Many people refer to retirement as the golden years. And, with the help of a gold IRA from Goldco or Regal Assets, you could make those years even more golden.

First, what exactly is an IRA? The letters stand for “individual retirement account.” Simply put, an IRA lets you save and earn money for retirement in a tax-deferred or a tax-free account.

Such an account includes a portfolio of mutual funds, stocks, bonds, or other investments. Over the years, it should keep growing as you make contributions and collect dividends.

A self-directed IRA, meanwhile, permits certain types of investments that other IRAs don’t allow — real estate, for example. And a gold IRA is a self-directed IRA where you invest in gold and other precious metals.

As assets, precious metals tend to be dependable and stable. By contrast, stocks can be volatile. Precious metals are also tangible assets. They won’t disappear, and they generally aren’t devalued by inflation. By contrast, a company in which you hold stock could go out of business someday.

Just keep in mind that diversification can benefit any investment portfolio. Thus, you’ll probably want other assets in addition to precious metals.

If you’re interested in a gold IRA, you could turn to one of two leading companies: Regal Assets and Goldco. But are they reliable? And does one have an edge over the other?

Let’s explore the two and see what conclusions we can draw in the Goldco vs Regal Assets debate.

What to Expect From Regal Assets

Regal Assets has a sterling customer service record with very few complaints from consumers. Consider that this company boasts:

• An A+ score from the Better Business Bureau
• A five-star overall score from TrustLink
• A customer satisfaction rate of 99.9 percent

If you want an IRA from this company, you’ll have to choose which precious metal or metals to buy. Your choices include:

• Gold bars and coins
• Silver bars and coins
• Platinum coins
• Palladium bars and coins

Regal Assets employees can help you figure out which options would be best for you given your current financial situation and your retirement goals.

Once you’ve made your selections, your next step is to transfer money into this new account. If you’d like to roll over funds from a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or a 401(k) plan from a previous employer, a Regal Assets professional can handle that process for you.

If, however, you have a 401(k) account with your current employer, you’ll need to speak to someone at your workplace and find out if a rollover is possible.

At this time, Regal Assets does not charge any administrative or storage fees for the first year, and it doesn’t charge any transfer or rollover fees whatsoever.

Once you’ve paid for your precious metals, Regal Assets will ship them to you within a week. That’s the quickest shipping time in the industry, by the way. Be aware that you’re not allowed to store those metals in your home since the IRS views them as cash.

Instead, you can find a safe, IRS-eligible place to keep them. In terms of convenience and affordability, a deposit box at your bank may be the best option.

Even though they wouldn’t be in your home, you’d have full ownership of those precious metals, and Lloyd’s of London would insure them completely. Moreover, at any time, you’d be free to close your account and take those metals home. You’d just have to pay taxes on them. And, unless you’d reached the age of 59 and a half, you’d pay penalties as well.

In addition to precious metals, Regal Assets lets you invest in one or more of these cryptocurrencies:

• Bitcoin
• Bitcoin Cash
• Bitcoin SV
• EOS
• Ethereum
• Ethereum Classic
• Litecoin
• Stellar (XLM)
• Tezos (XTZ)
• XRP
• Zcash

On top of that, Basic Attention Token, Chainlink, and OMG Network will soon be added to this stellar lineup.

While these digital assets can be unpredictable, they offer massive profit potential. After all, they have a great deal of room to grow in usage and popularity.

Even so, the safest bet would be to only invest an amount of money in cryptocurrencies that you can afford to lose.

How Goldco Operates

Goldco Precious Metals supplies brokerage services that are similar to Regal Assets’. And its customer service department is outstanding, highly responsive to clients’ questions and concerns. Like Regal Assets, this company has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.

To start with, Goldco’s employees can give you valuable tips on gold and silver IRA investing, and they can let you know which purchases would make the most sense for you. The company also distributes a free IRA guide, one that answers many common questions.

When you’re ready, you can contact Goldco to purchase gold coins, gold bars, silver coins, and silver bars. Platinum and palladium options are available, too. And all of these choices are approved by the IRS.

As with Regal Assets, Goldco’s employees can oversee the process of rolling over an existing IRA into this new account. They can roll over any other eligible retirement accounts as well.

Goldco buys precious metals directly. As a result, it can provide them to consumers at lower prices. Furthermore, when you’re ready for your IRA distributions — the withdrawals that you’ll take during your retirement — Goldco is willing to buy back your precious metals from you.

This company recommends but doesn’t require a minimum investment of $25,000. If you can afford that sum, the company will give you silver, separate from your IRA, to compensate you for your first year of storage fees. To earn that silver, you must pay your storage fees upfront.

Goldco’s annual fees start at $175. Once you’ve invested at least $100,000, they amount to $225 per year.

Goldco won’t store your precious metals. However, it has a network of associated storage facilities, and it can connect you to one of those places. Naturally, you may select a storage option outside of that network if you’d like.

Given its IRA rollover and storage services, Goldco can basically handle all of your paperwork tasks. It will even help you to find an IRA custodian. Thus, the process of attaining a precious metals IRA could hardly be simpler.

The Final Analysis

In the matter of Goldco vs Regal Assets, Goldco has an advantage due to the seamlessness of its services. It’s a quality that so many of its customers appreciate.

In the end, though, both companies are trustworthy and helpful. They each provide a safe path to building up that all-important retirement account. Yes, when it comes to precious metals IRAs, Goldco and Regal Assets set a gold standard.