Hard Assets Alliance Review

Before we get started:

Inflation and rising interest rates has destroyed many people's savings.  Many investors feel defeated and helpless, but you can fight back.

Opening a gold IRA can sound complicated, but it's really not.  

That is why we created a list of our most trustworthy investment companies, to make comparing and choosing the company best suited to your needs as easy as possible.

>> CLICK HERE to read our list of the Top 5 Gold IRA Companies <<

Look to see if Hard Assets Alliance was selected to our "highest recommendation" list this year!

Or...

Get a FREE Gold Investing Packet from our #1 recommendation, by clicking the button below:

About Hard Assets Alliance

Hard Assets Alliance is a broad-based precious metal exchange. They sell a wide array of precious metals, including gold and silver, with limited options available for platinum and palladium.

However, it's important to note that the company bills itself as a marketplace, not a direct dealer. You can use their investment platform to purchase metals from other companies, then use the platform to manage your investments.

Frustratingly, there is little information about the company itself, its founders, business operations, and more. This is different than the way that many other precious metal companies work, and for individuals who are concerned about transparency, this can be a frustrating challenge.

Interestingly, Hard Assets Alliance isn't kidding when it says that it offers a vast array of precious metal-related services. Indeed, of the various sites we've reviewed, Hard Assets Alliance might have the broadest array of potential products for you to invest in.

Hard Assets Alliance Standard Accounts

Hard Assets Alliance offers the ability for individuals to buy precious metals via standard accounts, listing these accounts as their "most popular options."

Frustratingly, the webpage has relatively little information on what gold you can buy or how you can buy it, although a "Get started today!" button does allow users to easily begin the process of creating their accounts.

Indeed, this is a challenge that exists across the entire Hard Asset Alliance webpage: It gives relatively little information about the process of creating an account, instead opting to concentrate more on marketing messaging.

Other review sites have noted that you can use this section to buy precious metals. From there, you can have those metals delivered directly to you, or you can keep them stored on a third-party site.

You can then hold the metals or sell them at a time of your choosing, still using the same website. It is important to remember that Hard Assets Alliance is not a dealer. Instead, they act as a marketplace, enabling others to use their platform to buy and sell precious metals.

They then offer ancillary services that make it easy for individuals to open an account and use their services to buy or sell precious metals.

IRA Savings

Precious metal IRAs have become very popular of late, particularly in light of inflation, COVID-19, and ongoing economic turmoil. Hard Assets Alliance allows you to easily open an account, fund it, and monitor its progress.

The service is clean and simple. Furthermore, it allows you to open an account and fund it using various retirement options, including traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, and Simple IRAs.

Once again, there are challenges in determining additional information and services. It is unknown from reviewing this website if your IRA will have a client manager, which some precious metal companies offer.

Presumably, Hard Asset Alliance levies fees or other administrative costs, but again, the information on such costs is not listed. However, the button to open an account is seen at least four times on this webpage.

Again, this brings up transparency and sales concerns: It is difficult to evaluate a product if the company in question isn't completely upfront with what is offered.

Automated Investments

Hard Asset Alliance offers some highly unique investment products. One example is their MetalStream automated investments account. This account makes regular withdrawals from a bank account and invests them into a precious metal instrument of your choice.

In other words, this account allows users to automate their investments, just like they would through something like Dollar Cost Averaging.

Of course, you can alter the investment at any time, changing the amount you invest, where you invest it, or stopping it completely. As such, you still maintain control over all of your investments. However, automated investments allow you to set an investment goal and continue to invest in a precious metal account of your choice.

Business Accounts

Again, this is an area where Hard Asset Alliance offers an account type that is not often seen in the precious metal investing world.

The business specifically offers support for LLCs, C-corporations, S-corporations, partnerships, and sole proprietors that are interested in making investments in gold. This corporate account means that you can potentially take business money and invest it in gold.

This business orientation presumably means that Hard Asset Alliance can manage business-specific questions on taxes and regulations. This page comes replete with opportunities to "contact a representative," which means that they have staff on hand that is capable of answering any business-related questions you may have about the service.

Just like their personal accounts, you can open an account, fund it, and monitor it. You can do this from the website itself or the App.

Estates and Trusts

Once again, this is an area where Hard Asset Alliance offers a relatively unique product. You can - directly from the website - direct a Trust, Uniform Transfer to Minor (UTMA), or another estate plan to invest in precious metals.

Many trusts find there to be real benefits in such investments, as precious metals are typically lower-risk investments that can manage to get through inflationary periods and areas of reduced growth. As such, this is a genuinely useful service.

Once again, Hard Asset Alliance ties in its other services, allowing you to open an account, fund it, and monitor it. Users can still engage in this process via the App.

Hard Assets Alliance Products

The "Products & Pricing" tab of the website lists every product that is available on Hard Asset Alliance's website. The breakdown is roughly as follows:

Gold: Numerous bars (10 oz, 1 oz), coins, and foreign coins.

Silver: Multiple bars, coins, and foreign coins, including American & Canadian coins.

As you can see, there are multiple gold and silver options available, but only one platinum product. There is no palladium product listed on the website as of the time of this review.

Pricing is constantly shifting, and as noted below, making apples-to-apples comparisons can be difficult, as services like Hard Asset Alliance are seldom completely transparent about the storage and shipping fees related to the sale of a precious metal.

However, this much is certain: Many websites besides Hard Asset Alliance offer a much wider selection. If you are looking for a precious metal website that offers a wide selection, you should look elsewhere.

Hard Assets Alliance

Fees & Pricing

Like many other precious metal websites, Hard Asset Alliance does not list its fees or costs in an easy-to-find place on its website. For users who want to make the best decisions for their financial future and make apples-to-apples comparisons, this is both challenging and frustrating.

That being said, while information on fees and storage costs is not easily available, the website does have an easy-to-find section that lists what products are available and how much those products will cost.

Furthermore, the App provides more information on real-time pricing, although you will need an account to get a comprehensive overview of all of the total costs of a product.

Other Resources

Despite some transparency concerns, Hard Asset Alliance does offer a vast array of resources that makes it easier for individuals to make their own investment decisions. As always, with these sites, the information is skewed towards encouraging you to buy more of their product.

This doesn't mean that the company is doing anything dishonest, and virtually every precious metal company engages in this type of behavior. However, you must keep in mind that these companies are trying to sell you a product when making buying decisions.

Interestingly, Hard Asset Alliance is one of the only precious metal vendors we have reviewed that has its own App. According to the description, the App gives you access to your account, charts, and the ability to connect with the company itself.

You can then use this information to buy and sell precious metals directly from the App. Both the Google Play and App Store reviews of the App are very positive. Furthermore, when negative reviews have been left, the company responds right away and attempts to troubleshoot these issues. This speaks well of their customer service orientation.

Hard Asset Alliance also has a very robust blog that is updated multiple times a week. As you would imagine, the blog reviews precious metal news. However, it also has information that tinges toward a major apocalypse.

One blog entry is entitled "The Accelerating Countdown to Armageddon." Another is "BANK FAILURE! Here's What's Happening & What Shockwaves May Result." In other words, Hard Asset Alliance does what many precious metal websites do: It leans into the prepper orientation of many precious metal investors.

For some, this type of hyperbolic language may fit well with their overall investing strategy, but for others, it may be off-putting. There are legitimate reasons - besides preparing for economic Armageddon - why someone may want to invest in precious metals.

Blog entries that veer towards needing to do so to prepare for the collapse of civilization may discredit this investment mechanism in the eyes of many.

Reviews

Any precious metal dealer that has been in business long enough will have a variety of reviews from customers who have used the service, and Hard Asset Alliance is no exception.

Interestingly, many precious metal websites advertise their positive reviews straight from their front page, using it to alleviate any customer concerns that may exist about doing business with such a website. Hard Asset Alliance does not do so.

Third-party reviews of Hard Asset Alliance are as follows:

Google Business: None listed.

Trustpilot: 4.4 stars out of 56 ratings.

Better Business Bureau: 1 star of 5, two ratings, with four customer complaints in the past year.

The lack of a Google Business profile is unique: Most businesses leap at a chance to get create a Google Business profile. It doesn't necessarily mean anything bad - it's just different.

Many positives were consistently listed in reviews, including excellent customer service, useful tech support, the convenience of the App, and the ease at which business accounts could be created.

Many of the customers were extremely happy with the service they got at Hard Asset Alliance and seemed more than willing to continue to do business with the company. On the other hand, there were numerous one-star reviews.

These criticized the customer service, with some noting that they never heard back from the company at all. Even more concerning is the four complaints and F grade at the Better Business Bureau. To be clear, a complaint is not a definite indicator of something going wrong, but repeated complaints are not a good thing.

Final Verdict

Hard Asset Alliance offers some genuinely unique and interesting products. They are the only website we've reviewed so far that offers specific business and trust accounts. They also have a highly-reviewed app that enables easy purchase and shipping. These two factors alone may drive many individuals toward the company.

However, Hard Asset Alliance is not without its challenges. Their selection is comparatively low, and there are plenty of other websites that offer a wider selection of precious metals to invest in. Reviews also were not as good as they are for many other companies.

If you have unique account needs, Hard Asset Alliance may be perfect for you. Otherwise, you may want to look elsewhere.

Remember to read our list of the Best Gold Investment Companies to work with, before investing your hard-earned savings!

>> CLICK HERE to read our list of the Top Gold IRA Companies. <<

Or, if you like what you read about Hard Assets Alliance, continue to their website below.