Hard Assets Alliance Review 2022
Is it safe to invest in precious metals with the Hard Assets Alliance? If you’re thinking of spending a huge sum of money, it’s best to enlist with a company you can trust.
Although Hard Assets Alliance does not appear to be a scam, our research did find lots of bad feedback. Yet, financial advisory services still promote the dealer firm. So, is this company a hoax? Are they worth trusting in protecting your retirement savings?
In this comprehensive review, we’re going to tell you everything you should know about Hard Assets Alliance: the company’s background, its products and services, and ultimately, whether you can trust them with your money. Let’s get right into it!
Hard Assets Alliance Pros and Cons
Before we proceed to the complicated stuff, here’s a brief pros and cons of the company!
Pros
Cons
Our Hard Assets Alliance Category Rating
We researched the top-rated dealers in the industry to determine how Hard Assets Alliance stacks up against the competition. Here’s how we rated its performance
Products & Services | 4 |
Pricing | 3.5 |
Customer Support | 3 |
Company Expertise | 3 |
Customer Feedback | 2 |
Overall Rating: | 3/5 |
What You Get With Hard Assets Investing:
Quick Summary: Hard Assets Alliance May or May Not Be Good For You
Overview: Based on our research, Hard Assets Alliance is a legitimate company that offers a decent selection of precious metal products. Although the company lacks transparency, it does offer a somewhat reasonable pricing given the quality of their products and services.
3/5 Rating
What You May Like: Automated investment feature through MetalStream, lots of storage options, HAA mobile app, prompt delivery.
What You May Not Like: Expensive pricing, hidden fees, lack of transparency, too little reviews from customers. not accredited in BBB.
About Hard Assets Alliance
Headquartered in Manhattan, Hard Assets Alliance is a brokerage company that has been providing assistance with precious metals investing since 2012. The company offers a 24/7 online marketplace for buying and selling gold, silver, and platinum products; and helps clients in opening Precious Metals IRAs.
As a full-service firm, they also offer international storage and delivery options. All transactions involving the purchase, sale, and storage of your metals are done through the HAA platform.
With regards to helping clients get started with gold IRAs, Hard Assets Alliance offers a free investment report kit, titled “Why Portfolios Perform Better Than Gold.”
Strangely enough, Hard Assets Alliance does not provide any information regarding its management team on their website. Additionally, the company doesn’t seem to have a lot of reviews online. Because of this, a lot of people seem to be wary of investing their money with HAA.
Advertising Focus and Purpose
Hard Assets’ advertising focuses on giving people at close to market price precious metal products. They are also committed to providing a better gold-buying experience, which is evident in their on-demand delivery service and 24/7 digital access to the marketplace.
Goldco Products and Services
Hard Asset Alliance’s catalog of products include gold, silver, and platinum coins and bars. But you’ll find the most diverse selection in the silver and gold area. They also offer some of the popular IRA-approved bullions. Likewise, you’ll find various weights of coins and bars. Examples from the catalog include the Gold American Eagle, Gold American Buffalo,Gold Canadian Maple Leaf, Silver Austrian Philharmonic, and the Silver Canadian Maple Leaf. Gold and silver bars are also available in 10 and 400 oz forms.
Gold American Eagle
Gold American Buffalo
Canadian Gold Maple Leaf
Silver Austrian Philharmonic
Silver Canadian Maple Leaf
Gold 10 oz Bar
Check out the complete catalog here.
Account Types
When you register with Hard Asset Alliance, you’ll go through a short process of identity verification. After that, you can go ahead and fund the SmartMetals account to access the marketplace. Here are the different kinds of accounts that you can set up at HAA.
Individual and Joint Accounts
Retirement (IRA) Account
Corporate Account
Trust
Uniform Transfer to Minors (UTMA)
MetalStream
Since you started reading about Hard Assets Alliance, you’ve probably been wondering what MetalStream is all about.
MealStream is an automated investment feature that’s unique to HAA. When you sign up for this service, you’ll be able to connect your bank account and set it to pay a specified amount each month to be invested into your preferred precious metals. With this, your money will be held until you have enough to purchase a coin or a bar.
Considering the additional fee of $25 per month, you’d probably feel cheated for having to pay extra for the “privilege” of investing your money on them. However, given the perks of getting your savings automatically transferred to your IRA account, we believe it’s also reason enough for Noble Gold to charge such a fee.
Hard Assets Alliance Account Minimums and Fees
Hard Assets Alliance functions a bit differently than other dealers in the market. The company’s price structuring is a bit unique as well. In fact, the firm is actually composed of different groups that come together to create a market. Thus, allowing clients to access reputable banks, dealers, and refiners alike.
When you place a purchase, dealers in the marketplace will compete to win the bid. Hence, you get to work with the one that offers the lowest price available. However, since the competition is only dealers within the HAA marketplace, it is still not guaranteed that they offer the lowest prices in the industry.
But how competitive is HAAs market price exactly? By speaking with a representative we found out that gold dealers at the company mark up their offerings. Below we provide more details on the estimated mark ups quantity, minimum investment, and other fees you need to account for.Pricing
Based on our research, the estimated mark-up prices are the following.
About 5.02% for 1 ounce
About 4.06% for 10 ounces
About 2.97% for 1 kilogram
About 4.43% for 400 ounces
The minimum investment for precious metals delivered and stored inside the US is $5,000. Outside the country, HAA requires a $10,000 minimum.
Minimum Investment Within US | $5,000 |
Minimum Investment Outside US | $10,000 |
Annual Custodian Fees | Varies |
Storage & Insurance Fee | Varies, Minimum of $5 |
Hard Assets Alliance Storage Options
Hard Assets Alliance has various vault locations around the globe. They have facilities at Salt Lake City, New York, Melbourne, Zurich, and London. The company’s preferred storage options include Loomis, Malca-Amit, and Brinks.
When it comes to storage fees, we found that they charge .70% per year for gold and platinum and .80% on silver based on the average daily asset value of the precious metal.
There’s also a $5 per month minimum per account, which can be waived for those who have their MetalStream Account activated.
Hard Assets Alliance Reviews and Disputes
Hard Assets doesn’t seem to have a lot of reviews online. But unfortunately, we found several complaints on Trustpilot.
Perhaps, one of the biggest complaints is the lack of transparency. Many clients are worried there isn’t much information on the company's background, including who leads the entirety of the alliance and who handles the marketplace. This makes it difficult for people to know whom or where to turn to when they encounter problems.
A lot of clients also said they were confused with the company’s overall structure. The marketplace is powered by GBI, but the company does not provide details on how they choose dealers in their platform.
On the positive note, apart from what we shared above, the majority of customers seem pleased with Hard Assets Allaince’s prompt customer support. Clients also commended how knowledgeable and patient the staff were in resolving anomalies. In fact, one client shared they asked about the IRA process twice, and both times they were given the best experience and support.
You can click on the links below to see the actual review yourself.
1/5 Rating
4.6/5 Rating
Opening a Gold IRA with Hard Assets Alliance
Here are the steps to creating an account with Hard Assets Alliance.
- 1Navigate through the website and understand the terms and conditions. Click the “Open an Account” button, then input your email address in the registration space. A link to your account will be sent through mail.
- 2Next, select your desired account type and input your credentials. Make sure to accept the user agreement.
- 3Fund your account and choose which types of metals you want to invest in.
How to Fund your Account
To fund your Precious Metals IRA, you’ll be required to transfer funds from your bank or rollover your funds from your old IRA.
Hard Assets Alliance accepts swift wires and US Federal Reserve wires for clients outside the US. You can also mail your checks on the address indicated on the HAA website and app.
Electronic funds transfer is intended for US clients only. Bitcoin or other BitPay-support cryptocurrency are accepted as well with 1% conversion fee applied.
FAQs on Hard Assets Alliance Investing
You can buy gold, silver, and platinum coins and bars in various weights. Unfortunately, there are no available offerings for palladium products.
Hard Assets Alliance’s preferred storage options include Loomis, Malca-Amit, and Brinks. It’s vault locations are in Salt Lake City, New York, Melbourne, Zurich, and London.
It’s important to note that this firm is not your typical precious metals broker. It serves more like a marketplace for a group of dealers who are competing for a bid. This ensures that prices within the group remain competitive.
That said, the prices at Hard Asset Alliance are not lowest in the industry spectrum. For instance, the price for 1 oz Credit Suisse gold bar at the company starts $ 1,780.53 per ounce. Although this is a reasonable price, there are other dealers in the market that offer cheaper gold. The US Gold Bureau, as an example, has the same size currently listed at $1,771.01 per ounce.
The biggest benefit of using Hard Assets Alliance is how easy it is to set up an account with them. They also offer reasonable prices. However, they’re not the lowest priced company out there!
You can become a Hard Assets Alliance customer by signing up with their New Account Form through their website. You just need to complete a very simple six-step-process: enter your email address, complete the registration form, select your account type, understand the terms of agreement, and fund your account. Funding can be done through bank wires, electronic transfer, or checks.
Hard Assets Alliance will require the following when you sign up an application with them.
General information such as name, contact, identification, and date of birth
SSN or Tax ID for US citizens
National IDS like passport or driver’s license for international clients
Additional supporting documentation for those in the name of trust or company.
Hard Assets Alliance Review: The Bottomline
While we are here to provide you the information and guidance you need, ultimately the decision which company to trust your savings is not ours to make.
Hard Assets Alliance does offer decent customer service and a good job in making precious metals investing easier. However, there are other dealers in the market that offer the same quality of service without so many red flags. Additionally, they’re also not the lowest priced company out there.
These are solely based on our research and once again we stress that the final decision is yours to make. We just want to give you the information that’s rightfully yours. We hope this review has helped you get a clearer view of HAA’s offerings and service. If you have any more questions, feel free to speak with us!