Lear Capital Review: Fees, Ratings and Complaints

Lear Capital is one of the oldest names in the gold IRA business — founded in Los Angeles in 1997 — and one of the few with a Chapter 11 filing in its recent past. In this Lear gold IRA review we weigh the company’s published fees, strong Trustpilot and BBB scores, and genuine scale against the 2022 bankruptcy and the regulator settlements that preceded it. History matters here, so the Lear Capital gold IRA pros and cons below are weighed with the full record in view, not footnotes.

What Is Lear Capital?

Lear Capital, Inc. is a precious metals dealer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, founded in 1997 by Kevin DeMeritt, who remains affiliated with the company as founder according to its executive leadership page [verify]. It is one of the longest continuously operating gold IRA dealers in the United States — the BBB lists the company as accredited since September 19, 1997 — and it sells IRA-eligible gold and silver plus direct cash purchases for home delivery.

The company’s model will be familiar to anyone who has researched this category. Lear arranges self-directed IRAs holding physical metals through third-party custodians, stores customer metals at the Delaware Depository, and has spent decades advertising on radio, television and online. In December 2024 it announced a partnership with commentator Glenn Beck, continuing its marketing-heavy approach. As of our October 2026 data check, Lear is operating normally, is still founder-affiliated, and we found no reports of an acquisition or ownership change following its reorganization; its leadership page lists a chief executive, John Ohanesian [verify].

Scale is real: Lear’s review footprint spans roughly 3,300 Trustpilot reviews, more than 1,500 on ConsumerAffairs and hundreds on Google. That size matters here, because the question is not whether Lear is a real business — it plainly is — but whether its conduct on fee disclosure deserves the benefit of the doubt. Between 2021 and 2024, regulators and a bankruptcy court weighed that question, and the record is mixed.

How a Lear Capital Gold IRA Works

A Lear Capital gold IRA rollover follows the standard self-directed IRA mechanics, with Lear acting as the dealer rather than the custodian. You open an account with an IRS-approved custodian, fund it by transferring or rolling over an existing IRA or old 401(k), then direct the purchase of IRS-eligible metals — bullion coins and bars meeting federal fineness standards — which Lear supplies and ships to the depository. The IRS, not the dealer, sets the rules on eligible metals, contributions and required minimum distributions, and those rules apply identically to every company in this category.

Lear’s own process adds a few distinguishing details. The company prints a purchase confirmation listing all costs and follows up by phone to confirm you understood them — a practice adopted after its fee-disclosure litigation, and one that works in your favor if you keep the paperwork. Every purchase carries a 24-hour risk-free cancellation window, so you can reverse an order at no cost within a day. Funding wires carry a $30 fee, and the account minimum is $10,000. Storage is your choice of commingled storage at $110 per year or segregated storage at $160 per year, both at Delaware Depository and both insured.

Exiting works the same way it does at any dealer: you instruct your custodian to sell, and Lear says it will buy back metals it sold at the prevailing market bid. Its terms and conditions are explicit that the law prohibits guaranteeing repurchase — language every honest dealer carries. Lear is a for-profit retailer, as its own disclosures state; it does not provide investment advice.

Lear Capital Fees and Minimums

Lear Capital gold IRA fees deserve genuine credit and genuine scrutiny in equal measure. The credit: a published, itemized fee schedule in dollars, which most dealers in this category still refuse to post. The scrutiny: the largest cost in any Lear Capital gold IRA — fees on the metal itself, known as the spread — is quoted per transaction and spans a range the company itself publishes at 2% to 35%.

Two caveats belong next to that table. First, the top of Lear’s published spread range — 35% — is the number that defined its regulatory history: the New York attorney general’s 2021 complaint alleged Lear charged undisclosed commissions of up to 33% while marketing accounts as fee-free. Whatever you buy from Lear or any dealer, the premium over spot is the single number that determines your real cost, and it should be captured in writing before you wire a dollar. Second, Lear’s fee page does not list a liquidation or account-closing fee; third-party reviews have noted this gap, and we could not verify one way or the other [verify] — ask directly.

The $10,000 minimum is mid-pack: far below Augusta Precious Metals’ $50,000 gate, above the smallest entry points at Noble Gold, and broadly comparable to what Birch Gold Group recommends for a funded account.

The 2022 Bankruptcy: What Happened and What It Means

This is the section most Lear reviews skip, and the one that matters most. The timeline below is compiled from court coverage, state regulator releases and the company’s own statements, with each fact sourced.

June 17, 2021. The New York Attorney General sued Lear Capital and founder Kevin DeMeritt, alleging the company defrauded investors by charging undisclosed commissions — the complaint cited markups of up to 33% on more than $43 million in sales to New Yorkers — while marketing its service as fee-free and risk-free. These were allegations at filing; the case was resolved by settlement rather than a trial verdict.

January 3, 2022. The same office announced a $6 million settlement with Lear, described as including restitution for affected New Yorkers and fee-disclosure reforms. A settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, but it is a court-supervised resolution of fraud allegations brought by a state’s top law enforcement officer — a fact investors are entitled to weigh.

March 2022. Lear filed for Chapter 11 protection (Subchapter V, a small-business reorganization track) in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The Wall Street Journal reported the filing on March 2, 2022, quoting the company’s stated purpose: to contain expenses from potential legal claims over its sales and disclosure practices, including the New York matter and a separate action reported by the City of Los Angeles. Lear’s own bankruptcy page frames the filing more narrowly, as addressing financial obligations arising from a 2021 settlement.

April 2022. Twenty-four states filed objections arguing the bankruptcy was not filed in good faith, according to Bloomberg Law’s coverage.

Throughout the case. Lear maintained — and its current bankruptcy page reiterates — that customer metals were never part of the bankruptcy estate: IRA metals held at Delaware Depository remained segregated and insured in the customer’s name, and the company states that no customer, vendor or business partner incurred a monetary loss. That last claim is self-reported, but it is consistent with how segregated customer property is treated in bankruptcy, and we found no credible reporting of customer metal losses from the case.

June 12, 2023. The bankruptcy court confirmed Lear’s plan of reorganization. Its centerpiece, described in releases from state regulators including California’s DFPI (August 1, 2023) and DC DISB (October 2023): Lear funded a $5.5 million pool to compensate customers nationwide who were overcharged through undisclosed fees and markups, with more than 30 state regulators participating in the distribution process.

Early 2024. Lear states it completed its reorganization and emerged as a reorganized but continuing business — a restructuring, not a liquidation or closure. It has operated continuously since, and its current site references activity into 2026.

What does it mean for a buyer in 2026? Three things. First, the dispute at the center of the entire affair was fee disclosure — a dealer accused of hiding commissions went through Chapter 11 over it, one reason this review weights transparency so heavily. Second, the customer-protection architecture (title in your name, segregated storage, insurance) held, by all available accounts, through a genuine corporate crisis. Third, verify rather than assume: before funding, confirm in writing that metals will be titled to you, which custodian and depository hold them, whether storage is segregated, the exact all-in spread on your order, and every fee that applies to closing or liquidating the account.

Ratings and Customer Feedback

Lear’s current ratings are strong, and unusually, they are backed by volume. The BBB assigns an A+ rating, with accreditation dating to September 19, 1997; profile review scores vary by source, with third-party reviewers reporting around 4.6/5 and Lear’s own materials citing 4.8/5, so we treat the exact figure as unsettled and note the conflict. Trustpilot shows about 4.7/5 across roughly 3,300 reviews, with customer service the most-praised theme. ConsumerAffairs shows 4.9/5; published review counts for that profile ranged from about 1,589 to 1,664 across the sources we checked — another minor conflict, immaterial to the conclusion. Google ratings reported in 2026 industry coverage run about 4.7/5 from roughly 700 reviews.

The outlier is Yelp, where Lear sits at 3.4/5 across 81 reviews — a small sample, but one where pricing, specifically markups over spot, dominates the negative reviews. That divergence is a pattern worth understanding rather than dismissing: volume review platforms aggregate recent transactional experiences (where Lear performs well), while complaint-centric platforms surface pricing dissatisfaction that averages dilute.

Two contextual notes. Lear’s marketing cites a AAA rating from the Business Consumer Alliance; a 2017 investigation by Truth in Advertising questioned the weight of that organization’s ratings and noted 27 BBB complaints against Lear in the prior three years — dated figures, offered here only as history. And in 2026, industry award placements (a ConsumerAffairs “best overall” designation reported in August 2026, a Yahoo Finance “best value” ranking in September) sit alongside the December 2024 paid Glenn Beck partnership. Awards and endorsements attached to advertising budgets are marketing outcomes, not due diligence.

Complaints and Red Flags

The documented record, in date order:

Fee disclosure (2021–2022). The New York AG’s June 2021 complaint alleged undisclosed commissions of up to 33% on sales to New Yorkers since 2014, alongside marketing that described accounts as fee-free and risk-free. The January 2022 resolution was a $6 million settlement including restitution and disclosure reforms. This is the most serious documented complaint against the company — a state enforcement action, not an isolated customer dispute.

The bankruptcy itself (2022–2024). The March 2022 Chapter 11 filing drew good-faith challenges from 24 states the following month. Whatever one concludes about the company’s stated motives, a dealer’s decision to reorganize amid regulator litigation is a fact any careful investor should weigh, and it is why the bankruptcy carries its own section here rather than a footnote.

The $5.5 million customer fund (2023). The confirmed plan compensated customers nationwide for overcharges tied to undisclosed fees and markups. Regulators in more than 30 states participated in distributions through late 2023. If you were a Lear customer in that period and never claimed, contact the plan administrator [verify current claims status].

Pricing remains the live complaint (2017–2026). Lear’s published spread range tops out at 35%, Yelp reviewers repeatedly describe paying well over spot, and a minority of ConsumerAffairs reviewers describe fee-related promises not being honored as expected and repeated small administrative charges through their IRA custodian. None of these recent items approaches the 2021 allegations in severity, but they share a theme: the cost of the metal, not the cost of the account, is where dissatisfaction concentrates.

Structural flags. No contractual buyback guarantee exists, no liquidation fee is published, and the company’s heavy celebrity and media marketing — including the December 2024 Glenn Beck partnership — is funded by the same spreads you will pay. None of this is disqualifying on its own; collectively, it argues for written quotes and independent price checks before ordering.

Is Lear Capital Legit?

Yes — Lear Capital is a legitimate, operating business, though the word requires more context here than for most competitors. It has traded since 1997 from Los Angeles, holds an A+ BBB grade with nearly three decades of accreditation, and continues post-bankruptcy to serve a large customer base at ratings near 4.7/5 on Trustpilot. Its 2022 Chapter 11 was a reorganization, not a liquidation: the plan was confirmed in June 2023 with a $5.5 million customer-compensation fund, the company says it emerged in early 2024, and segregated customer metals were protected throughout by all available accounts.

Legitimate, however, is not the same as unquestioned. A state attorney general’s fraud allegations, a $6 million settlement and a bankruptcy stemming from fee-disclosure disputes form a documented history that no comparably aged competitor carries, and Lear’s own published spread range — up to 35% — tells you where your real cost will live. Whether that earns your business should depend on the written quote in front of you, not the brand name.

How We Rated Lear Capital

This review applies the five criteria in our public methodology, scored 1–5 and weighted.

• Fees (25%): 3.0. Published dollar fees — $50 setup, $125 maintenance, $110–$160 flat storage, $235–$285 ongoing — are transparent and mid-range, and fee waivers for larger accounts add value. The score is capped by the spread: a self-published range reaching 35%, a missing liquidation fee line, and first-year costs ($315–$365) that run above the flat all-in rates some competitors post.
• Customer feedback (25%): 3.5. Roughly 4.7/5 on Trustpilot across about 3,300 reviews, 4.9/5 on ConsumerAffairs, an A+ BBB grade and strong Google ratings represent genuinely good service at scale. The score stops at 3.5 because of the weight behind the number: a Yelp rating of 3.4/5, pricing-centric complaints, and a 2021–2023 enforcement and bankruptcy record that predates most of the positive review base.
• Transparency and education (20%): 3.0. Lear now publishes its fee schedule, a spread range and an honest bankruptcy explainer, and its terms plainly state what the law does not allow it to promise. That is real improvement. But transparency is scored on trajectory and present practice together, and the company’s defining regulatory episode was an alleged failure of the exact virtue being scored; educational content is competent marketing rather than distinctive instruction.
• Buyback and liquidity (15%): 3.5. The company states it has never turned down a buyback request and prices at the prevailing market bid, and the 24-hour cancellation window de-risks the entry decision. No repurchase can be contractually guaranteed, no liquidation fee is published, and buyback spreads are not itemized, which limits the score.
• Products and storage (15%): 3.5. IRA-eligible gold and silver, storage at the named and insured Delaware Depository, a segregated option at a published flat rate, and a custody structure that demonstrably protected customer metals through a Chapter 11. The range is narrower than some competitors offer, and product pricing is only visible order by order.

Weighted total: 3.0×0.25 + 3.5×0.25 + 3.0×0.20 + 3.5×0.15 + 3.5×0.15 = 3.28/5. Our disclosure explains how we handle commercial relationships, and our about page covers who produces these reviews.

Should You Open a Gold IRA with Lear Capital?

Lear is a reasonable choice if three conditions hold: you are funding at least $10,000 into a rollover or transfer; you want published dollar fees and a named depository rather than quote-only pricing; and you are the kind of investor who will get the all-in spread, the storage election and the buyback terms in writing before committing. If you concluded — as we did — that the customer-protection structure held while the company’s disclosure practices were the problem, Lear’s post-2024 process is a defensible place to do business.

It is the wrong choice if any regulator history is automatically disqualifying for you, or if you want the cleanest possible record at a comparable fee level. That is where the alternatives matter, and they are worth a paragraph of comparison. Augusta Precious Metals offers the category’s deepest education program and its cleanest complaint record, but its $50,000 minimum excludes most first-time buyers — Lear is far more accessible. Birch Gold Group publishes flat fees similar to Lear’s ($50 setup, about $235 all-in annually) with a lower recommended minimum and no enforcement history, making it the closest like-for-like alternative. Noble Gold serves the smallest accounts with one of the lowest minimums in the category, if the $10,000 floor is still too high. Weigh all three against Lear’s published fees, its review volume and its documented history, and see our full best gold IRA companies ranking before deciding.

Whatever you choose, the Lear case teaches the right lesson for this entire category: the account fees are small and knowable, the spread is large and negotiable, and the custody structure — title, segregation, insurance — is what protects you when the unexpected happens. Confirm each of the three in writing, with whoever you buy from.