Red Rock Secured Gold IRA Review

Precious metals have been traded for six thousand years. Today, not much has changed. Despite the development of relatively newer asset classes, such as real estate investment trusts, master limited partnerships and cryptocurrencies; gold, silver, platinum and palladium continue offering investors a safe haven, a way to diversify their portfolios and a hedge against inflation.

That’s why gold and other precious metals can play a significant role in retirement planning through individual retirement accounts (IRAs). With gold IRAs, you’re able to hold tangible assets that aren’t permitted to be part of traditional or Roth IRA. There are numerous companies providing these types of accounts, some with better track records than others.

Read on for our review of Red Rock Secured’s gold IRA to see how it stacks up against the best gold IRAs, and to help you decide if it’s the right fit for your retirement plan.

Best gold IRA with price protection

Founded in 2008, Red Rock Secured offers a wide range of precious metals products. It offers price protection, which guarantees that if the price of any qualified gold or silver product goes down within seven days of it being purchased, the company will pay you the difference.

Additionally, the company’s website includes a wealth of educational resources as part of its Knowledge Center, which helps customers understand precious metals categories and the precious metals market so they can become familiar with pricing before making a purchase.

Red Rock Secured gold IRA pros and cons

Pros explained

For those curious about how to buy gold in an IRA, each metal dealer is different. As a result, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Red Rock Secure’s pros include low-to-no fees and low minimum balance requirements, a price protection guarantee and a gold IRA plan option that aligns with federal employees’ Thrift Savings Plans.

No fees for qualified clients

Red Rock Secure’s gold IRA stands out among its competition for its no-fee-for-life structure that, according to the company, nearly 90% of clients qualify for. However, Red Rock Secure’s website doesn’t list what those fees will be if you aren’t among the 90% who qualify.

Common gold IRA fees include:

• An account set-up fee
• An annual maintenance fee
• Annual storage and insurance fees

Price protection

One feature that makes Red Rock Secure stand out among its competition is its price protection guarantee. The company maintains a $1,500 cash purchase minimum, and on qualified gold and silver purchases, if for any reason the price goes down within seven days of your purchase, Red Rock Secure will pay you the difference.

Thrift Savings Plan option

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a retirement savings and investment program for civil service workers and members of the armed forces employed by the U.S. federal government. The TSP functions similarly to a 401(k): It’s an employer-sponsored defined contribution plan that allows federal workers to make tax-deferred contributions to a retirement plan.

Red Rock Secure provides customers who are U.S. federal government employees or members of the uniformed services with the option of purchasing precious metals for inclusion in their TPS. By completing a form on the company’s website, a member of Red Rock Secure’s customer service team will contact you and thoroughly explain the process.

Cons explained

Like any company offering investments or retirement plans, Red Rock Secured has its shortcomings compared to competitors. These include the lack of pricing information online, the inability to open an account online and a high minimum investment requirement.

No pricing information online

Like many companies operating in the space, Red Rock Secured doesn’t list prices for its precious metals products online. In order to receive current pricing, prospective customers must either call the customer service team via the number provided on the website, or fill out a web form asking a customer service representative to contact them.

Cannot open an account online

Another drawback to Red Rock Secured’s gold IRA is that users are unable to open accounts online. Instead, similar to how they must receive pricing information, customers either have to call the customer service team or complete and submit an online form.

Minimum investment requirement of $25,000

To open a gold IRA with Red Rock Secure, you will have to fund the account with a minimum of $25,000 worth of precious metals. Compared to its competitors, some of which advertise minimums as low as $2,000, this minimum investment requirement is considerably higher and could act as an entry barrier for many.

Red Rock Secured gold IRA offerings

Beyond its gold IRA option, Red Rock Secured offers dozens of premium products including gold, silver and platinum coins, as well as bullion products including gold, silver, platinum and palladium bars. All of its gold and precious metals products are backed and insured by Lloyd's of London.

Gold coins and bullion

Per IRS rules, assets kept in a gold IRA must meet stringent standards. For precious metals to be included in a gold IRA, gold bars and coins, platinum bars and coins and palladium bars and coins must be 99.5% pure, while silver bars and coins must be 99.9% pure.

Red Rock Secured doesn’t list the purity of its precious metals products online, but some of the gold products it offers include:

• American Eagle proofs
• American Buffalo proofs
• Canadian Red-Tailed Hawk coins
• Rose Crown Guinea coins
• Canadian Arctic Fox coins
• Canadian Polar Bear & Cub coins
• Canadian Gyrfalcon coins
• 1-ounce bars
• 10-ounce bars
• 1-kilogram bars

Silver coins and bullion

Red Rock Secured also offers an array of silver products, including the following:

• American Eagle proofs
• America the Beautiful coins
• Canadian Red-Tailed Hawk coins
• Canadian Arctic Fox coins
• Canadian Polar Bear coins
• Canadian Polar Bear & Cub coins
• Canadian Grizzly Bear coins
• Canadian Gyrfalcon coins
• Mercury Dime coins
• Walking Liberty Half Dollar coins
• Peace $1 coins
• 1-ounce bars
• 10-ounce bars
• 100-ounce bars

Platinum and palladium coins and bullion

In addition to its gold and silver products, Red Rock Secured offers customers a handful of platinum and palladium products, including the following:

• Platinum American Eagle proofs
• Platinum Canadian Maple Leaf coins
• Platinum 1-ounce bars
• Palladium 1-ounce bars

Regulatory or legal actions

In May 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges against Red Rock Secured, its CEO Sean Kelly and two former employees, Anthony Spencer and Jeffrey Ward, in connection with a fraudulent scheme. According to the SEC:

“[The scheme] involved convincing hundreds of investors to sell securities in their retirement accounts to buy gold and silver coins at prices that included markups far greater than the defendants had promised …. Since at least 2017, the defendants repeatedly solicited investors through false and misleading statements, telling the to ‘protect’ their retirement savings by selling securities held in their federal employee Thrift Savings Plan accounts, 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts to invest in gold or silver coins at only a 1% to 5% markup. In reality, Red Rock charged as much as 130% in markups, which allowed them to pocket more than $30 million of the more than $50 million they received from investors.”

Additionally, according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, “Red Rock provided unlicensed investment advice and used scare tactics to convince hundreds of customers nationwide to transfer funds, including funds from liquidating securities from their traditional retirement accounts, to purchase the overpriced metals.”

Red Rock Secured pricing

Redrock Secured doesn’t list prices for its products online. If customers want to learn those details, whether for purchasing metals or opening a gold IRA, they must fill out the contact form or call a customer service representative via the phone number provided on the company’s website.

Red Rock Secured gold IRA financial stability

Red Rock Secured is a privately held company with no information or financial statements available online. In 2022, the company made the Inc. 5000 list, which is considered one of the most prestigious rankings of America’s fastest-growing private companies. At the time of writing, it is unclear how the SEC charges filed against Red Rock Secured will impact the company’s financial well-being.

Red Rock Secured gold IRA accessibility

For questions regarding its gold IRA, Red Rock Secured offers access to its customer service team members from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST. The following section details the company’s availability, contact information and user experience.

Availability

Red Rock Secured is available throughout the U.S. via its office in El Segundo, California. The precious metals dealer doesn’t offer online trading, an investing app or a web-based chat service. Additionally, prospective customers cannot open gold IRAs online. All inquiries must be directed to the customer service team via telephone, email or an online form available on the website.

Contact information

Red Rock Secured is open for business Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST. You can contact the company’s customer service team via:

• Email: info@redrocksecured.com
• Mail: 400 Continental Blvd #200, El Segundo, California, 90245
• Phone: 1-844-450-1381

User experience

Red Rock Secured lists all of its products online. Product descriptions for coins include histories, purities and weights. To learn more about the company’s gold IRA, you can request a free gold IRA guide or contact a member of the customer service team. Red Rock Secured’s website also provides a Knowledge Center and Research tab to help users get acquainted with investing in the precious metals market.

Red Rock Secured gold IRA customer satisfaction

Red Rock Secured has a BBB customer review rating of 4.68 stars out of a possible 5 based on just 87 reviews. Positive customer comments on the BBB website indicate that the company has a knowledgeable staff, while lower-scoring reviews focus on a lack of transparency over pricing or issues with balance statements.

The company receives a 4.6-star rating out of a possible 5 based on 161 reviews on the Trustpilot platform. Only 1% of the reviews are 1-star ratings, highlighting the ambiguity about the company’s sales commissions and unfriendly sales team members, while 88% are 5-star ratings that focus on Red Rock Secured’s well-informed staff and the ease of rolling over other retirement accounts into the company’s gold IRA.

How we evaluated Red Rock Secured gold IRA

We evaluated Red Rock Secured based on the following factors:

• Account offerings, including the kinds of metals customers can invest in

• Information (or lack thereof) on pricing on the company’s website

• Customer experience and satisfaction according to trusted third-party review sites such as the BBB and Trustpilot

• Availability across the U.S.

Summary of Money’s Red Rock Secured Gold IRA Review

If you’re considering a gold IRA as a way to diversify your retirement planning, there’s no shortage of options. One of the companies offering them is Red Rock Secured, which offers a price protection guarantee, no fees for most customers and a low purchase minimum.

However, the company doesn’t list any pricing information online, has a $25,000 minimum investment requirement to open an account and its gold IRAs cannot be opened online.

Finally, while Red Rock Secured receives strong user ratings on both the BBB and Trustpilot websites, it’s facing SEC charges over fraudulent business practices that cost customers millions of dollars.