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Precious metals investments diversify your portfolios and protect your wealth. Since precious metals like gold increase in value, you get more out of the investment and avoid inflation's impact.
Once you've invested in precious metals, they are yours, and you have a tangible asset. Many experts consider precious metals investments safe haven opportunities without financial or credit risks.
As you evaluate your investment options, consider how to purchase your metals. Guidance Corporation may be among a list of precious metals sellers offering straightforward purchases and gold IRA options.
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What is Guidance Corporation?
Guidance Corporation is family-owned and operated and has been in business since 1989 in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The organization offers precious metals purchases and prides itself on finding any coins investors want.
Customers work with licensed bullion dealers who provide advice about precious metals investments and ensure all orders meet expectations.
Buying Precious Metals
Buying precious metals through Guidance Corporation is a straightforward process. All products appear on their website for you to review, including gold, silver, or platinum. First, shop through their inventory and select what you want and what quantity.
Next, contact Guidance Corporation and request a service representative's price quote for your order.
They have some prices listed on their website and the weight of each precious metal. They accept checks, cash, wire transfers, and credit cards.
What Precious Metals Are Available?
Among the gold available through Guidance Corporation are Argor Heraeus, US, Austrian, Chinese, Royal, South African, and Mexican mints. In addition, you can get gold sets, bars, IGR gold, LBMA, Rand, and Valcambi.
The gold bullion includes Gold American Eagle, American gold buffalo, Canadian Maple Leaf, and Austrian Philharmonic coins.
The silver selections include bullion, Cooks Islands, silver rounds, US, Perth, and Canadian mint. Select from bullion or silver bars, including Silver Peace dollars, American Eagles, Silver Britannia, Royals Tudor Beasts, and Silver Kangaroo.
Platinum selections include American Platinum Eagle, Australian Kangaroo, Credit Suisse, Isle of Man, and Argor-Heraeus platinum bars. Guidance Corporation has platinum bars up to 10 ounces.
In addition, you could purchase palladium and rhodium, including American Eagles, Canadian Maple Leaf, Chinese Pandas, and Baird or PAMP Suisse bullion.
Guidance Corporation sells world gold, including 50-peso Mexican gold coins, 100 Francs Napoleon, III, 4 Ducat Austrian and Dutch gold. Select from Finnish, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Tunisian.
Their pre-1923 gold includes Liberty, St. Gaudens, Princess, and Indian coins.
Selling Your Precious Metals to Guidance Corporation
To sell your precious metals or initiate a buyback, complete the form on Guidance Corporation's website under the "Sell Your Gold" tab. You'll list the coins, bullion, or bars you have by name, year, condition, and currency.
First, research the metals' face value, then add your quantity and any details you want to share. After their service representatives receive the form, they contact you with an offer.
If you agree to the quote, they send discreet packaging for you to ship your precious metals to Guidance Corporation. After they receive your shipment, they issue your payment according to the payment method you select.
Remember that the precious metals' condition could affect the final price, but they will contact you if they update the amount.
What You Should Know About a Gold IRA
Guidance Corporation offers a gold IRA program to help you diversify your retirement savings and increase their value.
With self-directed gold IRAs, you have more control. However, remember there are contribution limits, and when you buy gold or other precious metals, you shouldn't withdraw too much from an existing IRA.
If you want to roll over a portion of an IRA into a self-directed IRA, you need a custodian to do this for you. They contact your IRA provider, and the process is an agency-to-agency transaction.
You won't withdraw the money and purchase the precious metals yourself. Instead, tell your custodian how much you want to buy, with a limit of up to $7,000.
If you use Guidance Corporation or another precious metals dealer, you have 60 days to contribute. Failing to deposit the funds into the gold IRA could lead to tax penalties and decrease how much you can invest.
So, choose a custodian that completes the transaction quickly. Guidance Corporation claims to have worked with custodians for many years and aims to make the transfer easy for everyone.
However, choose someone else if your custodian reports delays with the dealer. Your age plays a role in how much you contribute. If you're under 50, you're limited to $6,000, but if you are over 50, you have a maximum of $7,000 to contribute to the IRA annually.
Additionally, the IRA type affects your contributions. If your traditional IRA isn't employer-based, you could contribute up to $6,500 if you are under 50.
How to Get a Gold IRA at Guidance Corporation
Open a custodian account and create a self-directed IRA. Then, transfer your contribution from your employer-matched IRA account to the self-directed IRA account.
If you aren't transferring funds, you can set up a self-directed gold IRA through a custodian and buy precious metals via your custodian from Guidance Corporation.
The gold IRAs are either traditional or Roth IRAs. The difference is that a traditional IRA consists of tax-deferred, and a Roth is created with after-tax funds.
So, with a traditional IRA, you pay taxes when you withdraw funds; with a Roth, you pay taxes before investing the money. Then, after you choose and your funds are ready, select the precious metals you want and set up the purchase with your custodian.
If you're unfamiliar with custodians, there is a list on Guidance Corporation's website of a few IRS-approved custodians, but you aren't required to hire them.
Storage for Your Precious Metals
Guidance Corporation doesn't provide storage for your precious metals investments. However, if you purchase the metals outright and separate them from an IRA, the company delivers the precious metals to your home.
You could also choose a depository to keep your metals safer and more secure. However, if you set up a gold IRA, your custodian helps you choose a depository.
You cannot keep precious metals for an IRA at your home because there are legal restrictions. Your IRA documentation shows where your precious metals are stored and who is required to keep your metals safe.
You can discuss all fees for creating your IRA and storing your investment with Guidance Corporation and your custodian. However, you must pay storage fees according to their payment structure.
Guidance Corporation has no connection with depositories and cannot meet this requirement for you.
Understanding IRA Requirements
Guidance Corporation has both IRA-approved and non-approved gold for sale. When shopping for precious metals, look at the fineness rating for each selection.
The IRS requires all gold used for an IRA to have a purity rating of 0.995 except American Gold Eagle bullion which is 24-karat gold.
Silver must have a purity of 0.999. Rhodium and palladium added to the IRA must have a purity of 0.9995. If you need clarification about the purity level, Guidance Corporation can help.
Does Guidance Corporation Have Minimum Purchases?
Yes, Guidance Corporation has minimum purchases for all its precious metals investments. However, they do not list these requirements on their website.
Instead, they require customers to call them to get these details before the clients make a purchase.
Find Your Coin Opportunities
If you cannot find a collector's coin on Guidance Corporation's website, they will look for coins for you.
Click on their "Find Your Coin" tab and complete the form on the screen. Service representatives look for the coins through dealers and collectors who want to sell them. Once they find the coin you want, they contact you to set up the purchase.
The representatives quote a price for the coins individually or in any quantity. This opportunity isn't restricted to the current year's coins. They will help you find coins regardless of the year they were minted.
Research prices for the preferred coins before starting your request to ensure you get a fair price once they locate it.
Guidance Corporation Ratings and Complaints
There are no complaints against Guidance Corporation on the Better Business Bureau's website. According to the company's data, the BBB gave them an A+ rating. However, they've been in business since 2006 and weren't accredited with the BBB until 2021.
The customer reviews on the Better Business Bureau's website show a five-star rating for the company, with mostly positive reviews.
The Spot Price Feature
Guidance Corporation has a spot price chart on its website with current prices for gold, platinum, silver, palladium, and rhodium. The prices show how precious metals prices have fluctuated through the years.
However, the current spot price chart is almost a month old. It could be helpful to review price trends, but checking the NASDAQ for recent updates and accurate prices is still wise.
Conclusion
Guidance Corporation is a precious metals dealer offering many investment products. They offer in-person and online sales for all precious metals, and their metals aren't limited to the current years.
They have pre-1923 selections that many collectors may want for their collection or to generate wealth over time.
The company has several decades of experience and is family owned. You can set up a gold IRA by purchasing precious metals from them, but the company only provides a little help other than selling precious metals.
They have a price list, but since prices change daily, it could be inaccurate. For some of their metals, you must call them to get a price quote which means you may have to listen to a sales pitch to get a simple answer.
While they seem like a good company, you may find more affordable prices and faster help elsewhere.
Guidance Corporation is not a scam, they are a decent company, but we do not recommend them.
There are better options for investors looking to make direct purchases of precious metals, and much better options for investors looking to protect their savings with a precious metals IRA, that we have written about extensively on this website.
You can get a Free Gold Investors Guide from our top gold and precious metals company recommendation by clicking the link above or you can read our article of the top companies we reviewed this year:
>> CLICK HERE to read our list of the Top Gold Investing Companies. <<
Or, if you like what you have read about Guidance Corporation, you can go to their website below:
I started BMOGAM Viewpoints as a way to compile all my views on investing in one place. I own my home, have some real estate, and own a few stocks like most people, but what really drives my interest in investing is I have a strong love of precious metals, especially gold.
