Lear Capital Review

In June 2021 the New York Attorney General sued Lear Capital, alleging that it charged undisclosed commissions — in some cases running as high as 33% — largely to older investors, and that customers were not told what the markup was before they bought. The case settled in 2022 for $6 million, with terms requiring clear disclosure of fees before a purchase and a 24-hour window in which a customer can cancel. The company also went through Chapter 11 that year, distributing roughly $5.5 million to investors under a multi-state settlement reached while state securities regulators were examining the business.

What matters for a buyer today is that the remedies are structural rather than promissory. The disclosure requirement and the cancellation window are obligations Lear operates under, not goodwill it can withdraw — and they happen to be the two protections we tell every reader to ask for anyway. Used properly, they make Lear one of the easier dealers on this list to pin down on price before money moves.

We score this honestly. Trustworthiness is 30% of our model and carries the heaviest weight for exactly this reason, and Lear's 6.5 there is the lowest Trustworthiness score we publish. That is what puts it last in our rankings despite competitive costs and a strong review base.

On running costs Lear compares well. The schedule most commonly reported is around $280 in the first year and roughly $200 annually thereafter, covering custodial administration and storage at the Delaware Depository, with a $50 setup fee generally waived on a funded account. That is at the lower end of the sector, and on a six-figure balance the difference against a $300-a-year provider compounds into real money.

The caveat is the one that applies to most of this industry and applies to Lear with particular force given the history: none of it is published as an official schedule, and third-party sources disagree — $305 then $225 circulates as readily as $280 then $200, and reported minimums range from nothing to $15,000. The dealer spread remains the largest cost in any case, and it is not in any of those figures.

The current promotion offers up to $15,000 in bonus metals on qualifying orders. Bonus metal is funded from the margin on the purchase, so the question to ask is not how much free silver arrives but what premium over spot you are paying on the order that triggers it.

The review picture is genuinely split, and the split is informative. Lear's Trustpilot profile runs to more than 3,000 reviews at a 4.7 average, and its Business Consumer Alliance file shows four complaints closed in three years against a AAA grade — both strong signals from a large sample.

Its BBB file reads differently: A+ and accredited since 1997, but 32 complaints in three years, of which 11 closed in the last twelve months, and the recurring themes are markups a customer says were never disclosed, metals not arriving at the depository when expected, and calls that were not returned. Those are complaints, not findings, and the company responds to most of them on the record.

Taken together: a large, broadly satisfied customer base, and a persistent minority of disputes about the single thing the 2021 case was about. The protection is the same either way — a written quote showing the price per ounce against that day's spot, and the buyback price on the same products, before anything is funded.