Methodology

Every Gold IRA company review on this site is scored against the same six axes, with primary-source citation required for every quantitative claim. This page explains exactly how that works — so a reader can replicate the analysis.

The six-axis scoring rubric

1. Account minimum match for seniors. Score 1–10. Does the company accept the typical rollover balance for the senior segment ($10K–$250K), or exclude smaller portfolios?
2. Phone-first service. Score 1–10. Is there a dedicated agent assigned for the life of the account, or does each call route to a different rep? Seniors weight phone access heavily; chat-only is a deduction.
3. Buyback program. Score 1–10. Is there a published buyback guarantee? What commission, if any, is charged on repurchases?
4. Fee transparency. Score 1–10. Is the full fee schedule published before the call? Or do you have to call to learn the spot premium?
5. RMD handling. Score 1–10. Does the custodian handle the annual Required Minimum Distribution paperwork automatically, and offer in-kind distribution as an option?
6. Senior-pressure score. Score 1–10. Public complaints about post-kit follow-up call volume. A 10 means almost no friction; a 5 means moderate; a 1 means documented harassment patterns.

Citation requirements

Every quantitative claim must cite a primary or first-tier secondary source:

• IRS rule claims must cite the Internal Revenue Code section, IRS Publication number with year, 26 CFR section, or an IRS.gov FAQ URL.
• Company-specific claims (fees, ratings, complaints, history) must cite at least one of: Better Business Bureau (BBB), Business Consumer Alliance (BCA), TrustPilot, TrustLink, ConsumerAffairs, SEC EDGAR, FINRA BrokerCheck, or the company's own published fee schedule URL.
• Market figures (gold prices, returns, allocations) must cite LBMA, World Gold Council, or an SEC-filed prospectus.

Claims that cannot be sourced are removed from the draft, not weakened.

Phrases that never appear on this site

We do not use the following language patterns, regardless of who pays us to:

• "Guaranteed return", "risk-free", "no risk", "100% safe", "can't lose"
• "Dollar collapse", "before it's too late", "last chance"
• "Tax-free retirement", "IRS loophole"
• Any phrasing that implies gold prices will only go up

Investment-related superlatives ("best investment", "must-have", "no-brainer") are similarly out. Specific data with a citation is in.

Conflict-of-interest disclosure

The Gold IRA Desk has applied for, or holds, affiliate relationships with multiple companies covered on this site. Affiliate links are tagged "sponsored" in the HTML and are programmatically distinguishable from editorial links. Our scoring rubric is applied identically to companies we have no relationship with — see the comparison reviews for verification.

If commission rates change for any program, the change is logged in the affiliate registry and does not affect prior reviews. Reviews are dated and updated quarterly; the "Updated" date on each post reflects the most recent fact-check pass.

How readers can replicate our analysis

1. Pull each company's published fee schedule from their site (or call to request).
2. Check the BBB and BCA ratings on each at the time of writing.
3. Read [IRS Publication 590-B](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b) for current RMD rules.
4. Cross-check our scores against your own weighting of the six axes — your weights may differ.

Corrections

If you find a factual error on any post on this site, please send the URL and the specific claim to the contact page. Corrections are made publicly and dated.