First National Bullion Review

Last updated: July 13, 2026 · By White Metal Resources Editorial

Most precious-metals-IRA reviews on this desk describe a phone-first sales operation with a Delaware headquarters and no walk-in address. First National Bullion is not that. It runs five staffed retail showrooms across California and Arizona, and the walk-in model is the single fact a reader on a rollover decision should treat as load-bearing. Everything else in the review flows from that starting point.

The five-showroom model in a phone-room industry

First National Bullion publishes street addresses for five retail locations on its site (per firstnationalbullion.com locations page, checked July 2026). Three sit in Southern California: San Diego, Del Mar and Carlsbad. Two sit in Arizona: Scottsdale and Show Low. The homepage adds a line about “new satellite offices in Florida” without publishing an address for them.

The About Us page calls the operation a “boutique precious metals firm” (per firstnationalbullion.com, checked July 2026). It reports over $1 billion in transactions across the five locations and the online store. The homepage About block states a different figure: “over $500 million” cumulative team volume. Both figures are self-reported.

Why the walk-in model matters for a retirement decision. In a sector where sales pressure runs by phone, a customer who can drive to a staffed counter can hand-inspect a coin before signing. That customer can ask the same question twice to two people, then walk away without a call-back script. The four-metal inventory on the counter is the same product line advertised online, per the homepage, checked July 2026.

The showroom model has limits. A published street address is not a proof of ownership, a proof of solvency, or a fiduciary relationship. It is the beginning of a due-diligence checklist, not the end. Every specialist-call ask on our vetting page (see below) still applies to a customer who visits a retail location in person.

How this company handles silver, platinum and palladium IRAs

This section matters for a whitemetalres.com reader because white-metals coverage is where precious-metals-IRA dealers actually differ. On this axis First National Bullion has a gap in its own product architecture, and it is visible without a phone call.

Silver. Silver is present as an IRA-eligible metal. The account-types page lists American Silver Eagle, Canadian Silver Maple Leaf, Austrian Silver Philharmonic, Australian Silver Kookaburra, Mexican Silver Libertad, and bars or rounds accredited by COMEX or NYMEX (per firstnationalbullion.com account-types page, checked July 2026).

Platinum. Platinum is also listed as IRA-eligible. The listed items are American Platinum Eagle, Canadian Platinum Maple Leaf, Australian Platypus, and bars or rounds accredited by COMEX or NYMEX (per firstnationalbullion.com account-types page, checked July 2026). Sector-standard 0.9995 platinum bullion coins are on the menu here.

Palladium. Palladium is where the product architecture breaks. First National Bullion sells palladium bars and Canadian palladium Maple Leaf coins for physical delivery, and the homepage names palladium as one of the four metals the firm specializes in (per firstnationalbullion.com homepage, checked July 2026). But the account-types page IRA-eligible-metals list stops at gold, silver and platinum. Palladium is not on that list on that page.

Palladium coins and bars at 0.9995 fineness are permitted in a self-directed IRA under federal statute (source: 26 U.S.C. Section 408(m)(3)). The First National Bullion physical inventory (Canadian Maple Leaf palladium at 0.9995 fineness) meets that statutory floor. The gap between what the physical inventory allows and what the IRA-eligible-metals list names is therefore a company decision, or a page-update lag, not a legal one.

What that means for a reader building a palladium sleeve. Before you agree to a specialist call, ask in writing whether First National Bullion will custody palladium inside your self-directed IRA, at which specific fineness, on which of its six named custodians, and at what markup above spot. Silence on the page is not silence on the phone, but silence on the page is what you can verify tonight without giving up your phone number.

The multi-custodian bench at the checkout

Precious-metals-IRA dealers most often route every new account to a single custodian relationship. The First National Bullion account-types page does the opposite. It publishes six “Open an account” buttons, one per named custodian (per firstnationalbullion.com account-types page, checked July 2026):

• Equity Trust Company
• Digital Trust
• Strata Trust Company
• GoldStar Trust Company
• New Direction Trust Company
• Kingdom Trust

The published multi-custodian menu is the second unusual disclosure on this dealer. It lets a saver check each trustee's own precious-metals fee schedule on the trustee's own letterhead before agreeing to any transfer, and it lets a saver switch trustees without switching dealers. Self-directed IRAs are trustee-held accounts under federal statute, so the custodian's fee schedule and account rules are separate legal documents from the dealer's price list (source: IRS trustee-custody guidance).

What this does not tell a reader. The published button list is a menu of options, not a fee comparison. First National Bullion does not publish which of the six custodians charges the lowest annual fee, which pairs best with Brinks storage, or which permits palladium. Each trustee is a separate ask before you sign.

What First National Bullion publishes about storage cost

Storage cost is the second cost line the site publishes openly. The account-types page states: “Storage and Insurance for as little as 0.5 percent of your precious metals value annually” via Brinks, with free shipping to the depository and third-party audits (per firstnationalbullion.com account-types page, checked July 2026). The direct-quote wording is “as little as,” which is a starting rate, not a ceiling.

How that rate reads in dollars. On a $50,000 balance held at Brinks, 0.5 percent annually is $250 per year. On a $200,000 balance, the same rate is $1,000 per year. Storage is a percentage-of-holdings fee, so it grows with the balance. Setup, application, and account-level custodian fees are separate line items handled by the trustee, and none of those figures appears on the public site.

Two follow-up questions to ask the specialist in writing. First, is the 0.5 percent rate segregated or commingled at Brinks. Second, at what balance threshold, or by which asset class, does the “as little as” language step up. Both answers materially change the annual dollar cost.

What the public site does not disclose

A useful audit on any precious-metals dealer is the itemized list of cost lines that a prospective buyer cannot price before the specialist call. First National Bullion publishes more than most competitors in this sector, but four load-bearing fee lines are still off-page.

1. Setup fee. No one-time application-fee dollar figure appears on the account-types page (per firstnationalbullion.com, checked July 2026). Each of the six named custodians publishes its own setup fee separately on the custodian's own site.
2. Annual custodian dollar figure. No annual dollar figure for the trustee's own account-administration fee is quoted on the public First National Bullion pages. The custodian is a separate document ask.
3. Dealer spread on the metal. The About Us page states “Clearly listing sell and buy prices on our site (with no commissions or hidden markups)” (per firstnationalbullion.com About Us, checked July 2026). The homepage does publish live buy prices per coin. The buy-price-versus-spot spread on a same-day quote (the actual dealer premium above the London PM fix) is not published as a written percentage band anywhere on the site.
4. Buyback pricing formula. No written buyback formula (spot minus a fixed haircut, spot minus a bounded percentage band, or a specialist quote at time of sale) is published on the account-types page or the buy-sell menu (per firstnationalbullion.com, checked July 2026).

The pattern is not unique in this sector. A majority of private dealers keep the setup fee, the custodian dollar figure and the buyback formula verbal. What is different at First National Bullion is that the storage rate, the account minimum and the custodian bench are already on the page, which shortens the specialist-call ask list.

The federal and third-party record

A read of the public regulatory record is where a retirement-money review has to spend real time. We report the record as-checked in July 2026 and we note what could not be verified this session.

SEC EDGAR. A full-text EDGAR search on the exact string “First National Bullion” returned 0 filings, checked July 2026. That is what a reader would expect for a privately held dealer that is not selling registered securities. It is a clean result on that specific record.

CFTC public releases. No public press release naming First National Bullion as a defendant, respondent or subject of an advisory appeared in the CFTC search paths we ran in July 2026. Readers should still consult the CFTC customer advisory on precious-metals fraud patterns before any specialist call, which we cite in the vetting section below.

Better Business Bureau. First National Bullion's homepage and About Us page describe an A+ Better Business Bureau rating (per firstnationalbullion.com, checked July 2026). The bbb.org search and profile pages returned a bot-challenge response during our July 2026 session and the rating, accreditation status and complaint count could not be verified from this desk. Any reader can enter “First National Bullion” on bbb.org from a personal browser and read the current record directly.

Trustpilot and other third-party review sites. Same bot-challenge response in our July 2026 session. Not verifiable from this desk.

First National Bullion at a glance

The table below reports only fields the company itself publishes, or the federal record itself confirms. Fields the record does not answer are marked as such, so the specialist-call ask list is written down for you.

Sources: firstnationalbullion.com home, About Us, account-types, locations and gold-ira pages, checked July 2026. SEC EDGAR full-text search, checked July 2026. Statutory purity and trustee-custody rules per 26 U.S.C. Section 408(m)(3) and IRS Publications 590-A and 590-B.

What annual fees cost your balance over time

First National Bullion publishes the storage rate at 0.5 percent annually via Brinks, and it publishes the $3,500 account minimum. It does not publish the setup fee, the custodian dollar figure, the dealer spread on the metal, or the buyback formula. The calculator below runs the standard fee-drag math with whatever numbers a specialist quotes you. Use it on any dealer.

The exercise is not about a single right answer. It is about seeing, in dollars, what a given fee load takes out of a given balance across 10 or 20 years. Once the number is on the page, the question stops being abstract. Every phrase in the specialist call can then be tested against real cash out of the account.

How to test any precious-metals IRA quote

The steps below apply to First National Bullion and to every other US precious-metals-IRA dealer. They are ordered to catch the sector's most common misalignments early, before you sign a transfer form. Use them as the written checklist for your specialist call.

1. Check the federal record first. Search cftc.gov, sec.gov EDGAR and the FINRA BrokerCheck site for the exact legal name of the entity you are being asked to contract with. Read any complaint or advisory in full.
2. Ask for the legal name and state of formation, in writing. Precious-metals dealers frequently operate under a public trade name that differs from the LLC on the transaction contract. Ask for both, and the EIN, before any funds move.
3. Request a full written fee schedule. The document must name the account minimum, the setup fee, the annual custodian fee, the annual storage fee, the buy-side markup band per metal, and the buyback formula. If any line item is missing, ask again.
4. Pick the custodian and depository yourself, on their own letterhead. A self-directed IRA is a trustee-held account. Get each named custodian's fee schedule from the custodian's own site or in writing, then choose. Do the same for the depository.
5. Get a same-day price comparison against spot. For any coin the specialist quotes, ask for the same-day spot price of the metal at that weight, in writing, and compare the two numbers before signing.
6. Compare bullion against branded or semi-numismatic coins. If the specialist steers you toward “exclusive” or “collectible” coins, ask for the price of a same-weight, same-metal 1-ounce American Eagle or Canadian Maple Leaf and compare the premium above spot.
7. Confirm the rollover mechanism. A trustee-to-trustee direct transfer avoids the 60-day rollover clock and the 20 percent mandatory federal withholding on distributions from a 401(k) plan (source: IRS Publication 590-A). If a specialist proposes an indirect rollover, ask why.
8. Get the buyback formula in writing. The formula, meaning spot minus a fixed haircut, or spot minus a bounded percentage band, or a specialist quote at the time of sale, matters as much as the buy-side price. Silence in the contract is itself an answer.

Who First National Bullion tends to fit, and who it does not

An honest review names both sides. We list the specific reader profiles this company may and may not fit, based on the public record described above.

When a precious-metals IRA is the wrong call

An honest review has to name the cases where no dealer is the right fit for a specific reader, not just where a specific dealer is not the right fit for a specific reader.

• You may need the money within a few years. Gold, silver, platinum and palladium can move sharply in the short term, and selling means crossing the dealer spread again. Before age 59.5, a distribution without a qualifying exception carries a 10 percent federal additional tax on top of ordinary income tax (source: IRS Publication 590-B).
• Your total retirement balance is small. A percentage-of-holdings storage rate at 0.5 percent annually is easy to model, but fixed custodian dollar fees weigh hardest on small accounts, because the same dollar is a larger share of a smaller balance.
• You have no other retirement savings. A physical-metal IRA belongs alongside a broader base, not in place of one.
• You are hunting a guaranteed return. Nobody can predict where any of the four metals will trade. A pitch that promises guaranteed gains is a warning sign, not an opportunity.

If any of the above describes your situation, slow down. Talk to a licensed advisor about whether physical metal fits your plan at all, before you compare dealers.

First National Bullion questions, answered

Is First National Bullion a legitimate precious-metals dealer?

First National Bullion publishes a physical headquarters at 4885 Convoy Street, San Diego, CA 92111, and street addresses for four additional retail locations across California and Arizona (per firstnationalbullion.com locations page, checked July 2026). A full-text SEC EDGAR search on the exact string “First National Bullion” returned 0 filings, checked July 2026. Independent verification of the self-reported A+ Better Business Bureau rating was blocked by a bbb.org bot-challenge in our July 2026 session and should be run by the reader.

What is the minimum for a First National Bullion precious-metals IRA?

$3,500 for new accounts and annual contributions, per the account-types page, checked July 2026. The custodian may set its own account-level minimum on top. Ask each of the six named custodians in writing.

Who is the custodian for a First National Bullion IRA?

First National Bullion publishes six self-directed IRA custodian partners on its account-types page: Equity Trust, Digital Trust, Strata Trust Company, GoldStar Trust Company, New Direction Trust Company, and Kingdom Trust (per firstnationalbullion.com, checked July 2026). The customer chooses the trustee. Each of the six publishes its own fee schedule and account rules on its own site.

Where does First National Bullion store the metal?

Brinks is the named depository (per firstnationalbullion.com account-types page, checked July 2026). The published rate is “as little as 0.5 percent” of holdings annually, with free shipping to Brinks and third-party audits. Whether the rate is segregated or commingled at that starting level is a question to ask in writing.

Does First National Bullion offer a Silver, Platinum or Palladium IRA?

Silver and platinum are on the company's IRA-eligible metals list on the account-types page, checked July 2026. Palladium is not on that list, even though palladium bars and Canadian Maple Leaf palladium coins are sold for physical delivery. If you want a Palladium IRA, ask in writing whether First National Bullion will custody palladium at 0.9995 fineness inside your self-directed IRA before you commit any funds.

What are First National Bullion’s fees?

Storage at Brinks is disclosed at “as little as 0.5 percent” annually (per firstnationalbullion.com, checked July 2026). The setup fee, the annual custodian dollar figure, the dealer spread on the metal above spot, and the buyback pricing formula are not publicly disclosed on the site in July 2026. Get every line item in writing from the specialist, and get the custodian's separate schedule from the custodian.

When was First National Bullion founded?

The About Us page says “since 2006” and the homepage About block says “Founded in 2007” (per firstnationalbullion.com, checked July 2026). Both are the company's own statements, and they do not match. Ask the specialist to reconcile the two, in writing, if the operating history matters to your decision.

Who is Jonathan Cavuoto?

The About Us page names Jonathan Cavuoto as the founder of First National Bullion and describes a background in options, futures, oil, and foreign-exchange currency trading before entering the precious-metals sector (per firstnationalbullion.com About Us, checked July 2026). We report the company's own bio and do not add or interpret beyond it.

Does First National Bullion have a BBB rating?

The company site displays an A+ Better Business Bureau rating (per firstnationalbullion.com homepage and About Us, checked July 2026). The bbb.org profile page returned a bot-challenge response during our July 2026 session and the score could not be independently verified from this desk. Any reader can visit bbb.org directly and enter “First National Bullion” to read the current profile.

Does White Metal Resources earn a commission on First National Bullion?

No. We have no affiliate relationship with First National Bullion. No link on this page points to firstnationalbullion.com. We earn nothing if you choose First National Bullion. This review reflects public record only.