Customer ReviewsforAdvanta IRA Services, LLC

Terrible Experience with Advanta ************ of Favoritism and Unethical Practices!I had a terrible experience with Advanta *** that I feel compelled to share. This company seems to play blatant favoritism with brokers with horrible reviews, giving away sensitive information about clients to competitors, which is unacceptable. After I had done all the work and was on the hook for metals that would have put the customer in a great position, ******************** *** suddenly stopped its service because it couldnt convince the client to go with someone they knew. Then, I told them to go with who they wanted or go with another custodian. Its clear that their fiduciary duty to protect clients from loss and undue stress while remaining impartial was utterly ignored in my case. Instead of acting in the best interest of their clients, they seemed more interested in steering them towards brokers they favored, regardless of what was best for the client.Ultimately, They made me scramble to set up a new custodian while the metals were on the way and transferred, and the customer was happy with everything. This is not the kind of service you should expect from a company that claims to be a trusted custodian. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere if you want a company that protects your interests.

We are sorry that you had a bad experience with Advanta IRA, but we strongly disagree with your review and outlining of the facts. As a self-directed IRA administrator, we do not play favorites with any referral partners, and we certainly do not steer a client toward a particular investment or investment provider. We also do not share sensitive customer information unless directed by our client or permitted under law. Further, we are administrators of the IRA accounts and do not serve in any fiduciary capacity.

There were numerous issues with the paperwork that you presented to us for your client to purchase precious metals. It took multiple requests to have you update the paperwork, and outline exactly what the client was purchasing. For precious metals purchases, we require invoices to be submitted to us with the exact quantity and description of the metals that will be purchased and stored. One invoice to purchase metals that was submitted to us simply said Cash. After another invoice was sent with a quantity and specificity of metals outlined, we were told that the new invoice might not reflect the actual metals that will be purchased by our clients IRA. As the custodian of their IRA, we must ensure all details of an investment are confirmed and do not change after we fund the investment. 

In addition to the paperwork issues, we received repeated phone calls and emails(several calls in the span of a few hours) from you or representatives of your company, without giving us a chance to reach back out to you. We deal with hundreds of clients a day and make our efforts to get back to people as quickly as possible. Repeated phone calls and emails raise red flags and we determined as such that we would be unable to work with your company and your demands for such immediate action.

Again, we apologize for the experience you had, which is abnormal for our business as we pride ourselves on our customer service. If you would like to discuss this matter further, please reach out to our Vice President of Sales, ***********************, at ***********************.  

I would like to speak with the VP of Sales to discuss this matter, as it involves many details that are difficult to address online. I appreciate your reply and will follow up here to outline our discussion. Hopefully, we can review your points because some inaccuracies need clarification. I’m also glad that I can reach you directly, unlike ***** *****, who refused to explain why I couldn’t do business with you and reversed an MMR that was already in transit without the client’s approval to reverse it and has caused harm to both of us. After that, he said the only way to set up a call was by mailing him a physical letter and hoping it would arrive. It’s interesting that I can contact the Vice President of Sales directly, yet an account rep wants me to write him a letter as if we were pen pals.