Hard Assets Alliance Review

Today, when government-backed fiat money isn't as trusted as it once was, precious metals investments are rising. In fact, it is now a sensible safety strategy to invest in precious metals like gold since it can preserve your wealth while acting as an inflation hedge. 

But when investing in these assets, it's important to ensure your investment partner is reliable. Speaking of which, if you're considering an investment with Hard Assets Alliance (HAA), you might be curious if the company is worth your time and money. Drawing from my decades of experience in the industry, I aim to help you find this answer by helping you learn more about the company. 

Let’s review HAA more closely and see what it has to offer:

Hard Assets Alliance: A Brief Overview

Hard Assets Alliance is a brokerage firm established in 2010 in the United States. As a no-nonsense precious metals investment company, Hard Assets Alliance allows investors to buy, sell, and manage their assets on a single platform. Why did I say no-nonsense? They make investing in precious metals straightforward an easy-to-navigate trading platform. 

Regarding asset variety, the company offers a range of investment products in gold and silver. You can also choose to invest in platinum with the company. Notably, even though the company is located in the US, HAA also caters to international customers' investment and shipping needs. 

While anyone can open an investment account with the company, HAA only offers international shipping services in Australia, the United States, Switzerland, and Singapore.

With that said, there are some suspicious factors regarding the company. For instance, they have yet to publicize their list of owners or directors. Additionally, their precious metal storage instruments are all managed by third parties. 

This leaves some room for doubts that can only be cleared after a thorough evaluation of its services and products. So, let's dive further into that. 

What Makes Hard Assets Alliance Stand Out?

In my years of experience, I believe that it is crucial to understand what key services make a company stand out. This helps evaluate whether a company meets investor-specific needs — despite its specific lackings. 

Considering the same for Hard Assets Alliance, here are the standout services and features I came across: 

Product Offering

I find HAA's investment offerings appealing, particularly through their user-friendly SmartMetals trading platform. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting out, the platform's easy-to-use design is a standout feature. 

Beyond that, HAA adds to the allure with a diverse range of product options, making the investment journey more engaging and accessible for investors of all levels. These are:

Gold 

HAA enables investors to purchase gold bars and coins from anywhere globally. The cheapest gold bar I found on their site costs around $2,100 and weighs approximately 1 oz. Some other gold bars investment options listed on HAA based on their weight include: 

When exploring their gold coin investments, I noticed the American Eagle coin listed at a competitive price of $229 on their website. This, coupled with the platform's additional features, further adds to its appeal. The platform also provides: 

Silver 

As someone with an affinity to silver products, I was excited to find our more about HAA’s silver offerings. They have a neat little range of silver products, featuring different weights and costs. This means that anyone with a modest or large budget can invest in silver through the company. Hard Assets Alliance offers silver bars starting at $2,565 for a 100 oz bar. 

Besides silver bars, the website lists rounds, Canadian Maple Leaf, American Eagle, and Austrian Philharmonic silver coins. The lowest value round I found on their website was a 1 oz round priced at $2. 

With that said, I do wish they extend their range a bit more. Their current selection is suited mostly for investors who dislike navigating through a crowd of precious metals investment items. 

Platinum 

While HAA has a decent selection of gold and silver products, I can't say the same for their platinum products. Why do I say that? Because Hard Assets Alliance only offers one platinum investment option, i.e., a 1-ounce platinum bar worth $1,028.

Note: There may be slight changes in the prices of these assets based on the market shifts. Hence, I suggest you open an HAA account to get the latest precious metals asset prices to make a better investment decision.

Storage Vault Service

Speaking from my decades of experience investing in precious metals, I have realized that securely storing these assets is just as important as owning them in the first place. For that, I’d recommend a safe, well-insured vault for protecting your precious metals.

Fortunately, Hard Assets Alliance provides Storage Vault services. Although this service is offered through third parties, It’s still quite good. It’s ideal for most investors since you can store your assets in any of the following locations:

Besides the freedom to have my assets stored in a vault close to me, I also found their choice of vault service providers to be highly reliable. This includes Brinks, Loomis, and Malca-Amit storage vaults. 

Since these storage companies are known to be international leaders in third-party security with good track records, it wasn't hard for me to trust their storage service. Additionally, the added assurance of my assets being stored in an insured vault brings peace of mind. I know that in the unlikely event of an issue, I will be compensated for the full value of my precious metals.

IRA Investment Service

Hard Assets Alliance stands out by offering precious metals IRA investment solutions. With my existing experience in precious metals IRA investments, I found reassurance in the reliability of HAA's IRA services, especially since they are offered in partnership with Equity Trust.

What is Equity Trust? It's one of the major custodians for IRA investments, having handled over $25 billion in qualified funds for their IRA investors. The role of Equity Trust here is simply as a precious metals IRA custodian who will handle everything related to the IRA account for you.

From opening the account in compliance with IRS guidelines to funding your IRA account, holding your IRA investments at HAA in the account, keeping track of them, maintaining them, and helping process distributions when you're eligible for them. Here, having a trusted firm like Equity Trust as your precious metals IRA custodian adds more reliability to your IRA investments with Hard Assets Alliance. 

How to Invest with Hard Assets Alliance?

To proceed with my precious metals investment with HAA, I had to open a SmartMetals account on their platform. Interestingly, their 3-step account opening and investment process hardly took me a few minutes. Here's how it unfolded: 

Step #1: Opening an Account

Upon initiating my SmartMetals account at HAA, I selected a personal account type from the available options, which encompassed personal, tax-advantaged retirement (IRA), and trust/company accounts. 

I opted for a personal account and proceeded to provide my details and identity information, successfully completing the process within a matter of minutes. The overall process was quite straightforward and streamlined.

Step #2: Funding the Account

Once my account was up and running, I had to fund it. For this, the platform allowed me to choose direct funding via bank wire transfer, check, or even cryptocurrency. 

Likewise, if you open an IRA account, the company lets you fund it through cash or a rollover from an existing IRA account or another retirement account. Remember that you will have to connect with your custodian to process the rollover to your SmartMetals account, which might take 5-7 business days. 

Step #3: Investing and Managing the Profile

Finally, the moment arrived to allocate the available funds within my SmartMetals account. Upon acquiring a silver asset through the account, I gained the ability to trade that asset on the SmartMetals marketplace. The entire transactional procedure proved to be uncomplicated, requiring only a few minutes.

Moreover, what adds to the appeal is the platform's provision for investors to execute sales or purchases around the clock. This means that you have the flexibility to engage in buying or selling precious metals with HAA at any given time and from any location.

Hard Assets Alliance Fee

From what I explored, the pricing at Hard Assets Alliance is transparent and reasonable (except for some investors who end up being charged hidden fees). Here's how their pricing works: 

Hard Assets Alliance Rating on Consumer Review Sites

Pros and Cons

Final Verdict 

Ultimately, I would say that Hard Assets Alliance is a precious metals brokerage firm with various positive and negative traits. In terms of positive traits, the company stands out for its straightforward trading platform, competitive asset pricing, quick investment solutions, and more. 

At the same time, its D- rating on BBB, investors' complaints about hidden charges, and limited information about their team on the website are noteworthy downsides.

Considering both, I believe it is important that you compare your specific investment needs with the company's offerings to determine whether it is a reliable investment partner for you or not!

I hope this detailed guide will help you make a more informed investment decision. If you are looking for more options, you can see my article on the top gold IRA companies in 2024.

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