Patriot Gold Group is a popular company that you might have heard about online. They offer a variety of gold and silver products for purchase. In addition, they have gold IRA services, in which they help you move some of your retirement funds into a new account to buy gold.

But the precious metals industry is rife with scammers and con artists. You might be wondering whether you can actually trust the people behind Patriot Gold Group. Who is in charge of the company? What qualifications and experience do they have? And more importantly, have there ever been any scam reports filed by past customers?

We've delved into the issue to find out everything that you should know.

  • Product: Precious Metals
  • Owner: Jack Hanney (CEO and Co-Owner)
  • Overall Rating: 4.5/5

If you are interested in investing, make sure to take a look at our highest recommended companies for this year!

>> Click Here For A List Of The 5 Highest Recommended Precious Metals Investment Companies <<

About Patriot Gold Group

Is Patriot Gold Group Legit?

Patriot Gold Group provides a broad range of precious metals services to people all over the United States. According to their website, you will always work with one of the company's owners. Dozens of customers have left positive reviews online stating that the company does adhere to its policies.

The company's owners and executives have more than half a century in industries like precious metals, investing, and general finance. They have a good sense of the global markets and how to safeguard your wealth with basic precious metals investments. The upper management all have backgrounds in wholesale and retail precious metals firms.

Again, each customer works directly with the owners. Patriot Gold Group is structured to give a boutique feel despite serving thousands of people. They have gotten rid of many of the usual corporate layers that you'd find at a business of this size. In addition, they are not publicly owned and do not have major shareholder obligations, so their focus is always on the customer rather than the investor.

Another note from the company website is that they operate with very little overhead. Their goal is to connect clients to products at wholesale prices, rather than the usual retail prices. Wholesalers tend to receive steep discounts on precious metals products because they buy in bulk.

The company makes several guarantees to new customers. In addition to directly working with the company owners, they promise that it will only take 24 hours to set up an IRA. There are no lifetime fees on the company's gold and silver IRAs, although there are some setup costs. Normally, it costs a few hundred dollars per year to maintain the storage and maintenance of a precious metals IRA.

About the Staff

Is Patriot Gold Group Legit?

It can be helpful to learn about the staff members at a company to determine whether or not the practice is legitimate. Fortunately for Patriot Gold Group, there's a lot of information available about the management online. In addition to the company website, many of these employees' identities are confirmed by Linkedin and other company reviews.

The CEO of Patriot Gold Group is Jack Hanney, an expert with over twenty years of career experience in the investment industry. The son of a politician and insurance company owner, Hanney started studying under an incredibly successful investor in his twenties. After working as a sales manager at multiple trading companies, he was scouted by several tech firms, then returned to the financial industry.

Between 2010 and 2014, Jack Hanney worked as an Executive Trader with a private trading brokerage, turning down job offers with more well known entities to do so. He has been overseeing the retail and wholesale divisions of Patriot Gold Group for several years now.

Senior partner Mike Celano has lived all over the world and has an excellent understanding of global economics. In fact, he has studied the global markets and currencies in depth, learning about how different factors affect entire industries. After college, he became an executive manager at Costco and studied under an incredibly successful investor.

Prior to starting work with Patriot Gold Group, Celano had several different positions as a client relationship manager, director of trading, and general manager at nationwide precious metals retail firms. He knows basically all of the ins and outs of the precious metals industry.

Senior partner Charley Chartoff began his career in real estate, buying up Southern California homes and creating an impressive portfolio. But then he decided to shift his focus into tangible assets like gold and silver. Over time, he focused on gold IRAs and other precious metals retirement accounts, because he realized that gold and silver are important to a balanced portfolio.

Following this shift, he became the Director of Retirement Service at one of the biggest precious metals retailers in the United States. He was in charge of their entire gold IRA program and helped many clients to open their precious metals accounts. Following this, he became the retirement director at a nationwide wholesale precious metals dealer.

About Patriot Gold Group IRAs

Is Patriot Gold Group Legit?

One of the big focuses of the Patriot Gold Group company is on gold IRAs. Since 1997, it has been legal to store certain precious metals products in your retirement account. They must be gold, silver, platinum, or palladium bullion products that are investment grade and of a certain purity level. You also can't use collectible coins, and bars must be certified from a reputable refinery.

There's a lot of red tape around precious metals IRAs. Not only are there stringent requirements on the actual products, but there's also a lot of paperwork involved in creating your account and funding it. That goes doubly if you're funding the account from your current retirement account, rather than from your savings. Then you have to make sure that the products are sent to an approved depository and maintained properly by your custodian.

Understandably, many people don't want to deal with the headache of opening an account and navigating all the red tape. Companies like Patriot Gold Group have helped to streamline the process instead. Someone at the company will take you through the paperwork and answer your questions, making it much easier to set up your account. They'll put you in touch with your custodian, or in some cases, talk to your custodian directly on your behalf. That saves you time and energy.

The Patriot Gold Group website states that there are no fees on your IRA for life. That's highly unusual in this industry, since you'd usually pay an annual fee to both your custodian and your storage company for keeping your account open. Oftentimes, this is a flat fee that's taken quarterly or annually from the account itself.

If you're interested in starting an IRA with Patriot Gold Group, you have the opportunity to fill out a form on the website or to call them directly.

Steps to Opening an IRA

Is Patriot Gold Group Legit?

The Patriot Gold Group website says that there are just three simple steps to opening an IRA. These are similar to the steps that you'll take with other competing IRA companies. There is a minimum account requirement, meaning that you need to commit to investing a certain amount if you want to have your fees waived for life.

The first step is to get in contact with the company. Whether you fill out the contact form or call their phone number, you'll be able to speak directly with a company representative. There is also a free gold IRA guide that you can receive by filling out the form. Many competing companies have similar free investment guides.

Once you have set up your account, the account should be ready within 24 hours. Now you'll need to fund it. You can either transfer funds from your bank account or from another retirement account. If you use another retirement account, you will need to transfer the funds within a certain period of time to avoid penalties. A company representative will help with the paperwork and make sure that it's filed correctly and on time.

Then, after the money is in the account, it can be used to buy precious metals. With a self-directed IRA, you have total control over how your money is spent. You will talk to your Patriot Gold Group representative about your goals, needs, and what products are available. They will answer your questions and make suggestions based around the most useful products for you.

Fees for the Company

Is Patriot Gold Group Legit?

If you're using the IRA services, you will need to pay certain fees. In order to have your setup fees waived and have your account fees covered for life, you will be required to invest at least $250,000. For people who are investing less than that, there is a setup fee for the account of $225. You will still need to meet the minimum requirement of $30,000 to use the services at all.

If you are charged a rollover fee, Patriot Gold Group will reimburse you. You can talk to your company representative to find out whether they are running any specific promotions, or whether you can get access to any other deals.

Patriot Gold Group works with a variety of custodians and depositories, but they can accommodate any company to the wishes of their customer. So if you have a particular custodian in mind, you don't need to worry. Some of the custodians that Patriot Gold Group works with most often are Equity Institutional and Strata Trust Company, both of which have great reputations and tons of good client reviews.

The Patriot Gold Group website says that some home storage solutions are available for certain accounts. We do not recommend trying to store IRA gold in your home, as this is against IRS regulations. Even if you use paperwork loopholes to make it "technically" legal, it is frowned upon and could get you in trouble.

However, many people do choose to store their non-IRA gold investments at home. While a storage depository will always be more secure, you might be interested in investing in a safe. A solid insurance policy is also vital for any home storage setup.

Is Patriot Gold Group Legitimate?

Is Patriot Gold Group Legit?

Patriot Gold Group is a legitimate business. In addition to being legitimate, they have excellent reviews. Most customers give them five out of five stars across multiple different trusted websites. For example, they have a five star average on Consumer Affairs with over 140 ratings, 4.9 stars on Trustpilot with over 80 ratings, and 4.8 stars on Facebook with over 50 ratings.

The Better Business Bureau has accredited the company and gives them an A+, the highest possible rating. According to the BBB website, Patriot Gold Group has been in business for six years and was accredited in April of 2022. There is just one customer review, which gives 5 out of 5 stars. There have been no official complaints filed against the business within the last three years.

The company also boasts a variety of other qualifications and accolades from organizations in the industry. For example, Consumer Affairs has named them as one of the best gold and silver dealers in the US for every year from 2016 through 2020.

Pros & Cons of Patriot Gold Group

Pros:

  • Quick processing time by competent staff.
  • Knowledgeable and reputable firm with over 30 years of experience.
  • Client has their choice of custodian and storage depository.

Cons:

  • Slightly limited inventory, with only gold and silver options available for an IRA.
  • Slightly higher startup fees than with some other competing companies.

Final Thoughts

Patriot Gold Group is one of the top companies to use if you're opening a gold IRA. They have an excellent reputation in the industry, and their customer reviews are largely satisfied. There are a few downsides to be aware of, though, such as the slightly higher fees and the lack of platinum or palladium options.

While we can recommend Patriot Gold Group, there are a few other companies that we rank more highly. If you can, we'd recommend using one of these instead.

Don't forget to check out our top recommended companies before investing!

Click Here For Our Top Recommended Companies For This Year