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Investopedia launched in 1999, and has been helping readers find the best gold IRA accounts since 2020. Investopedia’s team of editors and research analysts evaluated 17 gold providers based on 16 criteria that are critical to helping gold IRA investors meet their financial goals, including fees, buy back guarantees, funding requirements, and more. Our research and ratings are entirely independent, with no influence from advertising partnerships, and our full-time team of expert writers and editors aims to be unbiased to ensure you’re getting the best gold IRA recommendations. Investopedia’s staff editors, research analysts, and compliance managers work hard every business day to keep this article up to date and accurate by monitoring product changes on gold IRA websites and making changes to our content as needed.

What Is a Gold IRA?

A gold IRA is a type of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:self-directed IRA th♈at allows people to invest in physical gold and other precious metals like silver, plati♌num, and palladium.

When people invest in a gold IRA, they don’t keep the physical gold themselves. Instead, IRAs have 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:custodians who are responsible for holding peoples’ account assets. This means that the custodian is responsible for physically storing the gold. And note that only gold of a 'certain fineness'—or purity—may be held in IRAs.

If someone chooses to take ownership of t🥂he gold themselves, it will be considered a distribution. Plus, they might bꦿe on the hook for a 10% penalty if the gold is taken out of the account before age 59 ½.

Gold IRAs offer the same tax benefits as conventional IRAs. If you opt for a澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网: traditional IRA, your contributions are made pre-tax and may be tax-deductible. That means you won’t have to pay tax until you take distributions in retirement. With a Roth IRA, you put in after-tax money, so you don’t have to pay taxes when you take distributions from your retirement savings, as long as you meet certain requirements.

Additionally, the contribution limits for gold IRAs are the same: In 2025, individuals can contribute up to $7,000 and account owners age 50 or older are eligible for catch-up contributions worth up to an additional $1,000.

Yet there are a few key differences between conventional IRAs and s✅elf-directed IRAs.

Unlike conventional IRAs—which are restricted to offering traditional investments like 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, and bonds—self-directed IRAs enable people to invest in alternative assets like precious metals and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:cryptocurrencies.

With self-directed IRAs, custodians take a more hands-off approach and don’t evaluate investment offerings. That means individual investors are responsible for making sure that their investments are legi🌠timate.

Additionally, self-directed IRAs may charge higher fees than conventional IRAs. With gold IRAs, investors may be 🐭charged a fee for storing and maintaining the gold, plus account set-up and annual maintenance fees.

Who Should Consider a Gold IRA?

Gold IRAs are best for investors who want diversification, are concerned about inflation, and are👍 willing to cough up extra cash for the additional fees associated with these IRAs.

However, it may not be the rig♊ht option for many🍬 retirement investors.

While gold is viewed as a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:safe haven asset during economic downturns, a hedge during period🙈s of high inflation, and a diversifier, retirement investors may be better off investing a small portion of their portfolio in gold versus investing the entirety of their IRA in the precious metal. 

Gold may outperform the stock market over shorter periods of time, but the stock market beats gold over long🌸er periods. Note that past returns do not predict future returns.

Plus, gold IRAs can be costly to invest in: The price appreciation from gold🌌 can be wiped out by the stora💞ge, setup, and annual fees.

Pros & Cons of Gold IRAs

Pros Explained

• Hedge against inflation: Hedging is a strategy that involves purchasing an investment that offsets the potential gains or losses of other investments in a portfolio. Gold is thought to be a hedge against inflation, because historically its price has increased when the value of the dollar declines.
• Diversification: With 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:diversification, you can reduce the risk of any single asset in your portfolio by including different types of investments. Plus, when assets are uncorrelated, which means their values don’t move in lock-step, diversification is enhanced. Gold is thought to be a good diversifier—at times, it may be uncorrelated with traditional assets like stocks.
• Tax benefits: When you 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:sell physical gold for a profit, that profit traditionally is subject to capital gains tax. However, whenever you invest in gold via an IRA, you won’t have to pay taxes when buying or selling assets within the account. If you open a traditional IRA, your money grows tax-deferred while it remains in the account. You pay tax when you take distributions in retirement. However, if you opt for a Roth IRA, you pay tax on your upfront contributions. You can withdraw contributions tax-free at any time and age. You can withdraw earnings tax-free once you’ve owned any Roth IRA five years or more and you are age 59 ½ or older. If you’ve owned a Roth IRA at least five years but are younger than 59 ½, withdrawn earnings are taxable unless you qualify for one of the IRS’s exemptions.

Cons Explained

• Lack of dividends or interest: Unlike stocks, which may provide regular 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:dividends, or bonds, that offer interest payments, investing in physical gold offers neither dividends nor interest.
• Volatility: In comparison to the stock market, gold has had periods of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:outperformance and underperformance. However, over longer periods of time (more than 30 years), the stock market has generated better returns. 
• High fees: Many of the best gold IRAs charge storage, set-up, and recurring fees. However, conventional IRAs typically charge far fewer fees than self-directed IRAs—many of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Investopedia’s best IRAs have no trading, account opening, or annual fees or investment minimums.
  

How We Chose the Best Gold IRAs

Investopedia’s ratings of t꧂he best gold IRA companies are based on our own proprietary research into 17 leading providers of gold IRA accounts. We selected the best platforms based on pricing and feeꦚs, transparency, customer service, account amenities, education and research materials, and product selection when building our list of the best gold IRA providers.

For each company, Investopedia's team of researchers and full-time editorial staff analyzed data obtained directly from company websites and representatives. Our data collection process ran from Oct. 8 to Oct. 29, 2024.

We developed a scoring model using this comprehensive data set to evaluate 🌊each company objectively. To ensure accurac𝄹y, all findings were cross-referenced with primary sources. We sorted each data point into key categories and weighted them according to their importance for gold IRA investors:

• Pricing and Fees: 30%
• Transparency: 20%
• Account Amenities: 20%
• Customer Service: 15%
• Education and Research: 10% 
• Product Selection: 5%