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September 2024 by Lynn Wunsch
I recently closed the sale of an asset held in my SEP IRA. Lori Johnson assisted me and was great to work with and got everything taken care of well ahead of the deadlines. I was very happy with how smoothly everything went. I have worked with NDIRA for years and they are truly top notch.
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September 2024 by JJ Nagel
Very disturbing experience! =( A year ago, I helped my aged/ailing father (late 70s, cancer patient) set up a gold IRA with NDTC, and it has been a very frustrating experience! They literally have mishandled every step of the process. Summary in short (since Google says I have too many words in this review):
1 - We carefully followed the deposit protocol (per Chris Tanner) for my father, and somehow they wired from his bank account 2X that amount into his IRA. While I'm not assuming deception, they didn't catch the duplication. Months later, we deposited again, which also got duplicated! This time, they caught it, and put a stop. At that time we first noticed the discrepancy (of the initial overdeposit, and NDTC didn't apologize or make any remedial effort.
2 - During that debacle I freely offered to them that I was helping with my father's IRA, but was not him. Unbeknownst to me, this created a HUGE problem. I was immediately labled "friendly fraud," and they put a freeze on his/our account ...no matter what we did (via privacy/security info) to prove legitimacy.
3 - They told us "get a POA (power of attorney) and then you can continue helping your dad, control the account." So I did, even though that took us a lot of time (logistics weren't easy) and cost $$$.
4 - Once I got the POA and other security protocol, we tried to buy gold (via the IRA) for my father since (to our surprise) they hadn't done ANYTHING with his $ that was sitting in the acct. over the past YEAR, earning no interest.
5 - Scheduled a conference call (with Ben & Sarah) to make promised progress ("get a POA, and all will be well"), they proceeded to tell me/us that we were STILL considered a "security risk" by their upper-level staff, and so we needed to CLOSE the account. =(
6 - From start to finish they mishandled our acct., and I'm presently trying to get that money transferred to a new IRA custodian, but having trouble since we're new at this. (NDTC hasn't been helpful with this last step, either.) Lots of wasted time and effort, and we may get significantly fined by the IRS for the mishaps, all of which were unintentional. =(
7 - FYI, I reached out to the Colorado securities/safety division to report misconduct, and communicated back & forth with Jon Block, Chief Investigator, and he told me that while he agreed with our sentiments, NDTC was legally allowed to "cover their butt" re: the POA requirement. I understood that, but felt that given the details, there was no good reason to warrant the distrusting treatment (especially re: their ongoing unwillingness to put the obvious accidental double/over-deposit back into my father's bank acct.!). Also, to this day I/we STILL DO NOT understand how the deposits were auto-withdrawn/doubled up! No one at NDTC ever explained to us how that happened, and/or why it wasn't caught/prevented the first time.
8 - I sincerely hope this negative review helps warn others against dealing with NDTC in the future. IMO, they represent the tragedy of technical "red tape" (that delays progress), and the epitome of the "death of common sense" via their inability to determine our authentic situation. I live next-door to my parents, have 6 kids, and have worked for my father for almost 30 years. None of that meant anything to them, in the end, including a few conference phone calls we had with them.
NDTC also lied to us more than once, as on several occasions they told us (by phone) that they would return the over-deposit back into my father's bank, but did not. (And WHY wouldn't they? Initially, they blamed the "friendly fraud" security concern ...but I sensibly explained to them, even if I was Al Capone ...there is no risk for NDTC to return the overpayment back into the same account from which it came, that has my father's name, right? Which is the same account
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September 2024 by A A
Worked with Lori Johnson at NDTCO on a couple of somewhat complicated real estate transactions. Lori was responsive, competent and pro-active with communications.
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September 2024 by C RT
My only NDTC experiences have been investing in precious metals. I have never sold metals nor made any withdrawals from NDTC as of this point. I opened an account with NDTC in 2022 and did one purchase transaction. I found that initial experience frustrating, slow and the communication difficult. In August and September of 2024, I did two additional buys via NDTC. The process went better on these two recent buys, and therefore a four star cumulative rating. Breanna, the NDTC employee in Asset Accounting who handled my transaction asked if I would write a review. Breanna was polite and I don't have any complaints with her services. The NDTC process involves a variety of online forms that the customer fills in and submits online to initiate fund transfer to NDTC from whereever the money is held (in my case an ACAT form to my brokerage firm), and once money arrives at NDTC, the customer makes a purchase directly with a metals company, and then completes an additional online form at NDTC to give payment instructions and storage location instructions. My view is that NDTC is slower than they need to be at processing each step along the way, and fees are higher than they need to be. People who are buying metals generally are concerned about something happening in the economy that makes them want to pull a portion of their funds out of cash investments into hard assets. Those transactions have time sensitive factors behind them including risk of an economic/bank/brokerage collapse during the period the transactions are being processed; and prices that can radically shift from the start-to-finish of the transaction. For example, while I was working through the process Gold spot prices had $125 of range variety per ounce and the premiums above spot I was quoted were between $21 to $50 per ounce - so depending on when a purchase is made, and how many ounces are bought, thousands of dollars of difference are in play while waiting for NDTC to process forms. Given that the ACAT is completed by the customer and NDTC is forwarding it electronically, I see no reason NDTC could not put in place a policy that any transfer form completed before noon would go out to the brokerage the same day (I can't imagine it takes them more than 5 minutes in this computer age) - but instead it takes a few days for them them to send. And on the other end, my feeling is NDTC slow-walks payment to the metal companies and is financing themselves off customer money. NDTC gets instructions to pay, waits a day or two to send an email saying they will review it within 3 days and then pays, do my experience is that from time I buy to them paying is about a week. The word "within" seems to mean they will wait this entire time and not that is the latest time but they are trying to get it done earlier. And the problem with the fees is not necessarily that they are outrageous overall if a person can clump everything into a single transaction. But since most people would like to buy gold low and silver low, which are on two different days, but then would have to pay two different sets of fees to NDTC, the customer ends up knowingly over paying on one or the other because of the fee structure. They should allow at least 2 buys within a month from each time money is transferred in. Overall, NDTC has not been terrible. But they are not great. They could move forward with being more customer centric with some minor changes. While I'm normally not a "big government" person, my sense is this is an industry that could do with some regulations that require them to do things in much tighter time periods. And I suppose the real test will come when I begin to withdraw retirement in a few years and find out if the money comes back to me quickly, as it should.
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September 2024 by Steve Paul
Great transaction, very easy! I have worked with Lori Johnson several times now, and she has consistently made everything very smooth, I didn't need to get involved much at all, she handled it without needing to bring me in.
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September 2024 by e adams
I have been with NDTCO for many years and Kelly K and Lori are excellent. It was a pleasure. Communication was concise, clear, timely and most importantly accurate. She adds another level of superb professionalism to the NDTCO company. Thank you!
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September 2024 by Carolyn Henderson
Lori Johnson was a pleasure to work with and on top of everything which was extremely helpful to me as I was out of the country and had very spotty wifi. I definitely recommend both Lori and New Direction.
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September 2024 by Shinji Salmoiraghi
I have been an NDTCO member for over 10 years. Working with New Direction Trust Company has been a very positive experience. Thanks to Lori Johnson and Nickie Schultz who have both helped me through the sale of an IRA asset on two different occaisions and did a great job. I'd highly recommend working with this team of professionals.
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September 2024 by Fred Hughes
Great service people!
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September 2024 by Cyndi
Lori Johnson was assigned to assist me with both the purchase of my rental property and recently the sale. NDTCO made the process very easy and having Lori Johnson as my asset coordinator greatly added to the experience. She communicated frequently and was very thorough with document review. Her level of expertise made what could have been a stressful experience, organized and easy. Highly recommend both Lori and New Direction!
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August 2024 by Upson Family
In the past, I've done business with 2 other custodians. Of the 3 custodians, New Direction provided the most efficient and best service to process the transfer and investment. Breanna provided wonderful customer service throughout the process. She was responsive, informative, and contactable!
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August 2024 by Julie Reimer
Coreen E at NDTCO provided outstanding customer service and walked me through every detail of the process I needed to complete. She was friendly, provided followed up and communicated with me every step of the way. Recommend!
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August 2024 by James Sengenberger
Lori Johnson of New Directions Trust Company always does a great job managing the closing on my purchases and sale of real estate. Thank you Lori!
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August 2024 by Loretta Hernandez
Nicole (Nickie) Shultz, an Asset Operations Specialist at New Direction IRA, provided exceptional assistance during the sale of my asset. Her communication was prompt and professional, and I greatly appreciated her patience with my numerous questions. I highly recommend Nickie and look forward to collaborating with her on the sale of my next asset.
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July 2024 by John Kelley
Long time client of NDTCO and recently sold a property in my self-directed IRA. Nickie Schultz handled the transaction and she was kind, responsive and very quickly worked through the usual complications of the IRA custodian signing closing documents and closing on time. Thanks Nickie!
