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Checking out Birch Gold Group and wondering if this is a legit gold IRA company or a scam that may just take your money?
I’m glad you’re here on my post because I will be going through what Birch Gold Group offers, what features I liked, any features that could be improved, and show you what others think as well.
Buying gold or other precious metals for your investment portfolio is a great decision you have made, now let’s just get you the right partner to safely buy it with.
My Birch Gold Group review will be detailed out in the following sections:
- What Is Birch Gold Group?
- What Is Offered At Birch Gold Group?
- Highlighted Features
- Areas Of Improvement
- Trust Factor
- Is Birch Gold Group A Scam?
- Forward Thinking Company
WHAT IS BIRCH GOLD GROUP?
Program Name: Birch Gold Group
Website: birchgold.com
Price: Minimum $10,000
CEO: Laith Alsarraf
Recommended? No
Birch Gold Group is a precious metals company that helps people buy and sell gold, silver, platinum, and palladium to add to their retirement plan or for physical possession.
They started back in 2003 and are headquartered in Burbank, CA with Laith Alsarraf as their CEO and owner.
Fun fact about Laith Alsarraf, he started out in a completely different industry: pornography. He had founded the company AdultCheck back then before he got into the gold, precious metals business.
Glad he got out of that industry and instead he heads Birch Gold Group helping many people protect their nest eggs with precious metal-backed IRAs or 401Ks.
The company strives on educating their clients on the various options they have and partnering them with the right metals that will offer them the best investment for retirement and protection from inflation.
WHAT IS OFFERED AT BIRCH GOLD GROUP?
The products available at Birch Gold Group are gold, silver, platinum and palladium in the form of bullion and coins.
You’ll be able to buy them to keep for yourself at home or stored somewhere else of your choice or you can buy them to keep in a retirement vehicle like the 401K or IRA.
The gold coins include American Gold Eagle, American Buffalo, Canadian Gold Maple Leaf, and South African Krugerrand are a few examples of what they have in gold but they also have several other options as well.
Their silver coins have quite the variety as well including Silver Twin Maples, American Silver Eagle, Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, Morgan Silver Dollar, Peace Silver Dollar, and a few more.
You could buy platinum in bars and rounds too as well as the American Platinum Eagle.
Palladium comes in bars and rounds as well and have the Canadian Palladium Maple Leaf for the coin.
Can You Get Gold Shipped To Your House?
Yes, you can buy any precious metals for physical possession and get it shipped to your house within 3 – 7 days of you funding your purchase.
However, not sure how long the shipping takes or what they use to ship, and there is a shipping cost for orders under $10,000.
What If I Don’t Want To Store Gold At Home?
Birch Gold Group has two storing options for you, they use Delaware Depository and Brinks.
Delaware Depository is the nation’s largest precious metals depository outside of New York City and stores precious metals for financial companies and individuals.
If you want international storage, Brinks is the way to go as they are the leaders in secure logistics, security solutions provider, as well as risk management.
Brinks has secured locations all around the world for you to pick and choose where you want to store your precious metals.
Will I Have The Option To Sell The Gold Back?
Yes, Birch Gold Group does buy back your gold or precious metals without commission.
HIGHLIGHTED FEATURES
Here I will list the features that I would like to highlight that makes Birch Gold Group a good choice:
- Gold & Silver IRAs Offered (USA)
- Open an IRA account within 24 hours
- Wide Range of Variety in Products
- Credibility in the industry
- US Mint Listed Dealer
AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT
I found some areas of improvement that I would like to point out for Birch Gold Group:
- Need Shorter Processing Times – Because they don’t use electronic IRA applications and use physical ones instead, all your processing times will take way longer than a company that uses digital applications forms and electronic signatures.
- No Segregated Storage – Segregated storage is not available as I found nothing on this on their website. Segregated storage is way better because your specific precious metals are separately stored under your name (or company) that the metals were bought under and they are independently audited and verified. At Birch Gold Group, your assets are pooled with others and your investment is under shared ownership.
- Not All Fees Are Disclosed – When deciding which gold IRA company to go with, it’s good to know what their fees are as that could really add up if they use a scaling strategy. The only info I found was initial set up for an IRA is $90, annual storage is $160 per year flat, but annual admin fee is unknown.
- Services Not Available – No Canadian gold-backed RRSP, no crypto-backed IRAs.
TRUST FACTOR
Here I will go over Birch Gold Group’s ratings, reviews, & complaints from its customers.
The go-to places to look for customer reviews and feedback are on the following platforms:
- BBB Rating: A+,
based on 66 Reviews, 6 Complaints - BCA Rating: AAA, based on 1 Review, 0 Complaints
- Trustlink Rating: based on 71 reviews as of this review.
They do have great customer services and people give them a 5 star rating, and there are only a little bit of complaints which when I read through most are just customers reading their reports wrong from their custodian.
There were a couple complaints that didn’t like using them based the fact that they think they were over charged by a lot when they bought they initially purchased the precious metals from Birch Gold Group.
You could read them yourself in the BBB link I have above and you’ll get to read the details of each case and determine if this is a company you want to work with.
It’s worth noting that the complaints just started in 2017 – 2018 while there was nothing else before on BBB and they had registered on there since 2011.
IS BIRCH GOLD GROUP A SCAM?
No, Birch Gold Group is not a scam and they are a legitimate precious metals IRA company, with great standings in the industry.
Even with great ratings though, I wish they had more customer reviews in the 15 years they have been in business which shows me they may not have the volume of business as other firms that have more customer reviews.
Without a bigger business volume, they may not be able to purchase the best prices for their precious metals in the wholesale market and thus not the best prices for you.
In addition, what this company lacks and another reason why I don’t recommend Birch Gold Group is because they lack the processing efficiencies of a company that uses digital applications and electronic signatures.
In this day and age, you must be in the forefront on how business is dealt, and these days, online is the way to do business.
If Birch Gold Group’s website can’t handle electronic applications and do things more faster with better processing times, then they are not a forefront leader in my eyes in this industry.
A FORWARD THINKING COMPANY
When I recommend something, it is because a product or company is really the best of its kind and the company I really recommend is one that’s forward thinking, and highly proficient with online processing.
Not only my #1 recommendation has zero complaints, but also has over 1,000 reviews on Trustlink.
You will also get segregated storage as that’s the best way to store your precious metals at the lowest pricing in the industry as they have flat fee structures and don’t increase your fees as your balance with them grows.
ALL your first year fees are also waived and you won’t get a bill til the start of 2nd year.
It’s a no-brainer to go with my #1 recommendation, but don’t take my word for it and check them out yourself here:
If you have any questions or thoughts regarding whether Birch Gold Group is a scam or anything else, please do not hesitate to leave me a comment below. I always reply to my readers! 🙂
Let’s make money online!
Thank you, really good review and helpful, have been thinking about Birch for a while but was unsure of the shared storage that you mention, will talk to your recommended company instead.
Thank you!
/Mike
Thanks Mike! I know they will take care of you.