Been looking Gold IRA, fee structures are doing my head in

• •Seriously, trying to wrap my head around the Gold IRA fee structures is like trying to debug someone else's spaghetti code.
• •I've been doing my due diligence, looking to roll over a decent chunk of my portfolio, probably in the neighborhood of $750k, into precious metals.
• •My main goal is to hedge against this market volatility – feels like a rollercoaster that's about to derail, you know?

Seriously, trying to wrap my head around the Gold IRA fee structures is like trying to debug someone else's spaghetti code. I've been doing my due diligence, looking to roll over a decent chunk of my portfolio, probably in the neighborhood of $750k, into precious metals. My main goal is to hedge against this market volatility – feels like a rollercoaster that's about to derail, you know? Based in Austin, running my tech startup, and I just can't afford to lose significant capital if things go sideways.

I've been talking to a few companies – Augusta, Goldco, Birch Gold, Regal Assets – trying to get clarity. They all pitch the "low fees, great service" line, but when you dig into it, it's never quite that simple. There are setup fees, annual administrative fees, storage fees (segregated vs. unsegregated, which is a whole other rabbit hole), and sometimes even transaction fees for buying/selling. It’s like they intentionally complicate it so you can’t make a direct comparison.

For those of you who've already gone through this, how did you compare these different structures? Did you just create a giant Excel sheet and try to project costs over 5, 10, 20 years? Are there any hidden fees I should explicitly ask about that aren't usually front and center? I'm trying to figure out if it's better to go with a higher initial setup fee but lower annual storage, or vice-versa. And what's a reasonable percentage to expect for combined annual fees on an account of my size? Anything over 1% annually feels a bit steep, but maybe my expectations are off.