What is Augusta Precious Metals?
Augusta Precious Metals is a precious metals dealer based in Wyoming. They have been in the industry for 10 years and have established a strong reputation.
The IRA company has two offices. Their headquarters is located at 5830 East 2nd Street, Casper, WY, US 82609.
Similarly, their secondary address is 8484 Wilshire Blvd #515, Beverly Hills, CA 90211.
To keep things easy for clients, the company has two dedicated phone numbers.
If you’re new to the company, you can call them on 844-615-4484 while existing clients can call them on 855-909-0082.
However, their website has an easy to use interface so you can check out their product selection directly there.
Furthermore, Augusta Precious Metals enjoys an A+ rating on BBB with 100+ reviews.
Apart from BBB, the company has hundreds of positive reviews on multiple third-party platforms including ConsumerAffairs, BCA, Trustlink and Google My Business.
A strong point of the firm is its own team of experts. While an endorsement by Joe Montana is a prominent positive, their team of experts ensures the company offers proper guidance to its clients.
The company started in 2012 and has expanded substantially.
They offer multiple IRS-approved coins. But if you want collectible bullion, you can find them here as well.
The employee reviews of Augusta Precious Metals reflect a near-perfect rating of 98%.
Certainly, the company has put a lot of focus on providing its staff with a positive work environment.
Here’s some info on the people running this bullion dealer:
Who is Isaac Nuriani?
Isaac Nuriani is the founder and CEO of Augusta Precious Metals. He is a member of the Industry Council for Tangible Assets (ICTA) as well as Ethics.net.
Isaac has an economics degree with honors from the University of California, Los Angeles.
He currently acts as a guide to industry professionals. According to the employee reviews, Isaas Nuriani has an approval rating of 97%.
Furthermore, you would see plenty of Augusta Precious Metals reviews where Isaac responds personally.
The leadership of Augusta has several additional reputed professionals specializing in their respective departments.
Other Notable People at Augusta Precious Metals
Devlyn Steele (Director of Education)
Devlyn Steele has over 30 years of experience in financial services and economics. He has processed financial assets worth over $2 billion.
At Augusta, he serves as the Director of Education and helps consumers learn more about retirement savings and investments.
Also, he is a member of Harvard Business School’s business analytics program.
Augusta describes Devlyn as one of the few experts who accurately predicted the 2008 financial crisis.
His webinars and conferences have helped the precious metals dealer to attract many notable clients. This includes their brand ambassador and client Joe Montana.
Many clients praise Devlyn for his direct approach when discussing investing.
In fact, I found plenty of reviews where clients were highlighting how Devlyn Steele answered their questions and made things easier for them to understand.
Howard Smith (CFO)
Howard Smith is the Chief Financial Officer at Augusta Precious Metals. He is a Certified Public Account (CPA) and has an economics/finance degree from the University of Toronto.
Like other members of Augusta’s management, Howard has decades of industry experience.
He has operated in capital markets and banking sector for over 20 years. Howard Smith joined this gold IRA company in 2018 and provides them with a unique risk management approach.
He gained experience in risk management by serving local/federal governments and several major banks.
Primarily, Howard helps the clients of Augusta Precious Metals understand and overcome the various possible risks which affect their retirement.
How to Invest with Augusta Precious Metals: Step-by-step Guide
Signing up with Augusta is easy. You have to follow these steps:
Step #1:
To sign up with Augusta Precious Metals, you only need to fill in the required fields in their “Get Started” page.
Step #2:
Afterwards, the company would assign you a customer success agent after which you would attend a one-on-one web conference with Mr. Steele, Augusta’s Director of Education.
The conference will help you understand the suitable investments for you and remove any confusion.
Step #3
Then, you would have ot sign a legal transaction agreement, choose your preferred IRA custodian and fund your account.
After adding funds to your IRA account, you only need to buy the precious metals you were interested in and the company will store then in a safe depository.
That’s it.
With just these three steps you would have a complete Augusta Precious Metals IRA account of your own.
Augusta Precious Metals Products: Gold, Silver Bullion and More
As a precious metals dealer, Augusta Precious Metals has a large selection of bullion products:
IRA Eligible Coins
For investors who want to start small or want a lot of variety in their IRA portfolio, Augusta Precious Metals offers large range of IRA eligible coins.
You can find both gold and silver coins here.
The Gold American Eagle Proofs is a great example.
It is a 1 oz coin with a composition of 91.67% gold, 3% silver and 5.33% copper. These are the only collectible coins permissible in a US IRA account.
The front of the coin duplicates the $20 Saint-Gaudens gold coin while the reverse shows a male balding eagle holdingan olive branch.
As it’s a premium coin, its value is more than the spot price of the precious metals it’s made of.
Premium Silver Products
Augusta Precious Metals offers many premium products. These products’ value is higher than their spot price due to their ‘collecible’ nature.
Their designs are more intricate and most of them are limited so they get sold out quickly.
A great example of their premium silver products is the 2015 Canadsa 1.5oz Silver $8 Polar bear and Cub.
Its limited mintage and artistic design makes it a must-have for any collector of silver coins.
The coin shows a young apolar bear cub and its mother traveling across the harsh and icy Northwest.
There are plenty of other options too including the 2021 Royal Canadian Mint 1.25oz Silver Soaring Eagle and the 2016 Canadian 1.5oz Silver $8 White Falcon.
Premium Gold Products
Similar to the premium silver products, you can find various designer and attractive premium gold products at Augusta.
The 2022 St Helena Gold Sovereign is probably the best example to showcase their colleciton.
It’s the official legal tender of Saint Helena. The Royal Arms of England shows three lions to represent England, Normandy and Quitaine.
Also, the obverse has the effigy of Her Majesyy Queen Elizabeth II by Rapheel Maklouf, the renowned scupltor.
Face value of the coin is GBP 25.
That’s not all.
Augusta Precious Metals offers a large variety of premium gold bullion:
Common Silver Products
If you’re not interested in collectible coins and want to take a more straightforward approach with your IRA portfolio, you can check out Augusta’s common silver products.
Augusta Precious Metals offers a lot of variety in this category. You can purchase coins, bars or bags full of silver products worth a certain amount.
For example, you can buy the America The Beautiful 5oz Fort Moultrie, a .999 fine silver coin.
It gets five new releases every year from teh United States Mint. The obverse shows the ATB Fort Moultrie with President George Washington.
Alternatively, you can buy a 10oz or 100oz Silver bar. You also have the option to buy Silver 90% bags of various values ranging from $100 to $1000.
Silver products are a great addition to a precious metals IRA as they add diversification to your portfolio. Moreover, silver has been able to outperform gold in multiple instances.
Common Gold Products
You can begin building your Augusta Precious Metals IRA with their common gold products collection.
In this category, you’ll find 8 kinds of gold coins to purchase.
The South African Gold Krugerrand 1oz (Random Year) is a great example to showcase this collection.
This coin displays Paul Kruger, the first South African president. The Krugerrand is among the most recognizable bullion coins globally.
Other notable coins in this collection include Gold Canadian Maple Leaf 1oz BU (Random Year) and Austrian 1oz Gold Philharmonic BU (Random Year).
Also, you can purchase Gold bars of 1oz or 10oz depending on your preferences.
Certainly, Augusta Precious Metals has an impressive collection for a gold IRA.
Augusta Precious Metals Fees: How Much Do They Charge?
The fee structure of Augusta is pretty reasonable.
They don’t charge any IRA management fees but clients may have to pay the IRA custodian.
Furthermore the Augusta Precious Metals fees for IRA set up is only $50.
Similarly, their annual fee for storing bullion in an IRS-approved vault is only $100/per year.
| Initial IRA set up fee | $50 |
| IRA management fee | $0 |
| Annual fee for bullion storage | $100 |
It’s worth noting that Augusta Precious Metals fees are low because they also charge spreads. A bid/ask spread is the difference in the asking price and the bidding price for a particular asset available on the market.
Their spreads are usually 5% for common bullion products and 33% for premium products.
The minimum deposit requirement to open an account with Augusta is $50,000. It might be a bit steep for some investors but the low Augusta Precious Metals fees make up for it.
Additional Highlights of Augusta Precious Metals
IRA Custodians and Storage –
Augusta Precious Metals allows its clients to store their precious metals in an IRA-approved vault.
These storages are available in:
- Salt Lake City (Utah)
- Wilmington (Delaware)
- Los Angeles (California)
- Springfield Gardens (New York)
- Jackson (Ohio)
- New Castle (Delaware)
However, Augusta recommends using the Delaware Depository because it has an insurance of up to $1 billion from London underwriters. Furthermore, the Delaware Depository is IRA-approved.
While Augusta Precious Metals doesn’t offer IRA custodianship in-house it has a preferred custodian they prefer. It’s Equity Trust.
Equity Trust is among the leading self-directed IRA providers in the US. They have over 3 decades of experience and manage more than $25 billion in assets.
Dedicated Compliance –
One of the biggest pros of Augusta Precious Metals is their compliance section. A team of three experienced professionals handles compliance outside Augusta.
They ensure that the company follows all the rules and regulations.
The administrator of their compliance department is Mary Obidinsky.
Isaac Nuriani revealed that he wanted a compliance department after he saw companies like Goldline and Merit Gold lacking the same.
Having a compliance department ensures the company doesn’t do anything that’s against its clients’ interests.
IRA Rollovers and Transfers –
For consumers with existing 401(k) accounts or IRA accounts, Augusta offers a smooth rollover process. A rollover involves transferring your funds from an existing 401(k) account to a new one.
Usually, these processes involve a lot of paperwork. But in my Augusta Precious Metals review, I have discovered that their clients appreciate the company’s assistance in rollovers substantially.
Certainly, the company has developed a reputation for helping its clients as much as possible.
Gold Buyback –
Augusta Precious Metals offers a simple and lucrative gold buyback program.
So, if your position changes and you decide to sell your purchased gold products, you can take advantage of this program and liquidate the asset immediately.
The program makes sure you get competitive rates for your gold products.
This program covers liquidation as well as Required Minimum Distribution. It’s a great option to have as many gold IRA companies lack this feature.
Free Gold IRA Guide –
If you’re interested in Augusta Gold IRA and want to find out more information about the company, you can get a free gold IRA kit from them.
Getting the free guide is easy and only requires you to enter your name and other related information.
In the guide, you learn about physical gold IRA, how the process works and what kind of precious metals you can use in your gold IRA.
Endorsed by Joe Montana
Joe Montana is the Brand Ambassador of Augusta Precious Metals. The Hall of Famer is also a customer of the gold IRA company.
Joe says he wanted to find out the best precious metals firm in the US and ended his search with Augusta.
He highlights that his transactions with Augusta went smooth because of their team approach. They had assigned a customer success agent to him who helped him work with the 5 specialized departments of the IRA firm.
Also, he praised the company’s help with ongoing IRA distributions. In fact, he calls it a “lifetime precious metals company”.
A popular sportsman like Joe wouldn’t associate his name with a company unless he trusted the firm’s reputation.
Hence, having Joe Montana as its endorser says a lot about Augusta’s professionalism and care.
He isn’t the only one who claims Augusta is a great gold IRA company.
In fact, there are hundreds of reviews saying the same things as Joe. In the next section of my Augusta Precious Metals review, I have shared what other consumers are saying about them:
Augusta Precious Metals Reviews: What Their Clients Say
This Augusta Precious Metals review would be incomplete if I didn’t cover the various reviews their clients have left online.
Augusta has hundreds of 5-star reviews across multiple consumer platforms. They all highlight different aspects of the company and after verifying some of them, I can say they are organic.
Considering how Augusta has been operating in the gold IRA industry for over a decade, these reviews instill a lot of confidence.
Below is a more detailed overview of Augusta Precious Metal reviews according to different platforms:
Augusta Precious Metals BBB –
The Augusta Precious Metals BBB page has an A+ rating which is the highest possible BBB rating a business can have.
Also, they have 109 customer reviews with an amazing rating of 4.96 out of 5-stars.
BBB gives businesses ratings according to their ethics and quality. The A+ rating on Augusta Precious Metals BBB page shows the company has put a lot of effort into helping its clients.
Their reviews on BBB share how the company answers their questions quickly and makes the entire process much simpler.
For example, Paulette here says Augusta is a professional company which conducts regular webinars. She shares that she was a new investor but the IRA firm answered all of her questions.
Paulette was very happy with Augusta’s service.
Similarly, Claudio says Augusta is a highly professional company which puts a lot of focus on people. He points out that the IRA company understands the concerns of its customers and does its best to mitigate them.
These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Augusta has received similar reviews on several other platforms:
Augusta Precious Metals Reviews Trustlink –
At Trustlink, there are over 280 Augusta Precious Metals reviews. This is the hightest number I found among any review platform.
The rating of Augusta here is 5 out of 5-stars.
Here, the consumers praise the company’s customer service and transparency. The company has even added an alert to the page in case any client has a complaint.
Joe Montana has added an Augusta Precious Metals review himself saying he is not only a paid brand ambassador but a satisfied customer as well.
Stanley highlights that he had a thorough and informative webinar with Devlyn Steele. He received answers to every question and says Augusta is the most transparent company he has contacted to date.
Stanley aded that he thinks the company’s professionalism and genuine explanations made them a leading contender for his business.
Having a 5 out of 5-stars rating with nearly 300 reviews shows customer satisfaction is the biggest priority of Augusta.
Augusta Precious Metals Reviews on BCA –
On BCA, there are 94 Augusta Precious Metals reviews at the time of writing this review.
There, the IRA company enjoys an AAA rating, BCA’s highest. In terms of complaints, there are none.
Customer reviews on BCA are similar to the ones I shared before.
Mitzi says she had many questions when she her IRA from a stock market entity. But Augusta was very patient with her and answered all of her questions.
She realized that moving to a precious metals focused IRA was teh right decision at the time. Mitzi concludes her review by saying Augusta Precious Metals is a trustworthy company and they were honest about everything.
Similarly, Sasha says that a friend recommended Augusta to her. She wanted to learn more about precious metals IRA so Augusta set up a zoom meeting and gave her a presentation.
Also, she highlights that the company answered all of her questions and the team was very helpful.
It’s worth pointing out that Isaac Nuriani, the CEO of Augusta Precious Metals has responded to each one of these reviews. I liked seeing a company owner take such an active approach towards customer service.
Most clients praise the company’s focus on helping its clients through the entire process and ensuring they don’t have any doubts or confusion.
It seems Augusta specializes in educating its clients about precious metals and IRA specifically. This is a good thing because it means as their client, you wouldn’t be left in the dark.
Augusta Precious Metals Lawsuit: Is It Something to Worry About?
According to legal documentation, the Minnesota Department of Commerce filed an Augusta Precious Metals lawsuit claiming the firm sold products above the statutory thresholds without proper registration.
However, the Minnesota Department of Commerce has received a lot of criticism for its ‘over the top” regulation of precious metals investments.
Later, the department authorized an official consent order but it is unclear if they revoked the fine or not.
Still, one thing is obvious – the Augusta Precious Metals lawsuit doesn’t concern consumers.
Should You Invest with Augusta Precious Metals?
Judging from the hundreds of Augusta Precious Metals reviews I found online, it’s obvious that they are a legitimate enterprise.
The company has been in the competitive bullion industry for 10 years. In this period, Augusta has been successful in developing a prominent reputation for providing stellar customer service.
Furthermore, the company’s compliance department operates outside the firm.
It ensures the company always acts in the interests of its clients and follows the stringent industry regulations to the t.
Many of the reviews praise the company’s dedicated customer support. I found it to be amazing as it highlights their professionalism.
Moreover, many reviewers praise Mr. Steele’s work particularly. His large collection of helpful videos and one-on-one conferences help customers resolve doubts and get a deeper understanding of their IRA.
Pros:
- Over a decade of experience
- Hundreds of positive reviews
- Sell a large variety of bullion products
- Competitive pricing and fees
- Have an A+ rating on BBB
- Dedicated compliance department
- Reputed for helping clients
Cons:
- The investment minimum is high ($50,000)
In my opinion, Augusta Precious Metals is an amazing IRA provider for most investors.
They have over 300 5-star reviews across the web. Also, the company has an A+ rating on BBB with 109 reviews praising the company for its exemplary customer service.
The only flaw I found so far is the high minimum requirement.
However, Augusta states that its services are most suitable for investors who havve already saved at least $100,000 to start a $50,000.
APM has an impressive product selection but their high minimum investment requirement makes them suitable only for investors with substantial capital.
Again, the reviews indicate the investment would be worth it.
Furthermore, the company outsources its IRA custodianship. This is great because it allows them to work with custodians on behalf of their clients.
They act as your liaison, making sure the custodian acts in your interest.
Augusta’s large selection of education material, positive reviews, and precious metals products make them a perfect choice for many investors.
Augusta Precious Metals charges very low fees and offers a large product selection for bullion investors.
Furthermore, the company enjoys a near-perfect rating on nearly every review platform.
Their brand ambassador is Hall of Famer quarterback Joe Montana who is also their customer. All of these points indicate this IRA company is suitable for many investors.
While I think Augusta Precious Metals is perfect for beginners and experienced investors alike, you shouldn’t follow my word blindly.
You should always speak to your financial advisor to determine if this IRA provider is suitable.
Your advisor will help you understand the various risks of investing in precious metals. For example, investing in gold can save you from recessions but it wouldn’t generate an income like stocks do.
Also, if you’re looking for a different IRA provider, feel free to check out our gold IRA reviews. Be sure to learn about a company before investing with them.