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Are you aiming to safeguard your financial future with a dependable investment?
In today’s volatile market and uncertain economy, identifying a stable and trustworthy investment option can be daunting.
Introducing the Edward Jones Gold IRA—a fusion of traditional investment strategies and the timeless value of gold.
But is it the right fit for you?
This in-depth review looks into the features, benefits, and potential downsides of an Edward Jones Gold IRA, providing valuable insights that could influence your investment decisions.
Join us as we examine whether this golden opportunity aligns with your financial objectives.
Before we get started, investing your savings is a serious task. When it comes to adding precious metals to your portfolio, how do you know which companies to trust?
That is why we have researched every company in the industry and selected the very few with the highest customer service standards.
This way you can easily compare the best companies in the business, and choose one that fits your needs and investment goals.
Read the list to see if Edward Jones passed our strict customer service standards to become one of our top recommendations.
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About Edward Jones
This led to their moniker of "TNT Brokers." By the 1970s, however, the firm had transitioned from helping people get back on their feet to helping already rich folks build their portfolios even more over the long term.
The firm continued to expand from 1980 until its centennial last year. Today, Edward Jones serves more than 7 million customers and employs more than 50,000 people worldwide.
Their mission is to grow wealth for their customers and occasionally to support philanthropic causes all over the world with an emphasis on North America.
What Edward Jones Offers?
The short of it is: Edward Jones does not offer either self-directed Gold IRAs or other self-directed accounts. That means that you cannot add actual precious metals to your IRA through Edward Jones. The company does offer, however, the ability to invest in companies that mine gold or that work with gold-related exchange-traded funds.
"Paper Gold"
Those kinds of investments are referred to as "paper gold." That means that you're not actually buying gold bullion or even any other precious metals like platinum, silver, and palladium. Instead, you're buying a paper-based representation of whichever precious metal you select. Think of it as someone selling you "shares" of gold that are in a secure location but with rigorous controls in place to prevent fraud.
Other than a direct paper trail to gold or other precious metals, there also exists a category known as precious metals mutual funds. These funds have custodians that manage the precious metals for their customers who are brokers.
The brokers act as middlemen between you and the mutual fund. The custodians are experts in investing, so if there is a sudden downturn in the price of precious metals, they can act long before you or your broker could. By choosing to have your broker invest in a precious metal mutual fund, you avoid many of the fees associated with such a fund.
Other than that, Edward Jones offers both Roth and traditional IRAs in addition to other standard investment features, such as:
Edward Jones's shtick is premium customer service and the personal face-to-face touch. They do charge more in fees than other firms for those services, however, but many folks think that they're worth it. Edward Jones focuses on high-end clientele, so the higher fees aren't often a point of contention.
Better Gold IRA Companies to Work With
Many other companies offer gold IRAs either through custodians that direct the day-to-day operations or as self-directed accounts. The IRS, however, disallows self-directed gold IRAs because of a 2010 amendment to a 2009 law.
That law says that gold and other precious metals are not "permissible investments." Yes, even though these kinds of accounts are illegal, some companies let you set them up anyway. The penalties can be substantial up to and including 100% of the value of the applicable gold.
Goldco: Protect Your Wealth, Tax & Penalty Free
Goldco is a privately held company with over a decade of experience, Goldco is dedicated to helping customer protect their retirement savings and is a great option for beginners to the world of gold IRAs.
Augusta Precious Metals
Augusta's reputation as a top gold IRA provider stands out prominently. According to the Better Business Bureau, the company scored 4.97 out of 5 stars across 100 reviews.
American Hartford Gold
American Hartford Gold is committed to helping individuals and families invest in precious metals. They specialize in investing in gold and silver bullion bars and coins.
Gold IRA Custodians
Custodial accounts have limits on how much you can deposit in them each year, just like other investment accounts. The custodians of these accounts are experts in how to administer Gold IRAs. They will help you with the tax ramifications of having such an account and will also handle most, if not all, of the paperwork involved. They will cross-check everything with the IRS for you so that you can invest with peace of mind.
Their most important role, however, is managing how the gold or other precious metals is stored. You're not allowed to have the gold at home. It has to be in a secure storage facility that conforms to strict government requirements.
These include depositories, such as Fort Knox, secure banks, and other third-party trustees that meet the government's standards. Remember, too, that if you take possession of any gold from the custodian, that counts as a withdrawal that will incur tax payments and possible penalties.
Depending on the circumstances, the IRS could just close down your account. Having a custodian mitigates all of that, and in most cases, you can still choose where the custodian eventually stores your actual gold. You'll have to speak with your custodian to find out the details of your account.
Why Gold?
Throughout history, people have assigned value to certain objects. "Back in the day," they could have chosen any objects to which to assign value, even buckets of mud, but they chose certain metals and gems as the most valuable items.
For a long time, governments agreed with them. This was true even into the 20th century in the U.S. because the country used to be on the Gold Standard. Many folks think precious metals, particularly gold, will hold their value long after other currencies have lost theirs.
Gold is seen as timeless in value no matter what the market does elsewhere. Over the last 20 years, gold has appreciated despite occasional dips in price per ounce. On January 12, 1998, gold was trading at $283.29 per ounce. On April 24, 2023, it was trading at $1993.53 per ounce.
That's more than a 700% appreciation over the last 25 years., which is why gold is seen as such a desirable investment. As with any investment, you'll seldom make a giant-killing, but with gold, you won't likely lose your shirt.
Just What's Available?
As with many other aspects of investing, there exist tough rules and laws about what you can and cannot have in your Gold IRA. First, the gold bars involved must be at least 99.5% in purity. Impurities lower the actual worth of the gold bar because there's less gold in it than there should be.
For example, a single standard gold bar weighs 400 Troy ounces, and there are 480 grains in each Troy ounce. That's 192,200 grains per gold bar. If the gold is 99.5% pure, then there are only 961 grains of impurities. That's almost exactly 2 Troy ounces of impurities.
A 100% pure gold bar is worth $797,412 on April 24, 2023, prices. The impurities account for just $3,987.06. If, however, a gold bar is only 90% pure, $79,741.20 worth of gold is missing. If you buy 10 bars of gold, then you're out nearly 800 grand.
In addition to gold bars and bars of other precious metals, you can also buy certain gold coins that have been preapproved by the IRS. These include the American Buffalo, the American Gold Eagle, the Australian Gold Nugget, the Australian Kangaroo, and the Canadian Maple Leaf.
You're not allowed, however, to add other collectible coins, such as the Krugerrand from South Africa or the sovereign from the United Kingdom. Other collectibles than coins are disallowed altogether.
Our Rating
Pros and Cons of Investing in Precious Metals
With any precious metals company, it’s vital to understand the company’s pros and cons. If you’re interested in Edward Jones Gold IRA, read on to learn what makes this company stand out and what to consider before committing:
There are tax benefits that depend on the type of account you open. Like any IRA, the benefit comes either when you deposit money or when you withdraw money.
Such investments are "insurance" against inflation. Because precious metals are inherently an extremely long-term investment, inflation and depreciation are only of minor concern because the "pot at the end of the rainbow" is so far into the future.
Precious metals are largely safe investments because poor economic performance won't cause the price to drop precipitously as it would when it comes to stocks and other volatile investments.
Precious metals also lend stability to your portfolio if you like to play with high-risk investments that also produce high rewards.
Evaluation of Edward Jones
Edward Jones is the right company for folks with high net worth. These folks tend to be more traditional and prefer face-to-face contact, handshakes, and the "personal touch." Edward Jones is an expert at handling large sums of money, and their focus is on individuals with lots of it.
Experienced, savvy investors may not want to pay the higher charges no matter their net worth, though, because they can manage their own portfolios, not needing the schmoozing or hand-holding that newbies might need and appreciate.
Average investors who want to set up college funds or standard brokerage accounts will find better value elsewhere. The fees alone will chew up most of their returns on their relatively low invested amounts. Edward Jones is most definitely not for folks who want to manage their accounts or for folks who want to invest in actual bullion and control it themselves.
Aside from the fact that Edward Jones doesn't even offer self-directed accounts, the company's corporate philosophy is to charge high fees and deliver value for those fees to customers who will appreciate it.
Edward Jones holds an A rating with the Better Business Bureau but is not accredited through them. There is a disproportionate number of negative complaints about the company that were filed through the Bureau.
Granted, some of those will be from customers who simply didn't get their way either because of internal policy or federal law.
Other sites, however, also have a large number of negative complaints. Most of the complaints focus on the inattentiveness of Edward Jones's advisors.
For a company whose focus is premium customer service and expert quality, it's odd to read such comments, particularly when customers are saying that their "long-term approach" is to do nothing as people lose their shirts and then tell them that they chose that investment path.
Other negative comments include thoughts that it didn't use to be that way or that profit is all that the company seems interested in now.
On the other hand, there are also positive comments on the review sites. Many of the positive comments directly refute the, "They sit on their hands while I go broke," trope. There are comments regarding advisors who grow folks' portfolios when the economy booms and protect them when it fails.
Other comments exist that directly contradict the idea that Edward Jones doesn't communicate with its customers. In all, the ultra-negative and ultra-positive comments cancel each other out. It should be noted, however, that most of the positive comments are from 2020 or before. The truth is somewhere in between.
As far as business-level reviews go, they are mixed. Almost everyone acknowledges the firm's customer service philosophy as excellent. But, businesses have an issue with the fact that Edward Jones is not a fiduciary other than at the plan level.
That means that people who work for Edward Jones are not prohibited by law from putting their own needs ahead of the client's needs. In short, their employees are allowed to sell products to make their own bonuses with zero regards for the results seen by the client, which also includes the client losing everything.
Edward Jones's compensation disclosure even contains this sentence: "These financial incentives may create a conflict between Edward Jones’ interest, your financial advisor’s interest, and your own." "Caveat Emptor" seems to be the topic of the day.
Conclusion
Edward Jones is a well-established investment company that aims to provide stellar service for its high fees. Its focus is on wealthy individuals, and its collection of strategies is decidedly long-term.
The company doesn't offer true Gold IRAs, but it does provide a standard suite of investment products that should be familiar to most investors.
Customer opinions are sharply split when it comes to the company The opinions of businesses are likewise split but tend more to the negative, particularly when it comes to the possible conflict of interest issues regarding Edward Jones's employees.
Remember to read out list of the Top Gold Companies to see if Edward Jones made the cut.
>> Click HERE to read our Best Precious Metals Investment Companies list <<
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At Digital Financing Task Force, we provide research and analysis for people that want to take control of their financial future and protect the savings that they have.
