Noble Gold Investments - Reviews, FAQ

Noble Gold Investments IRA Review

$3,000 funding minimum

Solid onboarding process offers online application for a new Gold IRA, incentivized by a “free coin” offer if you complete the online application.
Enjoys a reputation for excellent customer service, low prices, and fair fees.
Only deals with select custodians and storage facilities, so your options are somewhat limited.

Company Background

Noble Gold is led by president and CEO Collin Plume, a veteran of 15 years in precious metal investment, commercial real estate, and insurance investment. His first-hand experience of trying to help clients protect their assets during recessions convinced him of the importance of precious metals as a bulwark against global uncertainty. As a gold dealer, he has closed as many as $28 million in precious metals transactions in one year.

Reputation, Reviews, and Achievements

Nearly every other gold dealer is long on celebrity endorsements — conservative political commentators, former Republican politicians, Chuck Norriss, etc. Not Noble Gold Investments. Nor do they seem to have a lot of press. It’s almost disturbing.

What they do have is a lot of social proof, especially considering how new of a company they are. Their impressive record includes:

More than 160 Google reviews, with an average 4.9 star rating out of five
More than 160 Consumer Affairs reviews, with an average 4.9 star rating out of five
More than 120 TrustLink reviews, with a near perfect five out of five stars
An A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, with an average of 4.9 stars out of 60+ reviews

There is an outlier — Trustpilot, with an average of 2.9 stars. But that’s only out of two reviews, meaning the company suffered disproportionately from one bad review. Overall, this is an impressive record for a relatively new company.

Customer Service

Noble Gold has a reputation for excellent customer service. The “Support” page includes both a toll-free number for support and concierge service. You can also email them for support at info@nobleira.com. The customer support page also includes an extensive FAQ to answer most common questions.

Bonuses and Incentives

Noble Gold offers a “free coin” for users who decide to apply for a new Gold IRA online. It is not clear what kind of coin you get, but remember that one of their most compelling selling points is low minimum investment.

Fees and Charges

While Noble Gold Investments doesn’t shout its fee structure from the rooftops, you can find it on its website if you dig deep enough. In the FAQ page, you will find quoted fees of:

$80 annual maintenance fee
$150 annual storage fee

Apparently, word is out there that the storage fee is actually $160. The FAQ refutes that … but its answer that this is for commingled storage makes little sense, since commingled storage is less expensive. It also makes little sense that the company stipulates that commingled storage somehow threatens your ownership of the assets. The assets are registered, audited, and on the books as yours, even if they are stored in the same compartment as other peoples’ assets.

Minimum Investment

One of the biggest barriers of entry to Gold IRAs is not the legality or availability of the product — it’s the minimum funding requirements. Many Gold IRA providers have high minimum purchase requirements to open a new IRA. $20,000, $30,000, even $50,000 or more.

That might not seem like much in the scope of an entire retirement, but consider this — no financial advisor recommends keeping your entire net worth in the form of physical precious metals. 5%, maybe 10% should be allocated to physical gold, silver, and the like. So to allocate $20,000 in precious metals, we’re talking about a retirement nest egg of $200,000 minimum.

Noble Gold Investments has the advantage of offering customers a low minimum account balance for a new IRA — only $2,000. This means it makes sense to start a new Gold IRA even with retirement savings as low as $20,000. That barrier of entry is very manageable for many employees.

Moreover, with a funding requirement of only $2,000, the new Gold IRA can be funded entirely with new contributions, no rollovers necessary — provided that the owner has not already made too many contributions that year to other IRAs.

Onboarding

Noble Gold includes a toll-free number in the site header that you can call to speak to an expert. You can also enter your contact information to request a “Free Guide.” Once you fill out the form, an email arrives in your inbox within minutes containing an easy-to-download 30-page PDF ebook introducing you to the idea of precious metal IRAs.

After submitting your contact information for the free guide, Noble offers you a free coin if you set up a Gold IRA right now. It doesn’t say what kind of coin — the picture is of a Gold Eagle, but they’re probably not that generous. Still, if you click through to “Get Your Free Coin,” you are taken to an onboarding questionnaire.

This gives the impression that Noble Gold is committed to the digital, automated experience — lending credence to the notion that they save money on overhead and pass the savings on to customers in the form of lower premiums.

Product Selection

You can access Noble Gold Investments’ product selection either from the “Invest” tab of the header menu, or from the “Gold IRA” and “Silver IRA” sections. As you dig into the offerings, one thing jumps out — offerings of more than just gold and silver. Noble Gold Investments offers selections of both platinum and palladium, the “other” two precious metals that the IRS allows you to hold as investments in a precious metals IRA.

Many Gold IRA providers only advertise gold and silver products. That doesn’t mean they are the only products the providers can get ahold of … but it’s refreshing to see a relatively new provider running the whole gamut of available precious metals. Remember, the metals don’t all move together — while one is going down or stagnating, the other one could be going up. To have the most diversified precious metal investing strategy, it’s necessary to have exposure to every metal possible, and Noble Gold Investing seems to have the good to get it done.

Selection within each metal is another story. The website itself only advertises a handful of coins in the gold and silver categories, including popular IRA-approved bullion coins like American Eagles, Canadian Maple Leafs, and Australian Kangaroos. Bars only appear in the platinum and palladium sections — which is to be expected, as platinum and palladium coins are comparatively rare.

It only serves to underline that Noble’s online “product offerings” aren’t intended to be an exhaustive inventory. They probably have access to more products than they advertise … while some of the products they advertise may be out of stock.

Each product does have a separate page you can click through to with more information … but click through to the “Buy Now” page, and it only takes you to a squeeze page with a contact form to get their free IRA guide — in other words, a page to convert you to a lead. You can’t actually buy products on the site, and there is no live pricing.

You will have to speak to a representative to find out what exactly they have available and at what price.

Custodial Options

Noble Gold Investments is not a registered IRA custodian approved by the IRS to manage your Gold IRA. They simply help you set it up and stock it with precious metals. The Noble FAQ page mentions that “your custodian” will be Equity Institutional, implying that this is your choice of custodian if you want to work with Noble.

As always, make sure to do your homework on your IRA custodian. If the custodian makes any mistakes, it could cost you in the form of extra taxes and hefty fees. Make sure your custodian has specific experience with Gold IRAs and a good reputation in the industry. If you want easy Cloud-based account management, make sure your custodian offers that as well.

Storage Options

Many Gold IRA providers tout their access to the famous Delaware Depository, with its stellar record of security, insurance, and online account management functionality. But the cowboys at Noble Gold Investments wave a different flag — the Lone Star.

Noble has an exclusive deal with International Depository Services (IDS) in Dallas. They tout the commitment of Texas to “state’s rights,” as well as recent state laws regarding standards for precious metal deposits, as conditions that make Texas a superior storage option. They tout themselves as “the only Gold IRA company to store assets in Texas.” This is not at all true — plenty of other Gold IRA companies offer storage options in the Lone Star State. But Noble is clearly making a marketing pillar out of this association.

IDS has storage facilities in two US states — Texas or Delaware. Suffice it to say, Noble’s penchant for striking exclusive deals with depositories likely limits your options with respect to the geography (and state politics) of your precious metal storage. (IDS also has storage options in Canada.)

Buyback and Liquidation Policy

Noble gold Investments does offer a “buyback program” — meaning they will re-purchase assets they sold to you. Often this is your fastest, best liquidation option. However, they don’t guarantee to match prices or outbid their competitors, so there may still be a better option out there. It’s comforting to know that you have a guaranteed buyer, but for the kinds of bullion products approved for Gold IRAs, liquidity is rarely an issue since the market for these products is well-established.

Education and Client Empowerment

Noble Gold Investments has a dedicated education section on its website called “Learn.” From there drops down content like “Investment Basics,” “Precious Metals 101,” “Gold and Silver Investing Guide,” and a link to an entire content library.

But this isn’t the only entree into learning that Noble has to offer. Almost everywhere on the website points to an educational resource, from the section on Gold and Silver IRAs to the customer support section, which links back into education “knowledge-base” style.

A few of the articles have embedded video content, but not many of them. This is a shame, because a quick visit to the Noble Gold Investments YouTube channel reveals an embarrassment of riches — over 750 videos, with new video content posted every few days. Considering the power of video content to educate and drive engagement, you would think Noble would highlight this stellar video library more prominently within its educational content. Oh well … it’s certainly nice that it’s there.

Noble’s “Learn” section also has a separate blog for “News, Updates, and Tips.” The financial and market news you will find here is reasonably up-to-date, albeit with a predictable pro-gold slant.

Account Management

Since Noble Gold Investments is not the account custodian, they are not responsible for the management of your Gold IRA. They can only help you set it up and stock it full of precious metals. The job of managing your account — and giving you access to it — falls to the custodian.

As you vet custodians, make sure to ask them what kind of account management ecosystem they offer you. Many investors are accustomed to the convenience of online banking, but Gold IRA custodians might not be with the times. Additionally, the gold depositories themselves have to cooperate, and gold depository is one of the oldest professions. It takes an especially forward-thinking depository to provide an easy digital architecture for Cloud-based account management.

The custodian mentioned in the Noble Gold FAQ, Equity Institutional, does offer 24/7 online account management for assets on deposit in either Texas or Delaware.

Final Thoughts

For a relatively new face on the Gold IRA scene, Noble Gold Investments is an impressive player. Its website doesn’t exactly earn it “wow” factor, but its online reviews, impressive YouTube channel, and selection of products make it well worth considering. If you like the idea of your assets being stored in Texas, Noble may be right in your wheelhouse.
If you want freedom of choice of custodians or depositories, it’s unclear that you’ll get it with Noble. What you will get is a no-frills precious metals dealer that has carved out an impressive space for itself in the Gold IRA niche — all, amazingly, without the help of celebrity endorsers.

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