Moving a 401(k) into metal is a logistics problem with a deadline and an entry gate, not a beauty contest. So we took the same ten providers from our overall rankings and re-ordered them on four things a rollover actually turns on: whether your balance clears their minimum, what the first year costs at your rollover size, which custodian you inherit for the life of the account, and what they will put in writing about the handover itself.
Advertising disclosure: Gold IRA Consulting is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you open an account through some links on this page (marked sponsored). This never influences our editorial scores, which are based on independent research.
Our overall rubric weights fees, custody, service and reputation, and it is the right rubric for the question it answers. It is the wrong rubric for a rollover. A provider can be excellent on all four and still be unusable to you, because your 401(k) balance is $8,000 short of its minimum. Another can sit mid-table overall and be the obvious choice, because its fee waiver triggers at exactly the amount you are moving.
So we built a second, narrower rubric. Six criteria matter to a rollover. Four of them have published evidence behind them and are scored. Two of them do not, and we refuse to score them on vibes.
Scores below are out of 10 on this rubric only. They are not comparable to our overall scores and are not intended to be.
| ROLLOVER RANK | COMPANY | SCORE | ENTRY GATE | FIRST YEAR ON A QUALIFYING ROLLOVER | CUSTODIAN NAMED PUBLICLY | OVERALL RANK | VISIT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Birch Gold Group | 8.8/10 | ~$10,000 | Waived on $50k+ rollovers, then ~$265 flat | Equity Trust, STRATA Trust, GoldStar Trust | 1st | Visit → |
| 02 | American Hartford Gold | 8.2/10 | ~$10,000 | ~$180 all-in, no size-linked waiver published | Equity Trust | 3rd | Visit → |
| 03 | American Bullion | 7.5/10 | ~$10,000 | $0 first year, no size threshold published | NOT PUBLISHED | 6th | Visit → |
| 04 | Goldco | 7.2/10 | ~$25,000 | Flat annual, up to 10% back in free silver | Equity Trust, STRATA Trust | 2nd | Visit → |
| 05 | Orion Metal Exchange | 6.6/10 | ~$5,000 | May be waived under thresholds, thresholds not published | NOT PUBLISHED | 8th | Visit → |
| 06 | Augusta Precious Metals | 6.4/10 | ~$50,000 | Up to 10 years waived on qualifying accounts | NOT PUBLISHED | 2nd | Visit → |
| 07 | Patriot Gold Group | 6.3/10 | ~$25,000 | No-fee-for-life on qualifying accounts, terms not published | NOT PUBLISHED | 10th | Visit → |
| 08 | Noble Gold Investments | 6.2/10 | ~$20,000 | Flat annual, amount not published | NOT PUBLISHED | 5th | Visit → |
| 09 | Lear Capital | 6.1/10 | ~$10,000 | Flat-fee option, no size-linked waiver published | NOT PUBLISHED | 9th | Visit → |
| 10 | Advantage Gold | 5.5/10 | ~$25,000 | Flat annual, amount not published | NOT PUBLISHED | 7th | Visit → |
Scores are on the rollover rubric above and are not comparable to our overall scores. Minimums, fees and promotions verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing. Custodian column reflects partners named in published company material; a blank is an absence of disclosure, not a criticism of the custodian.
1. Birch Gold Group, 8.8. The only provider that scores well on all four measures at once. A roughly $10,000 gate lets almost any 401(k) through, the fee schedule is published rather than quoted, the first year is waived once your rollover clears $50,000, and three custodian partners are named before you sign. Nothing here is best in class on its own. The combination is.
2. American Hartford Gold, 8.2. The same roughly $10,000 gate, the lowest published standing cost of the ten at roughly $180 a year all-in, no liquidation fee when you eventually exit, and a named custodian. It loses to Birch only because it publishes no waiver tied to rollover size, so a large rollover buys you nothing extra here.
3. American Bullion, 7.5. Sixth overall, third for a rollover, on one distinction: its first-year waiver on storage and the custodian fee carries no published rollover-size condition. Every other waiver we could verify has a threshold attached. Combined with a roughly $10,000 gate, this is the strongest position for a small rollover. It drops points for naming no custodian.
4. Goldco, 7.2. Second overall and still strong here, with two custodians named and a rollover process our researchers found responsive. The roughly $25,000 gate is what costs it: it excludes a rollover that Birch, American Hartford Gold, American Bullion, Lear and Orion would all accept.
5. Orion Metal Exchange, 6.6. The lowest gate of the ten at roughly $5,000, which for a small rollover is decisive and is why it outranks six companies scored above it overall. It stalls on disclosure: fees may be waived under thresholds, but the thresholds are not published, and no custodian is named.
6. Augusta Precious Metals, 6.4. Our overall number one, sixth for a rollover. The waiver of up to ten years of fees on qualifying accounts is the most valuable offer in the industry and it scores accordingly. The roughly $50,000 gate is what pulls it down five places, and the arithmetic is unforgiving: a $40,000 401(k) cannot buy that offer at any price. If your balance clears $50,000, move Augusta back to the top of your list.
7. Patriot Gold Group, 6.3. Last overall, seventh here, because a no-fee-for-life structure is worth more on a rollover you intend to hold for twenty years than any first-year waiver. We cannot rank it higher while the qualifying terms remain unpublished and the roughly $25,000 gate stands.
8. Noble Gold Investments, 6.2. Fifth overall. Its distinguishing strength, a genuine choice of depository, is a benefit you enjoy after the money has landed rather than one that helps it land. The roughly $20,000 gate is mid-table and the annual amount is not published.
9. Lear Capital, 6.1. A roughly $10,000 gate is genuinely useful and a flat-fee option protects a larger rollover from percentage drag. It publishes the least of the ten about the rollover itself, and no custodian is named.
10. Advantage Gold, 5.5. Seventh overall on the strength of onboarding and satisfaction, which are real and which we credit here. It finishes last on this rubric because it combines a roughly $25,000 gate with no published waiver tied to rollover size and no named custodian, which is the weakest disclosure position of the ten for someone deciding where to send a 401(k).
The same ten companies, sorted by the only number you already know: how much you are moving. Two thresholds do almost all the work here, $50,000 and $100,000, and neither of them is a round number anyone advertises prominently.
| ROLLOVER SIZE | PROVIDERS THAT ACCEPT IT | LOCKED OUT | CHEAPEST VERIFIED FIRST YEAR | WHAT CHANGES AT THIS SIZE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | 9 of 10 | Augusta Precious Metals | $0, American Bullion | Birch's waiver threshold is not met, so its first year is the full roughly $265 rather than nothing. American Hartford Gold's roughly $180 is the cheapest non-waived option. |
| $50,000 | 10 of 10 | None | $0, three ways | The most consequential threshold on the page. Augusta's gate opens and Birch's first-year waiver triggers, both at the same figure. American Bullion's $0 first year was already available. Your shortlist goes from one free option to three. |
| $100,000 | 10 of 10 | None | $0, same three | American Hartford Gold's roughly $75 management component is quoted for accounts under $100,000. Above that figure the management component is not published, so its roughly $180 all-in should be re-confirmed rather than assumed. |
| $250,000+ | 10 of 10 | None | $0, same three | No provider publishes a tier for large rollovers, so the first-year waiver you are offered is the same one a $50,000 rollover gets. From here the custodian schedule you inherit matters more than any promotion. See the fee math at $250k and up. |
"Cheapest verified first year" counts only waivers we could verify in published material. Fees verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing.
The mechanics in one paragraph, because two other pages own them in full. A direct rollover moves money trustee to trustee and is not a taxable event. An indirect rollover pays you personally, starts a 60-day clock, triggers mandatory 20% withholding on a 401(k) distribution paid to you, and is capped at one per 12 months for IRA-to-IRA moves. The IRS sets these out in its guidance on rollovers of retirement plan and IRA distributions. We cover the sequence in the gold IRA rollover guide and the deadlines in the rollover rules. Use a direct rollover.
Here is the part that belongs on this page and nowhere else. Every comparison of gold IRA companies treats the provider minimum and the 20% withholding as unrelated facts. They are not. The withholding reduces the cash that actually reaches you, and the provider minimum is a test applied to money you can fund. Take an indirect route and you can find yourself below a gate that a direct rollover would have cleared comfortably.
The worked case. You have $60,000 in an old 401(k) and you ask for it as a check. The plan withholds $12,000 and mails you $48,000. To complete the rollover intact you are expected to deposit the full $60,000 within 60 days, replacing the missing $12,000 from savings and reclaiming it at tax time. If you cannot replace it, the money you can actually fund is $48,000, which is below Augusta's roughly $50,000 minimum. A provider that was available to you at 9am is not available to you by the time the check clears. Nothing about your retirement savings changed. Only the route did.
| GROSS AMOUNT LEAVING THE 401(k) | CASH IN HAND AFTER 20% WITHHOLDING | ENTRY GATES YOU CAN STILL CLEAR ON THAT CASH ALONE |
|---|---|---|
| $6,250 | $5,000 | Orion only |
| $12,500 | $10,000 | Orion, American Hartford Gold, Birch, American Bullion, Lear |
| $25,000 | $20,000 | The five above, plus Noble Gold |
| $31,250 | $25,000 | Nine of ten, adding Goldco, Advantage Gold and Patriot |
| $62,500 | $50,000 | All ten, Augusta included |
Illustrative arithmetic on published minimums, not quotes. The right answer in every row is to avoid the withholding entirely with a direct rollover, in which case the gross figure is the figure that funds the account.
Which providers actively steer you to a direct rollover? We could not verify a published policy for any of the ten, so we will not claim one. What we can tell you is what a good steer sounds like: the representative asks who your plan administrator is before discussing metals, uses the words trustee-to-trustee or direct without prompting, and declines to quote a purchase until the funds have settled. A representative who is comfortable with you taking a check, or who describes the 60-day window as flexible, has told you something useful about the firm.
A rollover done by wire commonly runs ten to fifteen business days from application to metal confirmed in a vault. That headline number is close to useless on its own, because it hides the fact that one stage swallows most of it and no gold IRA company controls that stage. Here is the clock broken apart.
| STAGE | WHO CONTROLS IT | TYPICAL ELAPSED | WHAT ACTUALLY STALLS IT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Application and account opening | You and the provider | Same day to 2 business days | Missing beneficiary details or an identity document. The only stage you can finish in an afternoon. |
| 2. Release from the old plan | Your 401(k) plan administrator | 5 to 15 business days | The long pole. Many plans require a signed distribution form or a recorded phone authorization from you personally, and some will only release by mailed check, which adds a week before anything can settle. |
| 3. Cash settlement at the new custodian | The receiving custodian | 1 to 3 business days by wire | A mailed check has to arrive, be deposited and clear. This is where a check-only plan quietly doubles your timeline. |
| 4. Metals purchase and price lock | The dealer | Same day once cash has settled | Nothing, usually. The risk here is not delay, it is price. See below. |
| 5. Depository delivery and confirmation | The depository | 3 to 10 business days | Shipping and intake. Your statement is the only proof the metal arrived and matches what you ordered. |
Typical ranges from our research. No provider publishes a guaranteed rollover timeline, and any provider that did would be guaranteeing something stage 2 controls.
Read stage 4 again. Your gold price is locked on the day the cash settles, not the day you applied. A fifteen-business-day rollover therefore carries roughly three calendar weeks of gold price exposure that you have already committed to and cannot hedge, because the money is in transit and buys nothing while it moves. That is the real cost of a provider or a plan that drags, and it dwarfs the difference between a $180 annual fee and a $265 one.
Two practical consequences. First, ask your plan administrator whether it releases by wire or by check before you choose a provider, because that single answer moves your timeline more than anything on the ranking above. Second, treat any quote a dealer gives you at application as indicative only. The price you pay is the price on settlement day, and the honest firms say so without being asked.
A rollover is the one moment you get to choose a custodian, and almost nobody treats it as a choice. The dealer routes you to a partner, the paperwork arrives pre-populated, and the schedule that custodian bills on becomes your schedule for as long as the account exists. The dealer's waiver, by contrast, typically covers a single year.
Three of the ten name their custodian partners in published material. Birch Gold Group cites Equity Trust, STRATA Trust and GoldStar Trust. Goldco cites Equity Trust and STRATA Trust. American Hartford Gold names Equity Trust most often. The remaining seven describe third-party IRS-approved custodians without naming one, which is not improper but does mean you are agreeing to a fee schedule you have not seen.
Depository disclosure is better than custodian disclosure across the board. Augusta names the Delaware Depository, Noble Gold offers a genuine choice between the Delaware Depository and International Depository Services in Texas, and Birch and Goldco both list several. That asymmetry is telling: storage is marketed, administration is assumed. For a rollover, ask for the custodian's own published fee schedule, not the dealer's summary of it, and ask whether you may nominate a different custodian. The answer to the second question is occasionally yes, and it is never yes if you do not ask. Our page on gold IRA storage and depositories covers the vault side.
Plan-administrator handling is the biggest practical difference between these companies and the one none of them documents. Rather than guess, here are the three questions that separate a firm that will do the work from one that will send you a form. Ask them on the first call and ask for the answers by email.
If a provider will not put those three answers in writing alongside the fee quote, that is itself an answer. Our ranking methodology explains how we treat unpublished claims, and the warning signs of a bad actor covers the harder end of the same problem.
Nine of the ten providers we track will accept a $40,000 rollover. Augusta Precious Metals will not, because its minimum is roughly $50,000. Inside those nine, the deciding number is the first-year fee position rather than the headline score. American Bullion waives storage and the custodian fee for the first year with no rollover-size condition attached. American Hartford Gold quotes roughly $180 a year all-in with no liquidation fee. Birch Gold Group publishes a flat schedule of about $265 a year but its first-year waiver requires a qualifying rollover of $50,000 or more, so at $40,000 you pay the full amount. That single threshold is the reason a $40,000 rollover and a $50,000 rollover produce different shortlists. Fees verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing.
None of the ten providers we track publishes a written commitment on this, which is why we do not score it. What is published is marketing language about guided or assisted rollovers, and that language is not a service level. In practice the release of funds is controlled by your plan, not by the gold IRA company, and most plans will only act on instructions from the account owner. Ask three questions before you sign: who physically submits the distribution request, whether the provider will join a three-way call with your plan, and who chases the plan if nothing has moved in ten business days. Get the answers in writing in the same email as your fee quote.
The release from your old plan administrator, and it is not close. Opening the self-directed IRA is usually a same-day or next-day step, cash settles at the new custodian within a few business days of a wire, and the metals order is placed the day the cash clears. The release is the one stage where neither you nor your gold IRA provider is in control, and it is also the stage that decides whether the whole thing takes ten business days or five weeks. The single biggest variable is whether your plan releases by wire or by mailed check, so ask that question first rather than last.
Sometimes, but you have to raise it, because the default is the custodian your dealer routes you to. Three of the ten providers we track name their custodian partners in published material: Birch Gold Group cites Equity Trust, STRATA Trust and GoldStar Trust, Goldco cites Equity Trust and STRATA Trust, and American Hartford Gold names Equity Trust most often. The other seven describe third-party IRS-approved custodians without naming one. This matters more than it looks, because the custodian sets the fee schedule your account is billed on for as long as you hold it, while the dealer's promotion typically covers only the first year.
Often yes, and the threshold is usually the number that decides your shortlist. Birch Gold Group waives the first year on qualifying rollovers of $50,000 or more, so the waiver is worth nothing at $40,000 and worth the full annual fee at $50,000. Augusta Precious Metals covers custodian and storage fees for up to ten years on qualifying accounts, but its roughly $50,000 minimum means the offer never applies below that figure. American Bullion is the exception among the waivers we could verify: it waives storage and the custodian fee for the first year without publishing a rollover-size condition. Orion Metal Exchange and Patriot Gold Group both advertise waivers on qualifying accounts but do not publish the qualifying thresholds, so treat those as unpriced until you have them in writing.
Related reading: the step-by-step rollover process, the deadlines and annual limits, the transfer and rollover distinction, and our overall provider rankings.
Rollover mechanics come from federal primary sources. Company minimums, fees, waivers and named partners are taken from published company material and were verified Jun 2026; confirm current terms directly with each provider before you authorize a transfer.
Rollover-execution scores are ours and apply only to the rubric described on this page. They do not restate, replace or contradict the overall scores published on the rankings page.
Our free kit includes the fee and minimum comparison behind this ranking, plus a printable list of what to ask a provider and what to ask your plan administrator before you authorize anything.