Advantage Gold Review

Advantage Gold is a popular precious metals IRA provider. But is it right for you? How high are the fees? Read on to find out.

Are you thinking of opening a gold IRA?

If so, it's important that you choose the right IRA provider. After all, they will likely be with you for years to come.

But there's a lot to consider when deciding on a precious metals IRA provider, including:

• What precious metals do they offer?
  
• Is your gold safe?
  
• How high are the fees?

In this detailed review, you'll learn the answers to all of these questions regarding one of the most popular gold IRA providers: Advantage Gold.

Advantage Gold offers tax-advantaged retirement accounts which hold precious metals. Are they right for you?

Let's see.

What is Advantage Gold?

Advantage Gold is a gold and precious metals IRA provider based in Los Angeles, California. They were founded in 2014 by Kirill Zagalsky and Adam Baratta.

Advantage is focused on helping people roll over existing retirement accounts such as 401(k)s into gold IRA accounts.

As a precious metals IRA provider, they offer a range of services related to the setup and maintenance of the IRA.

This includes offering an extensive library of informational materials designed to help you make informed decisions about your retirement planning. Their customer support will help you set up and fund your IRA with gold and other precious metals.

Their support team also manages rollovers so that you can move funds from your existing 401(k)s and other retirement accounts to your Advantage Gold IRA with minimal fuss.

Once you're a member, Advantage's team is available to provide whatever assistance you need throughout the lifetime of your account.

And when it comes time to take distributions from your account upon retirement, they offer a helpful buyback program so that you don't have to go to the trouble of selling your gold on your own.

Advantage Gold is not an IRA custodian, but they work with STRATA Trust Company and Equity Trust Company to provide custodial services for their customers.

Features

Essentially, Advantage Gold does everything related to the services they offer as a gold IRA provider. First, we'll take a look at the Advantage Gold IRA itself.

Gold IRA
The Gold IRA from Advantage Gold is a self-directed IRA account that allows users to invest in gold and other precious metals for retirement. It offers tax benefits that aren't available to those who invest in gold directly, but it is subject to some requirements by the IRS.

Though it's called a Gold IRA, they actually offer four different precious metals for investments:

• Gold
  
• Silver
  
• Platinum
  
• Palladium

Investing in a gold IRA like the one offered by Advantage Gold has several potential benefits.

Since gold and other precious metals have historically retained their value, this can potentially provide much-needed financial stability when it comes time for you to take distributions from your retirement investment accounts.

With Advantage Gold, you may open either a Traditional IRA or Roth IRA, which offers tax advantages.

With a Traditional IRA, you fund your account with pre-tax dollars and are only taxed on withdrawals. Conversely, with a Roth IRA, you invest with post-tax dollars and can make withdrawals tax-free come retirement.

Purchase Gold and Precious Metals Directly
There are certain requirements associated with a physical gold or precious metals IRA.

The IRS requires that gold, silver, platinum, and palladium associated with an IRA account meet minimum purity levels. There are also requirements related to the authenticity of proof coins, among others.

Meeting these requirements when buying gold from an average precious metals dealer may be tricky. At the very least, you expose yourself to some small risk of accidentally buying gold or other precious metals that don't qualify for your IRA account.

That's why it's helpful that Advantage Gold lets you directly purchase coins and bullion to fund your account. It ensures that you'll only purchase qualifying assets and makes the process of including them in your IRA account easier overall.

Here's a look at some of the various coins they offer:

• Moose Gold Bullion Coins
  
• Great-Horned Owl Gold Bullion Coins
  
• Woodland Caribou Gold Bullion Coins
  
• American Eagle Gold Bullion Coins
  
• American Eagle Gold Proof Coins
  
• Moose Silver Bullion Coins
  
• Great-Horned Owl Silver Bullion Coins
  
• Woodland Caribou Silver Bullion Coins
  
• American Eagle Silver Bullion Coins
  
• American Eagle Platinum Bullion Coins
  
• American Eagle Platinum Proof Coins
  
• Leopard Seal Platinum Coins
  
• Canadian Palladium Maple Leaf Coins

And there are plenty more.

Storage
The IRS has strict requirements on where you can store metals associated with a gold or precious metals IRA.^[2]

You aren't allowed to store them at home, in a personal safe, so you should never attempt to open a home storage gold IRA. This would put you in violation of their restrictions and could open yourself up to fines, penalties, and an audit.

Choosing the right storage partner is important in opening a Gold IRA. Fortunately, Advantage Gold makes it easy through their work with two depositories that you can choose from:^[3]

• Brink's Global Services USA, Inc. (Los Angeles or Salt Lake City)
  
• Delaware Depository (Wilmington, DE)

Buyback Program
While it is possible to receive your precious metals in physical form when taking distributions from your IRA account, you would still need to sell them to receive the cash value of your investments.

Rather than forcing you to go through the trouble of finding a buyer for your gold, Advantage Gold offers a buyback program that makes it easy and convenient to convert your precious metals to cash when you need it.

Of course, since you've invested as part of an IRA account, you'll need to be at the minimum age of 59 1/2 to take distributions without incurring a penalty from the IRS on your withdrawals.^[4]

Fees to Look Out for

When saving for retirement, it's important to consider any possible fees that may affect your retirement savings.

Let's take a look at the fees charged by Advantage Gold associated with their Gold IRA accounts.

Because Advantage Gold works with two different custodians, your fees will be different depending on the custodian you choose.

Equity Trust Company^[5]

• Account Setup Fee: $50
  
• Variable Annual Maintenance Fee: $225 or more
  
• Segregated Precious Metals Storage: $150
  
• (or) Non-Segregated Precious Metals Storage: $100

STRATA Trust Company^[6]

• Account Setup Fee: $50
  
• Annual Maintenance Fee: $95 or more
  
• Segregated Precious Metals Storage: $150
  
• (or) Non-Segregated Precious Metals Storage: $100

Advantage Gold requires at least a $25,000 minimum investment for IRA rollovers.

How It Compares

Now that we've taken a detailed look at Advantage Gold and its features and fees, let's see how it compares to some of its most popular competitors.

Advantage Gold vs Augusta Precious Metals

	Advantage GoldGoldco
	Learn More	Visit Site
		SPECIAL OFFER Gold IRA Company Integrity Checklist - Learn More
	Benefits and Features
Annual Fee	$200	$200 after first year
Minimum Investment	$25,000	$50,000
Gold IRA
Setup Fee	$80	$50
Silver IRA
Platinum IRA
Palladium IRA
Buyback	Yes	Yes
	Learn More	Visit Site
		Gold IRA Company Integrity Checklist Silver IRA Retirement Diversification Free Gold IRA Web Conference
Blank fields may indicate the information is not available, not applicable, or not known to CreditDonkey. Please visit the product website for details.

Augusta Precious Metals is a widely used precious metals IRA provider that offers many of the same features as Advantage Gold, though they do differ in some regards.

Augusta has a $50,000 minimum investment requirement that may be too steep for some investors.^[7]

Augusta Precious Metals also only offers gold and silver, while Advantage Gold offers platinum and palladium as well. They both have strong reviews from online resources and charge similar fees.

You may choose Augusta over Advantage if you're looking for a wider selection of gold and silver coins and bullion.

Gold IRA Company Integrity Checklist

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Free report and checklist that helps consumers compare and choose a reputable gold IRA company

Advantage Gold vs Patriot Gold Group

	Advantage Gold	Patriot Gold Group
Annual Fee	$200	$200
Minimum Investment	$25,000	$50,000
Gold IRA
Setup Fee	$80	5% on dealer-over-cost metal prices
Silver IRA
Platinum IRA
Palladium IRA
Buyback	Yes	Yes
Blank fields may indicate the information is not available, not applicable, or not known to CreditDonkey. Please visit the product website for details.

Patriot Gold Group is another Gold IRA provider that works with STRATA Trust and Equity Institutional as custodians. They offer the same four metals as Advantage Gold and essentially the same services.

Patriot Gold Group has a minimum investment requirement of $50,000. Patriot also has higher fees, but these fees can be waived with large enough deposits.

You might choose Patriot Gold Group over Advantage Gold if you have $100,000 or more to invest, which will qualify you for their No Fee for Life IRA.

Bottom Line

Advantage Gold is a gold and precious metals IRA provider that offers similar services and rates to many competitors. They offer a modest selection of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins and bullion, though their prices are not publicly listed.

You might choose them as your provider for their extensive educational materials or because of their lower minimum investment requirement. You might choose a different custodian if you want to invest a large amount to save on fees.

References