In this article, we are going to review Lear Capital. Is Lear Capital a gold & silver scam? It might sound like a stupid question about a company that has been around since 1997, and is an industry leader. However, there are things you need to be aware of… Ok, with that said, let´s look into it!
Company: Lear Capital
Website: www.LearCapital.com/
Founder: Kevin D Demeritt
Price: Depends on your investment
Who is it for? Precious metal investors, retirees
Overall rating: 
(3.5 / 5)
Warning!
There are many scammers who will trick you into giving them your hard-earned cash.
They employ high-pressure sales techniques like calling you every day.
To avoid this, please do your own research before you decide what firm to invest with.
You can do this by checking the reviews and ratings independent 3rd party consumer protection agencies give them.
To discover which investment firm consumers rate the highest… who won’t bother you with pushy sales calls… and who you can trust to protect and grow your wealth… then take a look at the #1 Recommended Gold & Silver IRA Dealer on our top-5 list.
With that being said, let´s continue with the review on Lear Capital!
What is Lear Capital? – Overview
Located in Los Angeles, Lear capital was founded in 1996 and since then have been a retail seller and buyer of precious metals. They deal in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins. These can be used for your individual needs and held in a self-directed IRA. In addition to the IRAs, the company also sells some rare coins, such as the Orca 2-ounce fine silver coin minted by the Royal Canadian Mint.
They are a friendly company dedicated to providing investors with all the tools they need to invest in precious metals. They also have plenty of resources that investors can use for better results.
These include real-time pricing, regular email alerts, occasional newsletters, and personal account representatives that are always available to answer your questions. They are a company keen on enabling investors to be continuously updated about what is going on in the markets. They will be able to move gold more quickly, just as they would paper investments.
They are a reliable company to work with, and with the many years of experience they have in precious metals and gold IRAs, you should be able to trust them to provide you with the kind of services you need whenever you want to invest in precious metals.
Address: 1990 S Bundy Dr #650, Los Angeles, CA 90025, United States
What products do they offer?
Lear Capital offers gold, silver, platinum, and palladium precious metal products. This comes in the form of bars, bullion, and coins. Additionally, they have some rare coins that are ideally suited to collectors looking for these coins to add to their collections.
As an investor that would like to open an IRA account, the company will enable you to get the IRA-approved precious metals. These are precious metals that meet a certain quality standard and lack the decoration required by the IRS. Consequently, you will be able to have an easier time opening an IRA and depositing precious metals into the account.
They also offer investment vehicles such as a precious metal IRA which helps provide you the tax benefits associated with a retirement account and lets you invest in precious metals. Lear Capital seems to be an ideal choice for you whenever you are looking for a company that enables you to invest in precious metals.
How to get started?
The easiest way to get started is by visiting their website. Here, you will be met by a simple, intuitive page that offers you the chance to get in touch. You can also start by educating yourself, thanks to the free investor kit offered on their website.
This will provide you with the information you need to start investing in precious metals, and as such, you will be able to make better investment decisions when you have the correct information.
Their phone numbers are also clearly displayed on their website, meaning that you can get in touch with a customer support representative.
Lear Capital Gold & Silver IRAs
As you can find both IRA approved gold as well as IRA approved silver among their metals it comes as no surprise that Lear can help you out with Precious Metals IRA services.
If you would like to open a gold IRA, the simplest way to start is by opening a gold IRA account form and fill it out.
Once you have filled out the form, you will be required to state how much you would like to be the initial investment for your IRA account. Lear Capital will provide the precious metals and gold you need for the new account.
Finally, please open a new account and fund it with the precious metals you prefer. You will not be alone since there are friendly and helpful customer support representatives to enable you to make the right choices and follow the correct procedure when making your investment.
You can also request a precious metals IRA representative to get in touch so that you can ask more questions. This is important as it enables you to have the critical details to start a gold or precious metals IRA. With a consultation over the phone, you will have an easier time filling out the forms and providing the required information for your account to be opened.
IRA Custodian?
Something that I miss on the Lear Capital website is info on what IRA Custodian (or custodians) they are partnered with, and therefore connect you with? So guess you are going to have to ask that as well to them over the phone, or by sending them an e-mail.
What are the fees?
You will have to consider several fees if you decide to open an IRA account with Lear Capital. There are annual fees of $260 for the initial year and $180 for every year. These fees are required to manage your account and take care of your precious metals’ storage and insurance. However, it is essential to note that the fees related to maintaining a precious metals IRA are tax-deductible, and as such, you might end up paying less for the maintenance of your account.
Important to mention here: is that it is absolutely crucial that you know exactly what fees you are going to have to pay before you sign anything. There are so many horror stories online of clients being riped off with so-called hidden fees. No matter what company you decide to invest with this is one of the most important things to have in mind.
**See my #1 Recommended Gold & Silver IRA Solution on this page
How good is their support?
Something I personally appreciate a lot when it comes to the support system of a particular company is if they got a live-chat function on their website. Lear does not have this and that is a small minus (at least in my humble opinion).
They do got phone support and e-mail.
Can you sell back your precious metals?
Yes. In addition to having fast delivery for all purchases made by their customers, the company also has a no-fee buy-back program. This means that you can sell back your precious metals, and as such, you do not have to worry about buying excess amounts of gold. Selling the gold will be more accessible, and since they have the spot price displayed on their website, the process will be much easier.
**See the Gold & Silver Investment company who got the “highest price buy back guarantee” Learn more here
Is Lear Capital a Gold & Silver Scam?
So, is Lear Capital one of those gold & silver scams we have learned to get use to in this industry? No. Lear Capital cannot be said to be a gold scam, in my opinion. They got real owners and a real physical address. They look like a reliable company that can be trusted to provide quality services for investors interested in gold and precious metals. They have a good history of providing credible services to their customers, and as such, they are reliable and reputable.
However, if they are your best alternative out there is a whole other story.
That leads us to what the most well-known and trusted, independent third-party consumer protection agencies have to say about them:
Lear Capital Reviews & Ratings:
BBB (Better Business Bureau)
Rating: Not accredited business click here for details (opens in new window)
Trustpilot
Rating: 
(4.8 / 5) (from 791 reviews) click here for details (opens in new window)
BCA (Business Consumer Alliance)
Rating: AAA (from 3 reviews) click here for details (opens in new window)
Trustlink
Rating: 
(4.5 / 5) (based on 325 reviews) click here for details (opens in new window)
Yelp
Rating: (3.5 / 5) (from 55 reviews) click here for details (opens in new window)
What can we make out of these results?
The consumer protection agency that I normally put the most weight on is Trustpilot. The reason for that is because only real customers of a particular product or service can leave their testimonials there. As you can see above Lear have a great nr of reviews there (almost 800) and the overall rating score is very high, well above average.
Their Trustpilot rating shows that many of their customers have gotten good experiences working with them, and as such, they are a company that can be trusted. Happy customers are a clear sign of a company dedicated to giving them reliable services, and Lear Capital has been doing an incredible job so far it looks like.
Not accredited business?
Something that surprised me is that they are not an accredited business by the BBB, especially as they got such a good overall rating from Trustpilot, what´s going on there?
Well, that might be a red flag but it doesnt´ have to be…
Ok, so far everything have looked pretty good about this company, right? Now we are moving into the part of this review where things might turn a bit uglier. As it is my job to present what I find… here we go:
Lear Capital Complaints & other red flags?
Yes we found some complaints, however, it is important to keep in mind that Lear have been in business for a long time, and it is almost impossible to make everyone happy all the time, right? I mean, even Mother Theresa had haters, right?
Something that unfortunatly can occur in this industry is that certain sales representatives use dirty tactics, and for example, run the old “numismatic coin trick” and I did actually find some complaints about that, below are 2 examples (both posted in 2018) that can be seen on the Trustlink website (see link further up):
Sales Tactics
I rolled over an IRA into a Lear Capital account. My Lear Capital investment counselor pushed “semi-numismatic” coins so hard I couldn’t believe it. But he sold me. Had they been 1 ounce American Silver Eagle coins at a few dollars over spot, I would not feel so bad. Unfortunately, he convinced me to purchase 1.5 ounce Royal Canadian Mint Silver coins at $9 over spot! I need the price of silver to go up $10 an ounce just to break even. I am not counting on any premiums for the coins. Thankfully I have years to wait.
Sales Practice Issues
We are very displeased with Lear Capital. We were misled with many things by them. We let them know up front that we did not know much about gold and silver. We were looking to protect our retirement savings, only then to be taken advantage of. Lear charged us well over 30% of our retirement upfront without properly explaining the fees and value of what they said we should buy. When we tried to cancel, our agent, Chris Mitchell lied to us and led us to believe that the price of gold and silver had started gaining some of our money back. We found out that was in fact a lie. The gold and silver market had gone down and we had lost still more, approximately 40%, over $220,000 dollars, of our retirement because there was no special value to the gold and silver they sold us. We feel Lear Capital is a very bad company to do business with.
These 2 examples above are, as mentioned, from 2018 and can be found on the Trustlink website.
Lawsuits?
It is important to mention that Lear has been charged in court for conducting missleading and deceptive business, more than one time:
- In 2017 a women sued the company for loosing 1/3 of here account, you can read more about that here.
- In 2019 the company was sued for charging fees as high as 33% !! You can read more about that here
- and in 2022 an authorney secured $6 million from lear to end their deceptive business practices in New York, se details here
Naturally this makes you wonder, and I have to say it was a bit surprising to find all this, especially after seeing the amount of positive reviews on the Trustpilot site for example… What´s going on? Is this the result of some bad apples working on Lear, and hopefully not working there anymore? I don´t know, I only present to you what I have found.
Are there better alternatives out there?
Looking at the years of experience that Lear Capital has, they are more reliable than most gold investment companies. Their many years in business make them more experienced and capable of rendering reliable services to their customers. There might be a few alternatives, but very few have the same experience and years in business as Lear Capital. However, experience is not everything and in some cases you might want to focus on other benefits on a company…
**See my Top-5 List of Gold & Silver Investment Companies (outside and inside IRA)
Lear PROs & CONs
You have to understand several things about Lear before you decide to do business with them. These are their main strengths and weaknesses. As such, they will determine your experience with them and whether your needs will be taken care of or not.
The positive
- Hard to find a more experienced company
- They have a flat fee structure that is easy to manage.
- You can place orders easily online
- The process of opening an account is quick and reliable.
- Great amount of positive reviews on Trustpilot
The negative
- If you are investing a small amount, the fees might be too high for you.
- You need to wait for a representative to contact you before you can open an account
- The complaints & lawsuits against the company
Do you own or represent Lear Capital?
Are you the owner or a representative of Lear Capital? If you are, feel free to reach out to us. We could do with a bit more information about your company. Have you seen something on this page that isnt´t correc, then please reach out to us so we can adjust and update the information. We will share this with our readers and other people interested in gold and precious metals investments. The easiest way to reach us is by leaving a comment in the comment section below or simply by sending us an e-mail at: contact@goldretired.com
Final words & Verdict
Verdict: Legit
Overall rating: (3.5 / 5)
Summary: Lear Capital is a gold and precious metals investment company that has proven resilient and excellent performance over the years. They offer services focused on satisfaction for their customers and have managed to build a good name for themselves. They can be an ideal investment company for someone who wants to open a precious metal IRA or any collector looking for rare coins.
However, what takes the rating down to 3.5 out of 5 stars in my opinion is the complaints found, and the lawsuit discovery. I hope that it is something that belongs to the past, and that the problems that occured are now resolved.
As always, the decision is up to you to make!
Ok, what now?
You made a wise decision to read this review and that indicates that you know the importance of doing your due diligence and research before you buy. You are a smart person and I am absolutely sure that you will find the right company to do business with. It is harder to get burned when you are informed, right?
My best advice would be to continue to research and compare different top-alternatives against each other, their fees, their buy back policy, etc.
It´s no secret that my absolute #1 recommended company is Augusta, they are 100% transparent on their fees, plus everything else is super professional with how they run their company.
You can also, at the moment, take advantage of their 10% free silver offer when you open a new gold IRA with them.
==> Learn more about my #1 recommendation (Augusta)
Or,
==> See my Top-3 List of Gold & Silver Investment Firms (depending on what budget you´re on)
I hope you found this short review on the gold & silver investment company Lear Capital to be helpful and that you now have a better overall view of what it is and if it is a scam or not. In my opinion it is not a scam, they have been in business for a very long time, got a great amount of reviews and are still in business, right? Please share your own experience in the comment section below as it can help others! Also, if you got any questions about this I would be more than happy to answer them below!
I wish you the best! (and lots of success)
Michael, founder of Gold Retired
Leave a Reply