About this file
The person behind the file
Alan Pemberton
Former third-party retirement plan administrator · Independent researcher
I spent about twelve years at third-party administration firms processing the paperwork most people never see: 401(k) rollovers, IRA transfers, required minimum distributions, beneficiary changes. Thousands of files. When you process rollovers for a living, you learn exactly where they go wrong — the 60-day traps, the withholding surprises, the custodian hand-off failures.
When gold IRAs took off, I watched people route retirement money through them with less scrutiny than they'd give a used car. The review sites weren't helping: most are anonymous, most are paid, and almost none say when their facts were last checked. So I started keeping my own files.
This site is one of those files, made public. It covers a single company — Augusta Precious Metals — because a file that covers everything verifies nothing.
What I am and am not
- I am not a licensed financial advisor, CPA, or attorney, and nothing here is advice.
- I do not sell precious metals and have no inventory to move.
- My background is plan administration — the mechanics and the paperwork — and that's the lens every page here uses.
How facts are verified
Every substantive page carries a fact docket showing the date its claims were last verified and the number of sources checked. The method:
- Primary first. Fees and minimums from Augusta's own published materials; complaint counts from BBB and BCA directly; ratings pulled live from Trustpilot, Google, and ConsumerAffairs.
- Dated claims. Ratings and review counts change, so each is tied to the docket date, not left to rot.
- Corrections over deletions. When a fact drifts, the page is corrected and the docket re-dated.
Independence
This site is not owned by, operated by, or affiliated with Augusta Precious Metals. Links to Augusta's own website are provided for readers to verify claims at the source. If a compensated relationship ever exists, it will be disclosed on every affected page — plainly, not in a footnote.
Contact
Corrections are welcome and acted on: contact the file desk.