How to choose a gold IRA company: what to check before you sign

At a glance

Who runs the account	A custodian: a bank or trust company, or an IRS-approved nonbank trustee
Who sells the metal	A dealer, usually the company in the ads
Who stores it	A depository that works with your custodian
Biggest cost to check	The dealer’s premium over the spot price
Where to check a company	The IRS nonbank trustee list, your state banking and securities regulators, and regulators’ warnings

Who does what in a gold IRA

The law requires an IRA to be held by a bank or by another business the IRS has approved as a nonbank trustee or custodian. For a gold IRA, that custodian holds the account, keeps the records, reports to the IRS and pays for purchases. It doesn’t usually sell metal.

The dealer sells the coins and bars and sets their price, including the premium over the metal’s spot price. Many companies that advertise as “gold IRA companies” are dealers that open the account for you with a custodian they work with. The metal then goes to a depository, a specialized vault that stores it for the custodian.

You don’t have to use the custodian or depository a dealer suggests. You can pick a custodian first and then buy through any dealer it works with, which makes it easier to compare prices.

1. Check the custodian

• Confirm it’s allowed to hold IRAs. It should be a bank, a trust company supervised by a state banking regulator (you can confirm that with the regulator), or a company on the IRS list of approved nonbank trustees and custodians. Some well-known precious metals custodians are state-chartered trust companies, which don’t appear on the IRS list.
• Get the full fee schedule. Look for the setup fee, the annual fee, storage fees for commingled and segregated storage, and charges for selling, shipping metal to you and closing the account. Our gold IRA fees guide compares two custodians’ published schedules, and our fee calculator adds them up for your own figures.
• Ask how fees are billed and what happens if a bill goes unpaid, since a metals IRA may hold little or no cash to pay fees from.
• Ask which depositories it uses, whether you can choose segregated storage, and how the metal is insured and audited.
• Remember what the custodian doesn’t do. A custodian that agrees to hold your metal isn’t vouching for the dealer, the price or whether the investment suits you. The SEC notes that self-directed IRA custodians generally don’t check the quality or legitimacy of the investments they hold or of the people selling them, so check the dealer and the terms yourself.

2. Check the dealer

• Get the premium on every product in writing before you approve a purchase: the price per coin or bar and the spot price at that moment. On September 26, 2026, three large online dealers charged 5.1% to 5.9% over spot for a 1 oz Gold Eagle and 2.8% to 4.4% for a 1 oz gold bar, according to our monthly premium check.
• Ask what the dealer would pay to buy the same metal back today. The gap between the two prices is what buying and selling straight back would cost you. It already includes the premium, so don’t count the premium again on top of it.
• Price the same products at two or three other dealers. If a quote is far above what others charge, ask why.
• Be wary of proof, “limited edition” and “exclusive” coins. Those are where the biggest markups hide. In one case brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a California dealer sold coins at markups of about 92% to 130% over its own cost, and most of its customers paid with retirement savings.
• Look the company up. Search its name with “complaint” and “CFTC,” check your state securities regulator (the NASAA directory lists them) and your state attorney general, and read how it handles complaints.

3. Check where the metal will be stored

IRA metal has to stay with the custodian, usually in a depository. Ask where yours will be held, whether it will be segregated or pooled with other customers’ metal, and how often you’ll get a statement listing it.

Any company that says you can keep IRA gold at home, or in a safe held by an LLC your IRA owns, is putting your tax benefits at risk. The Tax Court has treated metal kept that way as taxable distributions, as our guide to home storage gold IRAs explains.

4. Watch for pressure tactics

The CFTC, FINRA and state securities regulators have warned about precious metals IRA pitches, and the SEC has warned about fraud in self-directed IRAs. Signs you should slow down or walk away:

• Warnings that the dollar, the banks or the stock market are about to collapse, followed by an offer to “protect” your savings
• Pressure to decide today, or to move all of your retirement savings
• “Free silver,” “no fees for life” or other bonuses, which have to be paid for somewhere, often through a higher premium
• A salesperson steering you from bullion to proof or collector coins
• Claims that gold is “guaranteed” to rise or can’t lose value
• A refusal to put prices, premiums and buyback terms in writing

5. Read the paperwork before you sign

Move money with a direct transfer or a direct rollover so it goes straight from your old account to the new custodian, and don’t take a check made out to you. Our gold IRA rollover guide covers the steps.

Read the dealer’s purchase agreement too. It sets out when the price is locked, whether you can cancel, how long delivery to the depository takes, and the terms if you sell back.

Questions to ask before you open an account

Question	Why it matters
What’s the premium over spot on each product you’re recommending?	It’s often the largest single cost.
What would you pay to buy it back today?	It shows your cost if you change your mind.
Which custodian and depository will hold my metal, and can I choose my own?	It tells you who is responsible for the account.
What are all of the custodian’s fees, including selling, shipping and closing?	Annual fees add up, and exit fees are easy to miss.
How are your salespeople paid?	Commissions can push them toward higher-markup coins.
Can I store the metal at home?	If the answer is yes, find another company.

Frequently asked questions