Birch Gold Group Review

Diversifying your retirement account with gold and precious metals can be a highly profitable endeavor. A self-directed IRA account allows you trade in precious physical metals at a tax advantage. Better still, these precious metals are known to weather all financial uncertainties. Gold is by far the truest definition of wealth. However, the main challenge for investors is finding the right broker. Birch Gold is a renowned dealer of gold in the US. This review puts the gold company under a microscope to examine the good and the bad so you can make an informed decision to invest or not to invest with them.

About Birch Gold Group

The Birch Gold Group is another IRA focused gold company. They are based out of California and they consider themselves one of the best gold IRA companies around. Using personal attention the Birch Gold Group works heavily to educate their clients. They believe that more educated clients make better informed purchases but also are happier in the end.

This gold dealer has been in business since 2003. Birch Gold sells physical gold and other precious metals like silver and platinum for IRA accounts or physical possessions. The company operates from Burbank, California, and carries the Inc.com verification badge. The latter is a business editorial company that vouches for a business’ smooth operations without necessarily endorsing their products and services.

The Birch Gold Group Website

According to the gold dealer’s website, their first commitment is creating a knowledgeable investor out of an everyday person. The company categorically states that apart from facilitating selling and buying of gold and precious metals, they engage in providing information to help investors navigate this area of the business.

It wouldn’t be a lie to say that they have lived up to that expectation because their website already has many informational pieces on investing in gold. When you zoom over to the Education section on birchgold.com, you will find many articles touching on:

Benefits of investing in precious metals
How to purchase the precious metals
Difference between physical and paper gold

What’s more, this section also has a downloadable information kit that might help to get new investors at par with the savvy ones. Users also have access to a News section that updates on the latest happenings in the market.

Precious Metal IRA services

Birch Gold helps investors safeguard their retirement savings by moving their money to IRA gold and silver accounts. These precious metals can give investors some peace of mind, as opposed to the fluctuating dollar.

The products of the company include

Gold:

American Gold Eagle
American Gold Eagle
American Buffalo
Canadian Gold Maple Leaf
South African Krugerrand
Gold Indian Head Eagle
Liberty Head (Coronet Head) collection
Liberty Head Double Eagle
Saint-Gaudens double eagle
Gold Bars and Rounds
Valcambi CombiBars
Gold Polar Bear

Silver:

American Silver Eagle
American Silver Eagle
Canadian Silver Maple Leaf
Morgan Silver Dollar
Peace Silver Dollar
Walking Liberty Half Dollar
Silver Bars and Rounds
Silver Polar Bear and Cub
Silver Gyrfalcon
America the Beautiful Silver Series
Silver Twin Maples

Platinum:

American Platinum Eagle
Platinum Bars and Rounds

Palladium:

Canadian Palladium Maple Leaf
Palladium Bars and Rounds

We can see that Birch Gold has a vast list of precious metals and gold, but it is important to note that out of all, the IRA approved ones are only a few. You might find that to be constraining when you to need to expand your IRA gold portfolio.

The process of opening a precious metals IRA account

Birch gold can walk you through the process of opening an IRA account. The company says they can also help you roll over your 401K or other retirement accounts to a self-directed IRA account. The process involves:

Your Birch Gold specialist assists with transferring funds from your retirement account to an IRA precious metals account
Birch Gold helps you buy IRA precious metals (you can choose one from their list)
Your precious metals are stored at the Brink’s Global Services or Delaware Depository where they are insured up to $1 billion by Lloyd’s of London

Important things to note about this process

For non-IRA purchases, you can get the metals and coins delivered to your house
If your order exceeds $10,000, the shipping is free
For IRA purchases you can store the precious metals through the company at the earlier mentioned depositories
The company can buy back the precious metals if you choose to sell, but without commission

Birch Gold Group Ratings on Consumer Review Sites

Birch Gold says their customer’s service is top of the mark. Although some customers from Better Business Bureau disagree with that claim, most users from Consumer Affairs say the company’s customer service is flawless. There are also positive reviews about the company on Birds Eye and Trust Pilot.

Birch Gold has stated on their site that they are dedicated to providing personal attention to each of their customers. Ideally, you should expect a company that is just as motivated about your satisfaction as it is about their sales. Birch Gold says they take time to listen to each customer, without engaging in hard sale marketing pitches which seems to be true. If you take a look at the Birch Gold site, there are no flashy marketing messages.

What Birch Gold Group could improve according to customers

The company rarely discloses prices when buying gold, this lack of transparency breaches trust according to many users on Better Business Bureau
There is lacking seamlessness between Birch Gold, partner custodians like Strata and customers

The verdict

Birch Gold is a legit IRA gold trading company with lots of positive reviews on business review sites and more than 15 years in business. However, it’s not without some glitches here and there. The biggest concern when trading with Birch Gold Group is the lack of transparency in prices and communication breakdown between custodians, the company, and customers. You might want to be cautious when buying precious metals for your IRA. Make sure to have a look at our top 10 list of reputable gold IRA companies where Birch Gold Group is also listed.