Patriot Gold Group a Legit Company or a Gold IRA Scam?
In the current information era, when gold and silver are being advertised in magazines, T.V. commercials, and in your social media apps, it becomes increasingly pertinent to inquire about a company and its credibility before you choose to buy. It's easy for fake companies to appear legit with their fancy ads advertising below-market prices on precious metals, enticing a quick response and call to buy.
You must protect your retirement savings from scam artists and fly-by-night companies touting the benefits of buying gold and silver while getting the items for below spot or with low premiums.
Do these companies have the history and credibility to foster your trust? One must discern between legitimate establishments and temporary businesses that might exploit and deplete retirement and savings accounts. These scammy companies, having made their money, leave investors devoid of their retirement cash savings by selling unsuspecting individuals overpriced metals or collector rounds with limited demand in the market.
Patriot Gold Group was founded in March 2016 and has been in business for just over seven years. Being a relative newcomer to the Gold IRA industry, they offer Gold IRAs as their primary business and they are not an online gold and silver dealer. That means they don't sell gold coins, bullion, numismatics, or rare coins from their website.
The company has Jack Hanney as its CEO. Mr. Hanney has a prestigious career in the investment industry working for over 20+ years and starting his career working under William O'Neill the founder of Investor's Business Daily.
The overall reputation, to date, for Patriot Gold is spotless. Which for the precious metals industry is surprising and very unique. They have Zero complaints with the BBB, but they also don't have any reviews or a star rating. Their Accreditation from the BBB was given to them in April of 2022.
Having no reviews or complaints could indicate they haven't been doing enough business to receive any complaints, or they could just be a customer service client-focused company with limited clients who have chosen not to provide a review. We will go into details later about the integrity and business reputation.
For now, it appears that Patriot Gold Group is a legit company. There is nothing glowing showing they have any significant negative reviews or complaints. We were unable to find any current lawsuits against the company. While this is said, the company has had little time in the industry and therefore anyone interested in this company should do their due diligence before opening a Gold IRA or buying precious metals for home delivery.
Company Rating Summary
When contacting Patriot Gold Group they advertise "You work directly with an owner". This detail gives individuals comfort that they are working with a knowledgeable and informed decision-maker. The company is primarily a gold and silver dealer who specializes in Gold IRAs for the safety and security of retirement savings. We were unable to find any specific educational material, details of payment options, or current market articles on their website.
Customer Service
IRA experience
Knowledge
Payment Options
Before we get started with Patriot Gold Group Review:
It's tough to determine which precious metals dealer is reputable and reliable for your investment needs. The Plug aims to provide you with as much useful information as possible to shorten your decision-making process. The Best Gold IRA Dealers want to educate and inform their clients. We've broken down a list of the Top Gold and Silver IRA Companies for your review.
Check out The Plug's list of the 5 Best Gold IRA Companies and find out Is Patriot Gold Group in our Top 5?
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Why Precious Metals Should Be Part of Your Portfolio
Family Offices, Advisors, and Investors have been investing in precious metals since the prohibition of owning physical gold was lifted in 1974. Since that time, gold and silver have risen in value, and not only has the private sector started investing in coins and bars, but the U.S. Government and other governments continue to store gold and silver in their reserves. Gold is not a backer for fiat currency anymore, but metals are a store of wealth and security.
The same reason governments and home offices purchase gold, so should you. Having a stable physical asset that can hedge against inflation while appreciating is important for every portfolio. When an investor purchases physical precious metals they are taking the risk of the stock market out of their portfolio. Having a diversified portfolio means not only that you buy a variety of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, but also you diversify in other businesses, investment opportunities, physical assets, IRA-eligible bullion, or rare collectibles.
In 1997, the Tax Payer relief act made buying physical assets including physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium within a self-directed IRA and option.
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When you purchase physical gold and silver you diversify and hedge inflation. As the US dollar or any other fiat currency declines your gold can hedge that decline in purchasing power with an asset that can stabilize and appreciate. Banks and Governments have been stocking gold to promote stability against their fiat. The investment allows them the stability to lend money and have the backing necessary to make investments and loans.
Five Reason To Own Precious Metals:
- Gold and Silver Coins and Bars are bought and sold around the world. You can liquidate or use your gold and silver anywhere in the world.
- Hedge Inflation
- Recession Proof
- Tax Advantage - when investing in gold or silver IRA
- Not impacted by the Volatile Stock Market
Therefore, investing in Gold or Silver should be considered an alternative investment option by all investors. The higher the net worth the more diversification you may have in alternative investments. Holding all your apples in one basket may hurt your portfolio when you are ready to retire. Look to stable, recession and inflation-proof opportunities, like physical Gold and Silver for your portfolio.
Benefits of a Gold or Silver IRA
Whether you are a young investor looking to diversify your portfolio for the benefit of future retirement or are a conservative individual soon to be retiring or in the retirement phase of their life, a Gold IRA can be a beneficial IRA option.
A Gold or Silver IRA is also known as a self-directed IRA or retirement vehicle. An SDIRA gives you the ability to control the investment and assets within a retirement account. Different from a traditional or Roth IRA where you invest in traditional market investments like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds through an advisor or stock broker, the SDIRA gives you the ability to diversify into precious metals, real estate, or lending and you control the assets by choosing when to buy, sell, or hold.
Types of Retirement Gold IRA Accounts:
Like a traditional or Roth IRA, the self-directed IRA allows you to invest either using a Roth IRA set-up which is a contribution after-tax and your money and investment grow tax-free, or a traditional SDIRA which your contributions are pre-tax and your investments and money grow tax-deferred allowing your withdrawals to be taxed as current income after age 59 and 1/2 years.
Given the different options or types of self-directed IRA you're allowed to set up also means you are allowed to roll over current retirement IRA or 401(k) money from those types of accounts. If you choose to fund your SDIRA with current retirement savings, there is no penalty to take distributions from a current 401(k) or IRA as long as you have a plan-to-plan transfer or if you take a contribution you deposit it into the SDIRA within 60 days.
Physical Metals are a Hard Asset:
When you own physical precious metals you own a hard asset. Something you can hold in your hand that has value beyond a piece of paper or a stock symbol. Owning physical assets gives you the ability to sell those assets when it's right for you and to the highest bidder.
While there is an underlying chance a bank could fail and take your savings and replace them with stock when a bank goes defunct, owning physical gold and silver removes that possibility. It does not matter if you choose to hold physical gold at home or store it in a secured storage facility, your physical asset is yours and nobody else controls the asset.
Diversification:
Take retirement savings and diversify into alternative investments. The IRA provides the vehicle to keep the money in a retirement account and your ability to diversify funds into alternative investments gives you control.
Purchase gold, silver, platinum, or palladium. When it comes to buying gold in your IRA, you are not required to use only one gold dealer. You have the option to open an account with a custodian of your choice and then choose one or multiple Gold Dealers as your source for purchasing the metals.
Rollover Retirement Savings:
Choosing a Gold IRA gives you the advantage of starting a new account and making yearly contributions, the same as that of a traditional or Roth IRA. Contributions to the SDIRA, as of this writing, are $6,500 per year for those under the age of 50 and $7,500 for those over the age of 50. The contributions must be from earned income, i.e. a job or business that you own.
An alternative to making yearly contributions is rolling over from a current IRA or prior employer's 401(k). This option gives you the ability to invest more or a higher percentage of your retirement savings each year. Experts suggest physical gold assets should account for between 10-15 percent of your overall portfolio.
There are no fees or penalties to do a rollover contribution to fund your Gold IRA. There are restrictions to the number of times a rollover can occur. So, make sure you know if you have a once-a-year restriction to your rollover before you have the funds moved. This way you can make sure you have enough funds in your SDIRA for your desired gold or silver purchase.
Who is Patriot Gold Group?
Patriot Gold Group is a precious metals IRA dealer. They prefer and market to those interested in buying gold and silver through their retirement IRA. While they will sell metals outside an IRA for home delivery, they are not an online coin or metals dealer who sells individual or bulk coins or bars.
Since they market directly to those looking to open or invest through their SDIRA. Patriot Gold Group does not specifically note what products they have available. They do mention on their website all the gold and silver coins that are available. But, like other Gold IRA companies, they most likely need to acquire the product before they can sell the coins.
Boldly proud of their multiple years of Consumer Affairs ratings as the #1 Gold IRA Dealer. They mention these awards several times throughout their website.
While the ratings are important, they are not the final piece to this puzzle when choosing a gold IRA company.
Special Note: please review the Patriot Gold Group website closely. When we searched through their information many of the pages did not provide any information or specific information of benefit to the reader. Their articles and videos also were fairly old when speaking of current market conditions and the spot price of gold or silver. Make sure you are aware of all the current information in the market for gold and silver conditions.
How to Open an IRA Account with Patriot Gold Group
When you have decided Patriot Gold Group is your new Gold IRA company you can get started by filling out an online Gold IRA Application. This application will get your name, address, email, phone, number, and some pertinent SSN and DOB information. While filling out their document you will provide the necessary Beneficiary information along with Source of Funds.
Once you have provided this information Patriot Gold Group will send you a Gold or Silver Investor Guide. All Gold and Silver IRA Companies provide a report or guide that gives potential investors information on their company and why owning physical precious metals is a viable investment choice.
The Patriot Gold Group indicates they offer "NO FEES FOR LIFE IRA"! What they offer is a credit back the fees for their service for life. The primary Gold IRA Fees include custodian fees and vault storage fees. However, most custodians will charge transaction fees and possibly other undisclosed fees that could add up along the way. Vaults or Depositories will charge fees based on the amount of gold or silver stored along with if the coins and bars are segregated or non-segregated. You want to have your gold and silver segregated to ensure the metals and quality of metals being purchased.
Patriot Gold Group 3 Steps to a Precious Metals IRA:
- Contact Our Experts
- Transfer or Roll Over
- Own Precious Metals
In our opinion, Patriot Gold Group makes this process seem easier than it is. In addition, they do not provide a name for which custodian they recommend or the depository they use. As the owner of the account, you are allowed to set up your own self-directed IRA and purchase gold and silver. You are also allowed to use a depository of your choosing.
It is likely to receive the No Fees for Life IRA you most likely are required to go through their custodian and depository. Make sure you understand all the fine print and information before you open an account or roll over any retirement funds.
Pros and Cons of Patriot Gold Group
Pros
Cons
Gold and Silver Products Offered
As a Gold IRA Dealer, Patriot Gold Group offers bullion, coins, and proofs that are IRA eligible for their customers. They do offer a few non-IRA/IRS qualified rounds and bars, but these are not available for those who are interested in using their SDIRA.
Gold Coins and Bars Offered:
Silver Coins and Bars Offered:
The aforementioned coins, rounds, and bars are only a portion of the product available. For pricing and availability, you must contact the company directly. Patriot Gold Group has a list of IRA-specific coins that you can choose from online.
It did not appear that there was a large selection of gold bars available so contact the company for more information.
Understand the difference between bullion and proof coins. While American Eagle Coins appear to be similar there is a difference between bullion coins and proof coins. The process of minting the Proof coins is more involved and the finish of the product is pristine. The idea behind a proof coin is that is not a circulated coin and is a collector coin. While having the same face value as its counterpart the bullion coin, the premiums attached to these coins are higher.
Patriot Gold Group Reputation and Reviews
As we mentioned previously Patriot Gold Group is a relatively young company in the Gold IRA Dealer business. They started in 2016, while the company is new, the individuals behind the business have a combined 50 years of experience in the financial markets.
Since the company is just over 7 years old, it appears there have been few actual reviews. Matter of fact there are no customer complaints or reviews at the BBB and the BCA has no complaint experience. Meaning, they have no complaints to rank the company. Here is an overview of Patriot Gold Groups:
Better Business Bureau (BBB)
- A+ Rating (rating not an indication of complaints or reviews)
- Accredited Since 4/22/2022
- 3 Customer Reviews with a 4.33 out of 5.0 rating
- 0 Customer Complaints
Business Consumer Alliance (BCA)
- AA Company Rating (AAA is the highest rating)
- 5 Start Rating
- 17 Reviews (all 5 Stars - either impressive or questionable)
- Complaint Experience is a N/A (no complaints)
Trustpilot
- 546 Reviews (all but 1 was 5 Stars - either impressive or questionable)
- Excellent Reputation
- 5.0 out of 5.0 Star Rating
- One 4-star rating
Most all of the reviews talk about great customer service and how helpful the people on the phone were at Patriot Gold Group.
One review we found on Yelp, in which there is only one review, indicated their sales technique was fear related and they did not appreciate this type of sales tactic.
Keep in mind there are paid services that promote positive reviews on websites. It's hard to believe there have been no negative reviews other than that Yelp review. But, without any further information indicating a negative experience we have to believe they are legit.
Overall, given the new nature of the business and the lack of negative reviews, we believe Patriot Gold Group appears to be a viable option to contact for a Gold IRA.
Final Thoughts on Patriot Gold Group
Working with a Gold IRA dealer should be about finding a dealer that has extensive experience in the precious metals niche, along with knowledge and educational training, and who wants to work with you to make a precious metals buying plan. Not all gold IRA dealers are the same. Patriot Gold Group offers the assistance needed to buy gold and silver through an SDIRA or with retirement savings for home storage.
But, we found several "red flags" that we need to point out to our readers.
- The videos and articles on their website appear to be old, between 2016 and 2019
- There was no education offered for FREE online. It appeared that one has to contact them for information
- The company is only 7 years old
- There are only positive reviews - not that a company can't be perfect, but when you check out The Plug's Gold IRA Company reviews you will find negative comments for all Gold Dealers. The online gold retailers have the worst reviews and even the good Gold IRA companies have negative reviews.
If not Patriot Gold Group, then Who?
We have our 5 Best Gold IRA Companies Review where we give you our top choices. #1 is Goldco and #2 is Augusta Precious Metals, both are excellent Gold IRA Companies that have worked with thousands of individuals and have assisted many investors buy gold and silver. Both companies offer the Best in the Industry Educational Resources and Augusta Precious Metals even has one-on-one consultation before any metals are purchased.
The only major difference is Goldco has a $25,000 minimum rollover requirement while Augusta Precious Metals has a higher qualification requirement of $50,000. These companies don't make their minimum requirements high to make money, they make them high to ensure they are working with individuals who are educated and understand how precious metals can benefit their portfolio. Neither company is an expert and neither company will tell you which product to purchase. They both will help facilitate your Gold IRA setup and will be there when you are ready to purchase gold or silver.