timing — many plans permit full distributions only after separation from service, with limited in-service options — so the company’s process description should state plainly whether your plan allows the move now or only after you leave. The full sequence is in the 401(k) to gold IRA rollover guide.
403(b). These are contract-based accounts, often still held with a carrier selected by a former employer, and the mix of contribution types (salary deferral versus employer money) affects what can move and how. A competent company asks for your contract summary instead of guessing from the account balance. Details in the 403(b) to gold IRA guide.
457(b). The governmental and nongovernmental versions are different animals. A governmental 457(b) can generally be rolled into an IRA; a nongovernmental 457(b) generally cannot until it is actually paid out. A company that does not ask which kind you hold has not handled many. Details in the 457(b) to gold IRA guide.
TSP. The federal Thrift Savings Plan releases money only through its own forms and rules — generally after separation from service, with an age-based in-service option from 59½. The TSP-70 is the post-separation withdrawal request form; a company that has never filed one will be learning on your account. Details in the TSP to gold IRA guide.
Whichever plan you hold, the same question unlocks the criterion: ask the company to describe your plan’s transfer in writing, start to finish. A real specialist answers with forms, sequence and timelines. A sales desk answers with reassurance.
Our Methodology and What Comes Next
The scored side-by-side comparison this page will eventually carry does not exist yet — deliberately. It will be published here when each company’s fee schedule, depository terms and transfer process have been verified against primary documents, with the verification date printed next to every fact.
The reason is consistency, not caution for its own sake. A ranked list assembled from marketing pages and affiliate-supplied fact sheets would be exactly the “best of” genre this site’s methodology was written to replace. So the rules were published first: each company will be scored 1–5 on the five criteria above — rollover expertise and support at 25%, fee transparency at 25%, transfer speed and process at 15%, custodian and depository network at 15%, customer feedback and ratings at 20% — producing a weighted overall score. The scoring rules have teeth, including two hard caps: a company with no published fee schedule cannot earn a full fees score, and a pattern of unresolved complaints caps the feedback score. When sources disagree, the range gets published rather than rounded into false confidence.
Scored comparisons are being compiled under that methodology now. They will appear on this page as fee schedules are verified with dates, and every published fact will carry the date it was checked, re-verified at least quarterly. Until then, the artifact is this page: the criteria, the documents to request, the red-flag checklist and the fill-in table above are the complete evaluation kit, usable today on any candidate you are considering.
If you want the full rules — weights, scoring caps, accepted sources, and the update schedule — they live in the methodology. Who publishes this site, and how it can earn money without selling placement, is covered on About and in the disclosure.
One standard note closes the page: nothing here is tax or investment advice. Whether a gold IRA rollover makes sense for you — and exactly how it is treated — depends on your plan, your age and your employment status. Confirm the specifics with your plan administrator and a tax professional, and start from IRS publications such as Publication 590-A rather than from any company’s marketing, including ours.