Gold Broker Review

Gold Broker is a company that's been around since 2011. According to the website, they want to help people purchase and store their precious metals. They also want you to be able to access your vault and view your metals at any time.

While Gold Broker might look advanced, their services are relatively simple. How do they compare to their competitors? Are they actually worth investing with?

About Gold Broker

Gold Broker's founder is a French entrepreneur named Fabrice Drouin Ristori. He created the company in 2011, after graduating from the Kedge Business School in 2004. Right after college, he had several years of working on startups in the website industry.

In 2010, Fabrice sold his stake in the companies he founded. He wanted to keep working as an entrepreneur, but he didn't want to have to constantly manage his investments. As such, he decided to invest in gold, since this is a relatively stable investment no matter what the economy does.

When Fabrice first started in the precious metals industry, he tried gold ETFs. But these funds don't actually give you physical ownership of your metals. He then rented a bank safety deposit box for his gold. But he couldn't get insurance, nor could he find any way to easily liquidate his metals.

He created Gold Broker to offer storage options that would actually help the average person. The vaults would be fully insured. They would also be placed internationally, allowing people to store their items in tax havens. This is an especially important advantage for people concerned about government seizure.

In September of 2020, the company made a move to London. This allowed the headquarters to be in the biggest stronghold of precious metals trading. Gold Broker currently employs 15 people and operates in English, Spanish, German, and French markets.

Storage Options

Gold Broker does not have its own precious metals vaults, but it has partnered with a trusted depository. The company works with Malca-Amit. This is a depository company that operates completely outside of any global bank. Malca-Amit was founded in 1963 and is used by high net worth individuals and financial institutions for storing physical bullion.

There are four storage facilities that you can choose from, all spread across the globe. In the US, storage is available in New York. In Canada, there's storage in Toronto. You can also get storage in the freeport in Singapore, as well as Zurich, Switzerland.

If you want to store your items locally in the US, these storage locations might be a disadvantage. For example, New York has more tax burdens for precious metals than the neighboring state of Delaware. That's why many people choose to store their items in the Delaware Depository instead.

In addition, the New York depository won't be accessible for many people outside the Northeast region of the US. If you want a storage vault that's close to home, you'll want to work with a company that has more widespread regional options.

Personal Ownership

Unlike with gold ETFs, you are the sole owner of the items in the precious metals depository. This means that even if the depository goes bankrupt, you can still retrieve your items. They're not in any danger of being seized. The international vaults are all in tax-advantaged areas where you won't have to worry about taxes.

You will be issued a certificate by Malca-Amit. This is a guarantee that your vault holds the precious metals that it claims to. You know that this is true because Malca-Amit is a Swiss company, and Swiss companies cannot issue these certificates without proving they have the items backing them up.

Your account will use your name. A contract will be signed between the depository and you. This means that you are also protected in case Gold Broker itself was ever to go bankrupt.

You can access your vault in person as well. All you have to do is set up an appointment at least 48 hours before your visit. At this time, you'll be able to look at your metals and withdraw them if you want. You'll arrange this with Malca-Amit, and no Gold Broker representative needs to be involved.

Buyback Program

Gold Broker has a buyback program for when you're ready to liquefy your assets. They will buy back whatever metals you store in the Malca-Amit vaults. In most cases, the entire process will be finished in 2 business days or less.

You'll have a client area after you make a purchase. You can create a secure chat with a Gold Broker representative to let them know that you're ready to sell. Once the sale order is received, the company will send you a document to sign. This document will allow your precious metals to be removed from your Malca-Amit vault and placed in a Gold Broker vault instead.

You will then receive your funds. The company bases the buyback price on the spot price when the transaction goes through. You will be bank transferred the sale funds within two business days.

The company does note that there is a minimum reselling order threshold of $75. However, if you are investing seriously in bullion, then meeting this threshold shouldn't be very difficult.

Shipping

You can also have gold and silver shipped personally to you if you prefer not to use the storage services. Every package will be fully insured. The packages are delivered with either USPS, FedEx, or UPS.

If you have an order that's worth at least $250,000, then the company will hire an armored car service to deliver it. You will need to call to find out a quote for this service.

Domestic shipping in the US is available for all gold and silver orders for free. Again, this is fully insured. Unfortunately, the international shipping options are limited. You can only have items shipped to France, and you'll be given an estimate of the cost based on how much the package weighs.

After an order ships out, you'll be sent an email confirmation. This will also include a tracking number. You'll get updates on the status of your delivery. Since the package is insured, you will need to be home to sign for it when it arrives.

Commissions

The company website does say that there is a commission for the salespeople. The commission is included in the calculated price of the item. However, they aren't very forthcoming about exactly how much the commission is. For example, they say that the commission changes depending on the product.

They do note that if you buy in bulk, the overall commission will be lower. So if you want to get the best overall prices from the company, it's best to buy a lot of items at once.

There is a minimum investment purchase threshold of at least $10,000, which doesn't include the service fee. If you make a second purchase, you must spend at least $5,000. If you intend to place a first order that's over $400,000, you should contact the company first.

Is Gold Broker a Scam?

Gold Broker is not a scam. The company does appear to provide the services and products that it says it does. In addition, there is a good deal of information available about the management and ownership. You can find the company owner on Linkedin.

However, there are a few potential red flags. One is that there is no accreditation with the BBB. In addition, the BBB gives the company a score of NR, meaning not rated. This indicates that they're missing information or doing an investigation, so they can't make a judgment about the company's quality. But there aren't any alerts about government action or investigations.

There are no positive or negative reviews on the BBB website. Similarly, there have been no complaints filed. In fact, it's difficult to find reviews of the company online at all. This makes it tough to determine how satisfied past customers have been.

Gold Broker also doesn't have a lot of information about its pricing. It's hard to tell whether the salespeople make commissions. Even if they don't, it's hard to tell how high the markup on the products is. It's important to do research and check the spot price of any item prior to buying it.