State of Gold IRA Fee Disclosure: What 16 Companies Publish

Disclosure: Augusta Precious Metals, one of the 16 companies counted here, is our affiliate partner, and we may earn a commission if you request its info kit through a link on this site. It is coded with the same fields as every other company; the full explanation is in Our relationship with Augusta Precious Metals.

This report is part of our Gold IRA research and data section. It counts what each company says on its own website. It does not measure what any company charges, and it does not say that publishing more makes a company better or cheaper. A company can publish a fee schedule and still be expensive, and a company can hold back a schedule and still be fair. The counts only show how much you can learn before you call.

What did we find?

Here are the counts for the 16 company reviews on this site. Each count adds up to 16.

In plain terms: the names of the parties involved are easy to find. Fourteen of 16 name where the metal is stored, and 11 name a custodian. The money questions are harder. Ten of the 16 do not publish their own current dollar fees, and only three publish a markup range.

What do the terms mean?

A custodian is the company that legally holds your IRA and files the tax forms. A depository is the vault that stores the metal. The spread is the gap between what a dealer sells a coin for and what it pays to buy it back. The markup or premium is what a dealer adds above the metal's market price (the spot price). Our guides explain the custodian, the dealer and the depository, dealer premiums and markups and buyback costs.

Company by company

The table lists companies in alphabetical order. It is a record of disclosure, not a scorecard. We do not add totals per company, and no row is better than another.

"Yes" in the last column means we re-opened at least one of that company's own pages on October 17, 2026. Fields drawn from pages we did not re-open are as recorded in the company's review. Where it says "No," we asked for the pages and the request was not granted in this unattended run, so the entry is as recorded in the review: October 15, 2026 for American Hartford Gold and Birch Gold Group, and October 16, 2026 for Allegiance Gold, JM Bullion, Monetary Gold, Money Metals Exchange and U.S. Gold Bureau.

What do the fee numbers look like when they are published?

Six companies put dollar amounts on their own pages. We re-opened four of them, and the examples show why "published" is not the same as "clear."

• Augusta's FAQ says "$50 one-time account setup fee," a "$125 annual custodian fee" and a "$110 annual depository storage and insurance fee," and totals them to "$285 for the first year and $235 per year thereafter," according to its FAQ.
• Goldco's cost article says the setup fee is "a one-time fee of $50," the annual account fee is "$125 per year," and storage is "$100 per year" (the page also gives $150 for segregated storage), according to Goldco's page. Another Goldco article, the FAQ, says "around $80" for the annual fee, as we recorded in our Goldco review.
• Lear Capital's IRA FAQ says "The fee for the first year is $315 and $235 each subsequent year," and the page ties that to electronic statements and non-segregated storage. Our Lear review records other Lear pages with $315 to $365 for the first year.
• Noble Gold's support page says "There is a one-time $80 setup fee, followed by a flat annual rate of $275." Its Gold IRA pages, as recorded in our review, list a $50 setup fee, $125 maintenance and $160 storage.

These are company statements, not confirmed charges. When two pages from one company disagree, you cannot tell from the website which applies to you. Our fee database shows the figures side by side with their source pages.

What about companies that do not publish dollar fees?

Eight companies gave no dollar amounts for IRA account or storage fees on the pages we read. Their pages say different things:

• Advantage Gold's FAQ page, which we re-opened, lists no fee dollar figures. It describes physical gold as carrying a one-time dealer premium and no annual fee, and on buybacks says "We'll never turn away a customer." The FAQ gives no buyback price terms.
• Preserve Gold's page says "We don't charge account setup, liquidation, or hidden fees" and that storage fees may be waived, and it lists no storage amounts.
• Patriot Gold Group's IRA page refers to a "NO FEE FOR LIFE IRA PROGRAM" with "(Minimum Account Required)," and does not state the minimum or list fee amounts.
• Priority Gold publishes the custodian's amounts in an article. We counted that separately because they are the custodian's figures, not the dealer's.

A "no fee" claim and a published fee schedule are different kinds of disclosure. The first is a promise you would want to see in your account paperwork. The second is a list you can compare. We counted only dollar amounts.

How are markups and buybacks disclosed?

Three companies give a range for their own markup or spread in a document: American Hartford Gold in its customer agreement, Lear Capital in its terms, and Preserve Gold in its transaction agreement. The ranges are wide. Lear's terms say spreads "generally range," Preserve's agreement gives "typical ranges," and American Hartford's agreement states the range for the date it was offered. None of them is a price for your order. Ten others say only that a premium, markup or spread exists, or that prices vary, with no figure. Three say nothing on the pages we read.

For buybacks, most companies describe a program in friendly terms. Four go further and say how the buyback price is set or what it costs: Orion Metal Exchange (the market price at the time of sale, locked by phone), Preserve Gold, Priority Gold and U.S. Gold Bureau. Priority Gold's buy back policy says it "cannot promise you a set price" and mentions an 18% consignment fee for some products. Several of the others, such as Augusta, say they cannot guarantee a repurchase, according to Augusta's FAQ.

How did we do this? (Method)

1. Scope. The 16 companies are the ones with a published review on this site as of October 17, 2026. We did not pick them as a sample of the market. Four other companies were dropped from our list in October 2026 and are not counted.
2. Source. Each review already records what the company's own pages say, with a date and a link. We read those records first.
3. Re-checking. On October 17, 2026 we tried to re-open the company pages again. We re-opened pages for nine companies: Advantage Gold, Augusta, Goldco, Lear Capital, Noble Gold, Orion, Patriot, Preserve Gold and Priority Gold. For the other seven, the page request was not granted, so those entries come from the review as of its verified date. We say which is which in the table.
4. Coding. We sorted each company into one category per question, using the definitions above. "Dollar fees" means a dollar or percent amount for an IRA account fee or storage fee that the company itself publishes. "General statement" means the company says a premium, markup or spread exists or varies but gives no figure. "Name" means the company names at least one by name, even as an example. "Markup or spread range" means a stated numeric range for the company's own markup or spread.
5. Counting. We counted categories by hand and checked that each question adds to 16. We computed no averages and no scores.

What are the limits?

• This is 16 companies we chose to review, not the whole market. Do not read the counts as industry percentages.
• Websites change. A page can be updated the day after we read it. Our fetch tool also summarizes pages, so we rely on short quotes and on the reviews' records.
• "None found" means we did not find it on the pages we read. A company may give a fee schedule to customers in an application or agreement we did not see.
• We did not collect price quotes. Whether a company's actual charges are high or low is not measured here.
• Category edges are judgment calls. For example, American Hartford Gold's dollar figures appear in older guide PDFs and not on its current FAQ, so we counted it in its own group. Another reader might code it differently.
• A reading may be wrong or out of date. If you see an error, please tell us through our corrections policy.

What should you do with this?

Use the counts as a question list, not a verdict. Ask any company for its fee schedule, minimum, custodian, depository and buyback terms in writing, with a date, before you move money. Compare what you are told with the custodian's own schedule. A fee-only financial planner or a tax professional can help you weigh the trade-offs. Our Gold IRA cost guide and minimum investment guide explain what to look for, and our company evaluation method explains how we review companies.

We have no premium study yet. Our Gold IRA premium index is planned, and it will be published only once we can collect clean, dated, comparable price data.

Related questions

Is a company that publishes more fees more trustworthy?

Not by itself. Publishing a fee schedule is a form of openness, but it does not tell you the fees are low, correct or the ones you will be charged. Check each figure against your own account paperwork.

Why do some companies not publish fees?

We cannot say why. Some say fees depend on the custodian and the account. That can be true, since the custodian and depository charge separately from the dealer (see our custodian, dealer and depository guide), but it also means you need those schedules too.

Will this report be updated?

Yes. We plan to re-count it when we re-verify the reviews.