I give them one star. Don t pay for their so called expedited service on anything. Complete ripoff. There is literally no difference between their normal, slow processing and expedited. If you need a distribution, or transaction by a particular time, give them at least a month. Now they are using Covid as an excuse to ignore you.
IRA companies by and large offer no service and generally speaking charge you for the pleasure of holding your money hostage. In my experience, the best you will get is one that discloses their fees upfront.
Unfortunately, this is not one of those companies. I'd compare IRA Services to Comcast cable. The worst example of capitalism on the planet.
This company will routinely charge you fees without telling you and when you finally decide to leave this company they will charge you $150 for the pleasure of taking your money.
If you happen to end up seeing this company as part of a package deal. A deal where you get IRA Services for Free, this is a scam. The "Free" status is either removed completely or your account minimums are jacked up.
Stay away!
I did a bunch of research on different firms and the general trend was that ratings for self directed IRA firms are not good. I ended up going with these guys and have been very pleased with their service. They have been responsive and I have been able to talk with specific individuals in different functional areas. I have also been able to reach people quickly when I have called in for questions and their reps have been knowledgeable. Finally, their compliance / contracts group was very helpful. I would highly recommend working with these guys based on my own experience.
I have been a customer of this company for about five years. I advise anyone interested in finding a self-directed IRA company to consider all other choices. While it is easy to rollover money to your account with the company, investing, or rolling money out is not that easy. It has been two weeks since I decided to roll my money to another IRA company and I am still waiting for this to happen. The S&P during this time period went up by 5%, while my money was sitting in a zero interest-earning account and The Forge Trust Co made thousands at my expense. This is a scam! There is no need to build a financial pyramid when money can be made by simply delaying transfers and unlike in Bernie Madoff's case, this, apparently is legal.
It is impossible to get any help, or even a response at all from Forge Trust. I have been locked out of my account since they took over from IRA Trust Services. They do not pick up the phone, EVER. They do not respond to emails. I'm trying to do my taxes, but Forge Trust is making it very difficult.
They've been around long before some of these new companies and will be here long after their gone. Their options, fee's and advice are the best in the industry. They ARE a ( Custodial Service ). They are ( NOT ) a ( Free Legal and Tax Advice Hotline ). You may be the most important customer but your not the only important customer! Look all you ( Complainers ) if you can't read simple instructions to fill out form's. You probably shouldn't be handling your own investments. Please continue to let your 401K or ( Broker ) LOSE your hard earned invested money and charge you their commission's for their good works. Exceptionally Satisfied Customer Since 2015 ( Mahalo Nui Loa A Lo Ha ) (Hau'oli Makahiki Hou )
I think their fees are in the same ballpark with the rest of the self directed IRA companies. The people are friendly and helpful. They were slow getting their user online presence set up, but that is there now. They are bound by a ton of federal regulations. So you have to understand that when you work with any of these institutions.
I think they do what they say they'll do, but I think by nature this type of business isn't modeled for hands on customer service or responsiveness. Although self directed IRAs may seem like a good idea on paper, they are more complicated than they seem. Proceed with caution in general if considering one and don't expect much help from this company or any other. The "self directed" part is no exaggeration.
Service is POOR!! Dropped the ball multiple times, didn't send the funds to the appropriate investment companies. No response. Tried calling them, 30min+ wait time and still no call back! HORRIBLE!
Spent a lot of money to get out of this self directed IRA Trust account. They provide a service but the service depends on who you talk to and when. Sometimes it takes a long time to accomplish a task sometimes its quick but they charge for EVERYTHING. When I had enough of the red tape and directed them to send my money to my new account elsewhere they charged me 150.00 termination fee + 160.00 transaction fee + 25.00 wire fee, +50 Transaction fee + ... So if you want to be screwed when you decide to leave, be prepared.
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