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About Gold Eagle IRA

Gold Eagle IRA is a company that helps clients invest some of their retirement funds into gold. They have a strong focus on the American Eagle, since this is a unique product manufactured by the US Mint. American Eagles have been created since 1985, and they are one of the top investment vehicles in the entire world.

Every American Eagle is mined with gold sourced from the US. Each coin has an imprint of the gold content and the "face" value of the legal tender, which is much lower than the actual value. When you buy and sell an American Eagle, the cost is based around the market value of the included metals. You will pay a little more than the spot price in order to cover the company's overhead.

American Eagles are prioritized in part because they are backed by a government guarantee. No other coin from the US Mint has the full backing of the federal government. When you buy an American Eagle, you can rest assured that the weight, purity, and metal content is guaranteed. There's no need to worry about false appraisals, fraud, or mismarked shipments.

American Eagles are not the only coins that can be kept in a retirement account in the US, but they are some of the most popular. They have staying power over time, with the value growing as the dollar undergoes inflation.

History of the Company

There is very little information online about Gold Eagle IRA's history. The company doesn't seem to have a page with the BBB or the BCA. Normally these organizations would note when the business was formed, as well as when it was accredited if it meets those qualifications.

Even the history page on the Gold Eagle IRA website doesn't have a date or stable timeline for when the company was created. It says that the company was founded in order to connect Americans to high quality precious metals. But there's no information about how long they've been operating.

Gold Eagle IRA provides physical precious metals products to people all across the US. They help their clients to connect with brokerage services for all kinds of coins and bars. The company's personal inventory includes a variety of gold, silver, platinum, and palladium products, the vast majority of which are IRS-approved to be held in an IRA.

The company's CEO is Scott Mickelson, an investor who comes from Des Moines in Iowa. As he grew up, he became aware of how important commodities are. His initial financial career involved trading commodities futures as an investor in California. But then he decided that it was more valuable to actually own physical assets than to make guesses about their future values.

In light of this revelation, Scott went back to Iowa and formed Gold Eagle IRA. His intention is to create a gold bullion company with honesty and integrity, which provides its clients with results and trusted information.

Gold Eagle IRA's services are meant to protect and grow the wealth of various individuals throughout the US. Their website indicates that they can sell to people in all 50 states, though it's not explicitly stated whether or not they've registered with Minnesota as required by state law.

There also isn't information about how large their client base is, or how many employees the company has. It's possible that the entire operation is run by Scott Mickelson. That would make sense with the small internet presence and the lack of a distinctive company Linkedin profile. But we can't say for sure whether that's the case.

Company Services

Gold Eagle IRA provides several services to their clients, all centered around buying precious metals for an IRA. The company provides American Eagles in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. You can call to inquire about their pricing and their available inventory. There's a phone number listed on the website.

Some of the services are geared toward individuals, while others are built for small businesses.

Individual IRA Services

Gold Eagle IRA has services to help demystify the IRA process for new customers. They can help you fill out and file the paperwork to create your account. Then they can help you fund it. You will need to create a self-directed IRA and then transfer in funds either from your savings or from another retirement account.

As long as you're following the rules, you can do an account rollover completely free of penalties. You'll just need to complete the transfer within 60 days. This means contacting your old custodian and coordinating with your new custodian to have the funds sent.

Gold Eagle IRA states that they will help you with a gold IRA rollover. However, they do not have much information about how hands-on their approach is. There are some companies, like our top alternate Goldco, who handle all of the phone calls and communication for you.

Storage

Gold Eagle IRA is not a storage company and does not offer their own storage services. But they do work with the Delaware Depository, which is the biggest depository for precious metals in the country. Located in tax-advantaged Delaware, this extremely secure facility has been operating for more than a century.

If you have a precious metals IRA, you need to store it in an approved depository. These IRAs cannot be stored at home, since the IRS requires your custodian to manage and report about the holdings. You can also store non-IRA gold in the Delaware Depository. In this case, the gold is totally off the books and can't be found or seized by the government.

Every account with the Delaware Depository is insured with the biggest insurance company in the world for up to $1 billion. In addition, Delaware is located far away from any major centers of commerce or potential natural disasters. It is one of the most secure places in the country that you can store anything.

Delaware Depository also has other benefits that aren't available through the majority of competing storage options, because it is a state chartered trust. The company must follow strict banking practices and standards, keep an insurance policy through a private insurer, and not engage in any high risk operations.

This means that the Delaware Depository doesn't accept cash deposits. They also aren't a bank, so they don't offer loans, maintain checking or savings accounts, or engage in any other high risk investments. Their entire purpose is simply to protect your physical retirement holdings.

Local Bank Storage

The Gold Eagle IRA website says that you can also hold your IRA gold in your local bank. This is a legal gray area that makes use of a loophole in the IRS legislation. But the IRS doesn't look very kindly upon it, since you're essentially just skirting their explicit regulations.

It works by creating a limited liability corporation that functions as a shell company. The LLC can be placed into an IRA as an alternative asset. From then on, all of the assets owned by the LLC are also part of the IRA. You will receive a checkbook that you can use to purchase things on behalf of the LLC with the LLC's funds.

So you put money into the LLC and then use the checkbook to buy gold. Since the gold is part of the corporation's assets instead of an asset of its own, there's much more flexibility regarding the storage. You can, in theory, put it into a safety deposit box at the bank instead of a place like the Delaware Depository.

We strongly advise against this route, however. Even though it is a legal gray area, the IRS does not take kindly to people who flout their regulations. You could end up needing to pay some steep penalties and losing a good portion of your account in the process.

The other main service offered by Gold Eagle IRA is for small businesses.

Simple IRAs for Small Businesses

According to the Gold Eagle IRA website, one of their specialties is in helping with Simple IRA plans for corporations and smaller businesses. The 2019 SECURE Act was passed to help give taxpayers extra flexibility in how they make retirement purchases and declare their assets. The goal was to give the average American more opportunities to save for retirement.

New Regulations with the SECURE Act

There are several major new benefits that have gone into effect since 2021 due to the SECURE Act legislation.

Simple IRAs can be created through Gold Eagle IRA if a small business has fewer than 100 employees that are eligible, and this is the only retirement plan that they have administered to their employees.

Reasons to Invest in a Gold IRA

When you go to the Gold Eagle IRA website, you'll find information about why you might want to buy a gold IRA. This involves purchasing physical gold products, rather than investing in items like stocks, mutual funds, or exchange traded funds.

There are certain disadvantages to buying pure gold. For example, the investment will not pay dividends or interest like many traditional assets will. In addition, you will need to pay storage fees in order to comply with the rules. You'll also typically need to wait for several years before you can liquidate your holdings for more than you paid.

But the past few years have been filled with unforeseen economic turbulence, and many people are concerned that the future might hold the same. Gold is an investment that people largely use when they want to feel more secure about their portfolio.

Portfolio Diversification

You shouldn't put all of your retirement savings into precious metals. But if you invest just a small portion into gold, that can create vital diversification. Multiple investment professionals recommend investing in gold because it is a tangible asset with ongoing value.

The market forces that determine how much gold costs work differently from the market forces behind stocks and bonds. In fact, the price of gold often works inversely to traditional assets. When the stock market crashes, the demand for gold goes up, so the price skyrockets. When the economy is thriving, the price of gold tends to be more stable.

So many people invest in gold as a hedge against uncertain times. It can protect your wealth from inflation, whereas typical cash savings simply depreciate over time. It can also give you a protective bubble if you're living on your retirement assets during a major economic crash.

Easy Liquidity

Gold Eagle IRA specifically recommends American Eagle coins because of how easy they are to liquidate. They're an extremely recognizable and respected coin, no matter where you are in the world. The vast majority of precious metals dealerships are willing to purchase them. In addition, the coins function as legal tender.

It is true that liquidating American Eagle coins is simple. There are many companies willing to make a purchase at any given moment. But you'll want to make sure that you're selling for close to the spot price. Too many companies will give you a lowball offer and then mark the products up by hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Gold Eagle IRA doesn't state whether or not they have a buyback program. Without any stated buyback intentions, we have to assume that they don't. There are other competitors who will buy back your American Eagle coins once you decide to liquidate. Oftentimes, these companies will give you better buyback quotes than you'll find with the typical dealerships.

That's a pretty major drawback. While most companies can't guarantee buybacks for legal reasons, it's helpful to know that the option will most likely be available to you. Some companies state that they can't guarantee buybacks, but they haven't ever refused a customer sale request, and they don't plan to start in the future.

Government Backing

As mentioned, American Eagles are the only coins that have the full backing of the federal US government. While there are other bullion coins made by the US Mint that can go into an IRA, American Eagles are the best investment-grade staple. These coins go a long way in any major market and in any coin dealership.

Gold Eagle IRA is unusual for focusing chiefly on American Eagles. Many competing companies have multiple products for sale, some of which might not even be IRA-eligible. But the focus on American Eagles does help to keep the company's inventory small, which is ideal if they're new and just starting to expand.

Is Gold Eagle IRA a Scam?

There isn't any indication that Gold Eagle IRA is a scam company. We haven't been able to find any scam reports online, nor have we found any negative press surrounding the CEO, Scott Mickelson.

However, it has also been difficult to find any reviews of the company at all. Gold Eagle IRA does not appear to have a page on the Better Business Bureau, nor have they been evaluated by the Business Consumer Alliance. We searched popular review sites like Consumer Affairs, Trustpilot, and Trustlink without finding anything.

The company does appear to have a Facebook page with five stars, but there's only one rating. It's not possible to tell whether that rating comes from a customer or from the company owner. In addition, the website doesn't have a solid date for when the company was created.

It's possible that Gold Eagle IRA is just a very new company. They may not have a large client base yet. They have been transparent about the CEO and his financial background, and we were able to find financial podcasts where he guest starred to discuss the benefits of gold investment. So he is definitely a real person.

But it's hard to evaluate a company that doesn't have any online feedback. There's not a strong presence on any of the websites that we would generally use to evaluate their reputation. So we have no way of knowing whether the past customers have been satisfied or not. In fact, we have no way of knowing if there have even been past customers.

Gold Eagle IRA doesn't seem like a bad company. But because there are no reliable reviews available, we can't recommend their services. Maybe once they've had a little more time to establish themselves in the industry and build up their clientele, then we can revisit this company. For now, we recommend working with one of our alternatives.

Our top alternative pick is Goldco. They're a super laid-back and helpful gold IRA company, with services that work for everyone from beginning investors to experienced finance professionals.

Pros & Cons of Gold Eagle IRA

Final Thoughts

Gold Eagle IRA is an interesting company. They seem to offer many of the same services that are provided by other gold IRA dealers. But they also seem to be a very new firm. The CEO has an investment background, but there's no information about how long the company has been in operation or how many employees it has.

In addition, there's nothing specifically setting Gold Eagle IRA apart from other industry competitors. They offer the same IRA services and have partnered with similar custodians and depositories. Their website's page for "what sets us apart" lists the same qualities that other top companies also use.

This is a company that does seem knowledgeable about its products, and it does not appear to be a scam. But there's no way to be sure until we see some more customer feedback online. Until then, we can't fully recommend them. We recommend working with an alternative like Goldco instead, since they're well established and have thousands of positive reviews.

If you are looking to invest, don't forget to checkout our highest recommended companies!

>> Click Here To See Our Top 5 Recommended Precious Metals Investment Companies <<

Currently our #1 recommendation is offering up to $10,000 in free silver!