Orion Metal Exchange Review

Last updated: July 12, 2026 · By White Metal Resources Editorial

Who Orion Metal Exchange is on paper

Orion Metal Exchange is a Los Angeles-based precious-metals dealer that operates from 12301 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 412, on the corner of the Sawtelle-Brentwood corridor. The address is the one the site's own Organization JSON-LD publishes and the same one that appears on the Contact Us page. No named executive or founder appears in the public site copy, which is a stylistic choice several competitors also make.

The corporate calendar and the marketing calendar diverge. The California Secretary of State record and the BBB profile agree that the entity was incorporated on May 16, 2017. The BBB assigns the business start date as September 1, 2017, opened its file on November 26, 2019, and granted BBB Accreditation on March 9, 2021. The About Us page separately claims "40 years of combined experience in the precious metal industry." That describes the team, not the company.

Structurally, Orion is a physical-metals dealer, not a custodian and not a depository. It sources coins and bars, coordinates paperwork, and hands custody to an IRS-approved trustee once an IRA is funded. Physical bullion then ships to one of the depositories the trustee is contracted with. Any dealer that suggests a shortcut around that architecture is describing something the IRS does not allow inside a self-directed IRA.

The fee-reimbursement promise and what it hides

The single sentence that most sharply distinguishes Orion's marketing from that of most competitors sits on the company's own FAQ page: "We also offer programs that can reimburse precious metal IRA set-up costs and annual fees. Call today to see if you qualify." That is an unusual promise. Most firms in this niche either charge fees openly or waive the first year for new clients. Reimbursement of subsequent-year annual fees, phrased as a qualifying program, is a distinct competitive angle.

Read that sentence in two pieces. First, the promise itself has no published qualifier. The account-size threshold, the specific fees covered, and the reimbursement schedule are all absent from the site copy. That is a legitimate business choice, and also an incomplete price disclosure by the standard set by the small number of firms that publish a specific flat annual dollar figure in prose on their own pricing page.

Second, the phrase "call today to see if you qualify" pushes the entire price conversation into the sales channel. In practice the actual number a client pays over five years at Orion is a function of the qualifying threshold, the reimbursement stack, and the buy-sell spread on the specific coins bought. Two of those three variables are set on the phone call.

A $25,000 minimum you can read in the source code

Most dealers in the vertical either hide the minimum entirely or publish a marketing round number that shifts inside the sales call. Orion Metal Exchange is different in a small but useful way: the checkout minimum is hard-coded into the site's WooCommerce cart script and fires as a visible client-side message.

The exact strings in the site source are "A minimum total purchase amount of $25,000.00 is required to checkout" and, in a second script variant, "A minimum total purchase amount of $25,000 is required to checkout." Both strings render live on the IRA product pages in July 2026.

Two things follow. First, the number is real, verifiable in the site's rendered HTML on the FAQ page and the IRA product pages in July 2026, and applies at the transactional layer rather than only at the marketing layer. Second, the number is a checkout minimum, not an IRA-funding minimum. Whether the same $25,000 threshold triggers the "reimburse setup and annual fees" program is a separate question that the site does not answer.

A first-time buyer with a rollover under $25,000 will run into that ceiling directly on checkout. A buyer with more should still confirm two things in writing before funding. First, whether the checkout minimum applies to each individual purchase or only to the first order. Second, whether the same threshold gates the fee-reimbursement promotion, or a higher qualifying number applies.

How this company handles silver, platinum and palladium IRAs

Orion Metal Exchange sells all four IRA-eligible metals: gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The site's Organization JSON-LD states plainly that the company offers "gold, silver, platinum and palladium for precious metal IRAs, insured third-party depository storage, and insured home delivery." That is a clean four-metal catalog rather than a gold-only shop with a token silver page.

Silver is treated as a first-class product. A dedicated Silver IRA landing page exists at /silver-ira/, a Silver Products category exists at /product-category/silver-products/, and the site navigation surfaces both under separate menu items.

The Silver IRA page carries the strongest fee-language on the site: "our fees are lower than half of what our competitors charge" and "no commission is charged at liquidation." Neither statement is backed by a specific supporting number, so read both as marketing anchors rather than verifiable claims.

Platinum and palladium each have a Products category page at /product-category/platinum-products/ and /product-category/palladium-products/ respectively. What the site does not publish is a dedicated Platinum IRA landing page or a dedicated Palladium IRA landing page. Both metals are named as IRA-eligible in the Organization schema, and the FAQ page states that "gold, silver, platinum and palladium" are IRS-approved metals. In practice, sourcing runs through the general Precious Metals IRA funnel rather than a specialized landing page.

The buyer-side conclusion is the same for all three white metals. Ask the specialist to name the exact coins and bars available, quote the ask premium per ounce on each, and confirm the buy-sell spread they will bid at liquidation.

Federal law sets the fineness thresholds at .999 fine for silver and .9995 fine for platinum and palladium, so eligibility is a metal-purity question, not a dealer question. Sourcing depth and premium level are the actual variables that separate one dealer from another.

Any custodian, three named depositories

Where most dealers pair with one custodian and one or two depositories, Orion Metal Exchange states a broader policy on its FAQ page: "Orion Metal Exchange works with every IRS-approved precious metal custodian and depository in the nation. Depending on your personal circumstances, one IRA program may be more cost effective than another." That is a real operational choice and a real buyer benefit if it holds up on the phone.

The stated depository partners are three of the older private facilities in the industry, named on the FAQ page as "IRS approved storage facilities, such as Brinks/DDSC/IDS." Brinks refers to Brinks Global Services, which operates a set of insured commercial vaults. DDSC is Delaware Depository Service Company in Wilmington, Delaware. IDS is International Depository Services with locations in Delaware and Texas. Ask which of the three your metals will actually ship to, and whether storage is segregated or non-segregated.

The custodian-flexibility claim has a real consequence at the pricing layer. Different self-directed IRA trustees publish different fee schedules and different storage arrangements. A dealer that will source to any IRS-approved custodian is compatible with clients who already hold an SDIRA at a competing trustee.

It also lets a new client compare two or three trustees on price before opening the account. Ask the specialist to name the two or three custodians they most often route to, and request each trustee's published fee schedule directly.

The BBB record, one screen at a time

The Better Business Bureau profile at bbb.org (identifier 1216-1268434, Los Angeles regional office) is the most detailed independent record we could pull for the firm. It is worth reading one number at a time because different sections of the profile answer different questions.

The letter grade is A+. That grade is a composite that reflects business type, complaint history, licensing, and BBB Standards compliance. Accreditation status is a separate question. Orion has been an Accredited BBB business since March 9, 2021, which means the company has agreed to the BBB's own standards and pays for accreditation. Accreditation is not a quality rating in itself; it is a paid membership plus a code-of-conduct agreement.

The customer review section shows 19 reviews averaging 4.95 stars. The complaint section shows a total of 2 complaints closed, 2 across the past three years and 1 across the past twelve months. Read the two sections together.

A dealer of this size at this age with 2 complaints in the last three years sits on the low end of the volume curve for the vertical. A pool of 19 customer reviews is not a large statistical sample, so let the individual complaint narratives on the BBB page carry more weight than the average star number.

Orion Metal Exchange at a glance

What a percent-of-assets fee costs at three balances

Because Orion Metal Exchange does not publish a specific annual dollar fee we could quote, the calculator below is deliberately generic. It models the cumulative drag of any annual percentage-of-assets fee on three plausible starting balances over a ten-year horizon. Type in the actual number the specialist quotes you in writing, and see what that number costs on your specific balance.

Two caveats apply to any output the calculator produces. First, a flat annual dollar fee behaves very differently at different balance levels. At a $50,000 balance a flat $200 fee is 0.400 percent per year; at a $250,000 balance the same $200 fee is 0.080 percent per year. The percentage drag collapses as the balance grows, which is why account-size matters as much as fee structure.

Second, the fee drag is only one line item. The dealer buy-sell spread on the specific coin is a separate cost, is usually the largest cost over a full holding period, and is not modeled here. Ask for both the annual fee and the current spread on the coin the specialist recommends, and evaluate the two lines together rather than in isolation.

Opening a Precious Metals IRA with Orion in eight steps

The mechanics below reflect the direct-transfer path described on the site's IRA pages combined with the standard self-directed IRA process. The route assumes an existing tax-advantaged balance moving to a new self-directed IRA that Orion Metal Exchange helps facilitate through a third-party custodian.

1. Request the written fee schedule and reimbursement qualifier first. Ask by email for setup fee, first-year and subsequent-year custodian fee, storage fee at each option, wire and termination fees, the current buy-sell spread on a specific coin, and the exact account-size threshold and reimbursement duration that trigger the fee-reimbursement program. Do not book the sales call without those numbers.
2. Confirm your rollover will clear the $25,000 checkout minimum. The number is hard-coded in the site's cart script and applies at the transactional layer. Ask in writing whether the same threshold gates the fee-reimbursement program, or whether a higher qualifying number applies.
3. Choose your custodian from among the IRS-approved trustees Orion sources for. The company states it works with every IRS-approved custodian and depository nationally. Ask the specialist to name the two or three trustees they most often route to, then request each trustee's published fee schedule directly.
4. Verify your funding source is eligible. Traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs, former-employer 401(k) balances, 403(b), 457(b) and Thrift Savings Plan balances can typically move to a self-directed IRA. Confirm your specific plan and any employer-plan restrictions.
5. Open the self-directed IRA with the chosen third-party trustee. The trustee holds legal title to the metal and handles annual tax reporting. Ask the trustee directly for their published fee schedule; it is a separate document from anything Orion sends you and applies to your account for its entire life.
6. Fund via direct trustee-to-trustee transfer. A direct transfer moves the money custodian to custodian and avoids the 60-day deadline and the 20 percent mandatory withholding that apply to indirect rollovers under Internal Revenue Code Section 408.
7. Choose IRS-approved metals only. Gold at .995 fine or better with named exceptions like the American Gold Eagle, silver at .999 fine, platinum and palladium at .9995 fine. Favor common bullion coins and approved refiner bars over premium numismatic coins where the buy-sell spread can widen without a matching floor.
8. Assign metals to a named depository. Orion names Brinks, Delaware Depository Service Company, and International Depository Services. Ask which of the three will actually receive your metals, and whether storage is segregated or non-segregated. Home storage of IRA metal is not permitted under federal law.

Pros and cons from the public record

Who Orion Metal Exchange fits, and who it does not

Orion Metal Exchange is a plausible shortlist candidate when three conditions line up. The rollover balance clears the $25,000 checkout minimum comfortably. The buyer is willing to run price discovery through the sales call and can extract a written schedule of the four reimbursement variables before funding. The buyer values custodian flexibility over the convenience of a single pre-set trustee-plus-depository bundle.

The firm is a weaker fit if published fee transparency sits at the top of the criteria list. A minority of dealers in the vertical publish a specific flat annual dollar figure on their own pricing page; Orion is not one of them. It is also a weaker fit if the preference is for a firm whose paper trail predates the 2008 financial crisis, since Orion's corporate paper trail begins in mid-2017.

Anyone allocating meaningfully to platinum or palladium should specifically ask for the exact IRS-eligible coins and bars available, the ask premium on each, and any minimum sourcing quantities in writing. The absence of a dedicated Platinum IRA or Palladium IRA landing page is a marketing choice. It also means those two metals are handled inside the general Precious Metals IRA process rather than a specialized funnel with its own catalog.

When a precious-metals IRA is the wrong tool

Independent of any specific dealer, a precious-metals IRA is not the right instrument for every household. If you expect to need liquidity from the account within the next few years, physical metal is a slow asset to convert. Dealer buy-back settles at the dealer's bid, non-market days delay the quote, and depository release adds days to the wire.

If the tax-advantaged balance you plan to roll over is small enough that a flat annual custodian fee eats a meaningful share of the balance every year, the drag can hurt more than a diversified paper portfolio would. Fee structures favor larger balances mathematically, and a small account can be a poor match for the wrapper even at a firm with an otherwise reasonable fee sheet.

If you are near or in required-minimum-distribution years, taking a distribution from a metals IRA means either liquidating enough to cover the RMD or taking an in-kind distribution of physical bullion. Both introduce timing and paperwork risk. Talk to a licensed tax advisor before committing to the wrapper. No dealer can solve those situations, and Orion is not an exception.

Orion Metal Exchange questions, answered

Is Orion Metal Exchange a legitimate operating business?

Orion Metal Exchange is an operating precious-metals dealer with a Los Angeles corporate address at 12301 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 412. The California incorporation date is May 16, 2017. The BBB profile has been open since November 2019 and accredited since March 2021 with an A+ letter grade. Whether the firm is the right fit for your rollover is a separate question and requires the written fee schedule described earlier before any funds move.

What is the Orion Metal Exchange minimum investment?

The site enforces a $25,000 total purchase minimum at checkout, hard-coded in the WooCommerce cart script and repeated on the IRA and FAQ pages. That is the transactional minimum, not necessarily the IRA-funding minimum. Ask in writing whether the same $25,000 applies per order or only to the first order, and whether the fee-reimbursement program gates on the same threshold or a higher one.

What IRA fees does Orion Metal Exchange charge?

The public site does not publish a specific setup fee, first-year or subsequent-year custodian fee, storage fee, or annual dollar figure. The FAQ page states a program that can reimburse setup and annual fees for qualifying accounts, with no published qualifier. Request the four reimbursement variables in writing before booking the sales call: the qualifying threshold, the covered fee lines, the duration, and the current buy-sell spread on the coin proposed.

Does Orion Metal Exchange offer a Silver IRA?

Silver is a first-class product. A dedicated Silver IRA landing page exists at /silver-ira/, and a Silver Products category exists at /product-category/silver-products/. The Silver IRA page states that no commission is charged at liquidation and claims fees "lower than half of what our competitors charge," a marketing statement not backed by a specific number. Confirm the Silver IRA fee schedule matches the Gold IRA fee schedule before signing.

Does Orion Metal Exchange offer a Platinum IRA or a Palladium IRA?

Both metals are named as IRA-eligible on the FAQ page and in the site's Organization schema, and each has a Products category page. There is no dedicated Platinum IRA landing page or Palladium IRA landing page. Ask the specialist to name the specific IRS-eligible coins and bars available, quote the ask premium per ounce on each, and confirm any minimum sourcing quantities before you fund a platinum- or palladium-heavy allocation.

Who is the custodian for an Orion Metal Exchange IRA?

The FAQ page states that Orion works with every IRS-approved precious-metal custodian and depository in the nation, rather than routing to a single default trustee. Ask the specialist to name the two or three custodians they most often route to for accounts of your size, and request each trustee's published fee schedule directly. Trustee fees are separate from any dealer promotion.

Where does Orion Metal Exchange store IRA metals?

The FAQ page names three IRS-approved depository partners as examples: Brinks Global Services, Delaware Depository Service Company (Wilmington, Delaware), and International Depository Services (Delaware and Texas). Ask which depository your metals will actually ship to and whether the assignment is segregated or non-segregated storage. Home storage of IRA metal is not permitted under federal law.

What is the Orion Metal Exchange BBB rating?

The Better Business Bureau profile at bbb.org (identifier 1216-1268434, Los Angeles regional office) shows an A+ letter grade with BBB Accreditation since March 9, 2021. The profile records 19 customer reviews averaging 4.95 stars, and 2 total closed complaints, 2 in the past three years and 1 in the past twelve months. Numbers reflect the March 25, 2026 web.archive.org snapshot, since bbb.org returns 403 to scripted fetches.

Does Orion Metal Exchange have any SEC or CFTC record?

SEC EDGAR full-text search returned zero direct filings for "Orion Metal Exchange" as of July 2026. CFTC press-release search returned zero enforcement announcements naming the firm as of the same date. Both results are normal for a private, non-publicly-traded physical precious-metals dealer, which is regulated primarily by state consumer-protection law and by the Federal Trade Commission rather than by the SEC or the CFTC.

What does the Orion buy-back policy promise?

The Silver IRA page states that no commission is charged at liquidation and that the client receives "whatever value the market is rendering at time of liquidation," which is the firm's bid quote against spot. Read that as a policy on commission, not a guarantee of price. The exit price is always some distance below the ask price paid on the way in. Ask for the current bid-ask spread on the exact coin you are being offered before you buy.