Independent profile — not affiliated with Lear Capital
Lear Capital
Lear Capital, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based retail dealer of gold and silver coins and bars, and a facilitator of precious-metals individual retirement accounts (IRAs), founded in 1997 by Kevin DeMeritt. The Better Business Bureau lists Lear Capital as an A+-rated, accredited business, with accreditation dating to September 19, 1997. In its own 2023 bankruptcy filing, the company described its pricing mechanic in plain terms: the retail price for its metals includes a "spread" -- its acquisition cost plus a profit margin -- that "can be as much as 33%" of the retail price, averaging 23.4% across all 2022 transactions; when a customer sells metals back, Lear Capital's stated policy is to charge no separate fee and instead pay the prevailing wholesale price it can get from its own supplier.
Lear Capital has a documented regulatory and court history. The New York Attorney General sued Lear Capital and Kevin DeMeritt in June 2021, alleging undisclosed commissions of up to 33%, operation as an unregistered commodity broker-dealer and telemarketer, and harm to roughly 1,000 New York customers; the case settled in December 2021 for $6 million under a consent decree, with no admission of wrongdoing. Separately, the Los Angeles City Attorney sued Lear Capital (Case No. 19STCV19362), settling in December 2021 for $2.75 million and refunds of fees above 15%, again without an admission of wrongdoing. Lear Capital filed for Chapter 11 (Subchapter V) bankruptcy protection in Delaware in March 2022 to resolve customer and state regulatory claims; its reorganization plan, funded in part by a $5.5 million "Customer Fund," was confirmed by the court in June 2023, and the court entered a final decree on February 2, 2024. That plan was tied to a separate multistate securities-regulator settlement covering transactions from January 1, 2016 through March 3, 2022, refunding the spread charged above a hypothetical 12% baseline. USAComplaints has seven historical complaint posts (2010–2013) that editors matched to Lear Capital, most describing undisclosed or larger-than-expected spreads and disputes over coin grading. The Better Business Bureau separately logs 33 complaints against the company in the last three years, and Trustpilot shows a 4.7 rating from 3,281 reviews -- figures from different sources that are not combined here.
Complaints & Reviews on USAComplaints
USAComplaints currently maintains 7 historical complaints about Lear Capital, published between 2010 and 2013. No approved complaints have been published on this site during the last three years. For a current reputation snapshot, see the independent sources below.
Complaint Themes
Independent Sources
Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.
Contacts
- Official website: https://www.learcapital.com/
- Main / sales (account representatives): 800-576-9355 4 complaints mention this number
- Customer Care line (concerns beyond your representative): 888-496-0654
Locations
| Type | Address |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | 1990 S. Bundy Drive, Suite 650 Los Angeles CA 90025 |
Thinking of buying from Lear Capital, or already did -- what to check
What Lear Capital says it charges today: its Terms and Conditions (last updated December 2025) state that "LC's Spreads generally range between 2% and 35% of the quoted purchase price, but vary by Precious Metal, by customer, by transaction type, and over time," that the exact spread is confirmed on the recorded call and shown on the invoice, that its sales representatives "are commissioned salespersons" who "are not licensed and their knowledge of Precious Metals and the Precious Metals marketplace varies markedly," and that the law prohibits it from guaranteeing to buy metals back (Terms and Conditions).
Lear Capital's own 2023 bankruptcy filing describes how it prices precious metals: the retail price includes the company's acquisition cost plus a profit margin it calls a "spread," and that spread "can be as much as 33%" of the retail price, averaging 23.4% across all of Lear Capital's 2022 transactions (Chapter 11 Plan, Doc. 694). In dollar terms, a complaint filed with USAComplaints in 2012 illustrates what that can mean: a customer bought 47 numismatic gold coins from Lear Capital for $108,719, of which $21,775 -- about 25% -- was the spread between her purchase price and the company's own cost. Those are 2022 figures from a 2023 court filing, not a current price list: Lear Capital does not publish a spread schedule, and its risk disclosure says spreads "vary significantly - by Precious Metal, by customer, and over time" (Risk Disclosures). So before you buy, ask your representative for the exact spread on your order in both percentage and dollar terms, and compare the quoted price to that day's spot price for gold or silver.
Lear Capital says it discloses its spread through a three-step process: (1) a written Account Agreement, (2) a recorded phone confirmation, and (3) a written transaction confirmation, on top of a Transaction Agreement you e-sign (via DocuSign) before your order is final (Lear Price Advantage; Shipping & Transaction Agreement). Regulators in both the New York and Los Angeles actions described below alleged this disclosure was in practice inadequate; Lear Capital disputed both and settled without admitting wrongdoing. Read or listen to your own confirmation carefully, and don't rely on a verbal quote alone.
Every purchase carries a universal 24-hour cancellation right, and some states get longer: examples on Lear Capital's own cancellation policy page include 7 days in Alabama, Alaska, Florida and Louisiana; 3 business days in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Oklahoma; and 30 days in Nevada (defective or misrepresented goods only) and Guam (including shipping charges). Return conditions and refund timing vary by state (the policy page lists each state's rules); cancellation requests go to 888-806-5945, online, or by mail to Customer Service at the Bundy Drive address (cancellation & refund policy). If you decide to sell back, Lear Capital's stated policy is to charge no separate buyback fee and to pay the "prevailing wholesale price" it can get from its own supplier at the time -- not your original purchase price (Chapter 11 Plan, Doc. 694, p.5). Because that wholesale (bid) price sits below the retail (ask) price you paid, Lear Capital's own risk disclosure warns it "cannot guarantee... that the Precious Metals will appreciate at all or appreciate sufficiently to make Customer a profit", and that "Metals must appreciate enough to account for this difference in order for customer to make a profit when liquidating the metals" (Risk Disclosures).
If you are opening a precious-metals IRA: Lear Capital's own fee page (dated December 17, 2025) lists a $10,000 minimum to open a Gold IRA, a one-time $50 application fee, an annual maintenance fee of $125, storage of $110 (non-segregated) or $160 (segregated) per year and a one-time $30 wire fee -- $315 or $365 in the first year and $235 or $285 a year after that (Lear Capital IRA fee structure); the company says IRA metals are held through the custodian Equity Trust Company and stored at Delaware Depository in Wilmington, Delaware (company page). Those custodial and storage fees are on top of the spread built into the metal price.
Lear Capital's Terms and Conditions require disputes to go to binding arbitration in Los Angeles under JAMS rules, waive your right to bring or join a class action, and cap Lear Capital's liability (a limitation the Terms say does not apply to California purchasers) -- but they also give you 30 days from signing to opt out of arbitration in writing, after which Lear Capital may choose within 15 days to rescind the purchase for a full refund (Terms and Conditions). If you have a problem, your account representative's line is 800-576-9355; for concerns you'd rather not raise with your own representative, Lear Capital lists a separate Customer Care line, 888-496-0654.
If you're a past customer wondering about a refund: the Los Angeles City Attorney settlement's claims window closed April 11, 2022, the New York Attorney General settlement provided $6 million that the Attorney General said would be distributed to eligible New York customers, and the 2023 bankruptcy's $5.5 million "Customer Fund" -- covering transactions between January 1, 2016 and March 3, 2022 -- was administered through the Chapter 11 case itself, in which the court entered a final decree on February 2, 2024. The Los Angeles claims window and the bankruptcy claims process have closed; this page found no refund program currently open to new claims.
What complaints about Lear Capital describe
USAComplaints has seven historical complaint posts (2010–2013) that editors matched to Lear Capital. By theme: undisclosed or larger-than-expected spread/commission (four -- a 29% commission the complainant said was "hidden" in the paperwork and never verbally disclosed; an IRA rollover quoted at under 10% that the complainant said actually cost about 20%; the $108,719 numismatic-coin purchase with a $21,775 spread described above; and a complaint about being repurchased at less than the complainant expected after "a radical fall in price"), coin grade or value misrepresented (one -- roughly $50,000 in gold and silver coins the complainant said were sold as "AU" grade but arrived rated well below that), shipping and communication problems (one -- a Morgan-silver order the complainant said was delayed and mistracked), and pressure sales or representative switching on an IRA rollover (one -- a complainant who said the representative who set up the account, "Jody," was replaced mid-transaction by another representative the complainant had never spoken to). An eighth 2012 post naming a Lear Capital address was reviewed but not counted because the grievance against Lear Capital specifically was unclear.
The Better Business Bureau's Los Angeles profile for Lear Capital separately shows 33 complaints in the last three years, 11 of them closed in the last 12 months, and 4.78 out of 5 from 148 customer reviews -- figures BBB reports independently of USAComplaints' own count, never combined with it here. The most recent complaint shown on that BBB page, filed July 2026, describes a customer who shipped 120 oz of Silver Eagles and 200 ten-oz bars to Lear Capital for a $101,944.20 buyback and then had trouble collecting the wire payment. Trustpilot, a third and separate source, shows a 4.7 TrustScore from 3,281 reviews (89% five-star). Lear Capital's own website cites a different Trustpilot snapshot -- 4.9 from 2,889 reviews -- illustrating how review counts drift depending on when they're pulled; none of these figures is summed with another here.
Is Lear Capital Legitimate?
Lear Capital, Inc. is a real, operating company, not a fabricated name -- it has sold precious metals since 1997 and has been a Better Business Bureau accredited business, with an A+ rating, since September 19, 1997 (BBB profile). Founder Kevin DeMeritt is documented in the company's 2023 bankruptcy filing as its sole owner.
Its regulatory and court history includes several distinct matters; each is described separately below. The New York Attorney General sued Lear Capital and Kevin DeMeritt on June 17, 2021 (Index No. 807970/2021, Supreme Court, Erie County; removed to federal court and closed there July 30, 2021), alleging undisclosed commissions of up to 33%, operating as an unregistered commodity broker-dealer and telemarketer, and harming roughly 1,000 New Yorkers out of about $10 million. The case settled by a consent order dated December 30, 2021 and entered by the Erie County Clerk on January 3, 2022, for $6 million (consent order), with Lear Capital disputing the allegations and no admission of wrongdoing (NY AG press release). Separately, the Los Angeles City Attorney sued Lear Capital in 2019 (Case No. 19STCV19362), alleging misleading claims about "complete purchase transparency" and hidden fees; that case settled the same day, December 30, 2021, for $2.75 million and refunds of fees charged above 15%, again without an admission and without any ruling by the court on the merits.
Lear Capital filed a voluntary Chapter 11 (Subchapter V) bankruptcy petition on March 2, 2022, in Delaware, stating the filing was intended to fund its obligations under the NY and LA settlements. The court signed an Order Confirming Lear Capital's First Amended Plan of Reorganization on June 8, 2023 (some state regulators' releases cite June 12, 2023) -- a plan funded in part by a $5.5 million "Customer Fund," combining cash on hand with a personal contribution from Kevin DeMeritt, and tied to a separate multistate securities-regulator settlement covering transactions from January 1, 2016 through March 3, 2022 that refunded the spread charged above a hypothetical 12% baseline. The court entered a final decree on February 2, 2024.
Two individual federal lawsuits are worth noting for what they did not establish. In Patterson v. Lear Capital (filed in Utah state court February 20, 2020 and removed to the U.S. District Court for Utah April 15, 2020), the court did not certify a class or rule on the merits -- it granted Lear Capital's motion to dismiss in favor of arbitration under the Transaction Agreement's arbitration clause, dismissing the claims without prejudice on October 15, 2020. An earlier individual suit, Sterzenbach v. Lear Capital, Inc. (E.D.N.Y., removed September 2019), ended in a stipulated dismissal in November 2019. In Cheung v. Lear Capital Holdings, Inc. (C.D. Cal., a 2024 Telephone Consumer Protection Act suit), the plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the case in December 2024 before any ruling.
No CFPB, FTC, or SEC enforcement action against Lear Capital was found in the sources checked for this page -- that absence is not proof of a clean record, only that none turned up in what was searched.
Lear Capital overview
Lear Capital is headquartered at 1990 S. Bundy Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90025 (Suite 650 per the company's own contact page and BBB; a footnote in its 2023 bankruptcy filing instead lists Suite 600 at the same address), with stated business hours of 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pacific time. Different sources use three names for the business, and their exact relationship was not established by the sources reviewed here: the 2023 Chapter 11 plan names the debtor as "Lear Capital, Inc., a California corporation," the company's current website Terms and Conditions instead contract as "Lear Capital, LLC," and a 2024 federal lawsuit names a defendant called "Lear Capital Holdings, Inc.". Its account-representative line is 800-576-9355 and its separate Customer Care line is 888-496-0654.
Per its own bankruptcy filing, Lear Capital's gross revenue was $178,403,458 in 2020, $221,724,775 in 2021, and $146,581,414 in 2022, of which the direct-to-consumer channel accounted for 63.6% and the IRA channel for 36.4% in 2022. When Lear Capital filed for bankruptcy in March 2022, it served notice of the case on nearly 90,000 people -- its entire then-current and former customer base.
Court & Public Records
| Case | Authority | Dates | Type | Outcome | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People of the State of California v. Lear Capital, Inc. (Los Angeles City Attorney) Docket Case No. 19STCV19362 | Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles | Settled | Settled The Los Angeles City Attorney alleged Lear Capital promised customers "complete purchase transparency" including "no hidden fees," and that it misled customers about the true nature and value of their investments, particularly the actual amount of its fees. Lear Capital disputed the allegations, pointing to its practice of recording each customer at the time of sale confirming the purchase. The parties resolved the case by a binding agreement dated December 30, 2021, announced in January 2022, without a trial and without any ruling by the court on the merits; Lear Capital paid $2.75 million and, under the settlement, eligible customers could claim the amount they paid in transaction fees in excess of 15%, subject to the size of the settlement fund and the total claims filed. The claims administrator, Simpluris, set a claim deadline of April 11, 2022. This settlement is separate from, and not to be added to, the New York Attorney General's $6 million settlement described below. | Source | |
| Patterson v. Lear Capital, Inc. Docket 2:20-cv-00251-DAK-CMR | U.S. District Court, District of Utah | Dismissed | Dismissed Gary Patterson sued in Utah state court on February 20, 2020 (the defendants removed the case to federal court on April 15, 2020), naming Lear Capital, Inc. and three individual defendants (Ted Noutsos, Terry Moloney, and Dana Frankfort). Judge Dale A. Kimball granted the defendants' motion to dismiss in favor of arbitration, holding the dispute was covered by the arbitration clause in the customer's Transaction Agreement; the claims were dismissed without prejudice to being pursued in arbitration, and judgment was entered October 15, 2020. The court did not rule on the merits of the underlying allegations and did not certify a class in this case. | Source | |
| People of the State of New York v. Lear Capital, Inc. and Kevin DeMeritt Docket Index No. 807970/2021 (Erie County); removed as 1:21-cv-00809 (W.D.N.Y.) | Supreme Court of the State of New York, Erie County (removed to U.S. District Court, Western District of New York) | Settled | Settled Attorney General Letitia James filed a Verified Petition alleging Lear Capital defrauded investors of up to one-third of their investment through undisclosed commissions of up to 33%, that it operated as an unregistered commodity broker-dealer, commodity investment advisor, and telemarketer in New York, and that its conduct affected roughly 1,000 New York customers and about $10 million. Lear Capital removed the case to federal court in July 2021; the federal docket closed July 30, 2021 and the matter proceeded in state court. Without admitting any wrongdoing, Lear Capital and the Attorney General resolved the matter through a consent order dated December 30, 2021 and entered by the Erie County Clerk on January 3, 2022: Lear Capital paid $6 million, agreed to revise its invoice format and content for future New York customers, and agreed to a 24-hour cancellation period for retirement and certain higher-fee transactions and enhanced complaint tracking and staff training. | Source | |
| In re Lear Capital, Inc. Docket Case No. 22-10165 (BLS), Chapter 11 (Subchapter V) | U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware | Judgment | Judgment entered Lear Capital filed a voluntary Chapter 11, Subchapter V petition on March 2, 2022, stating in its own plan that the filing was undertaken to address its obligations under the New York and Los Angeles settlements described above. The plan was funded in part by a $5.5 million "Customer Fund," combining cash on hand with a personal contribution from founder Kevin DeMeritt (who retained his equity ownership), to pay customers who filed proofs of claim. It was also tied to a separate multistate securities-regulator settlement, covering transactions from January 1, 2016 through March 3, 2022, that refunded the spread charged above a hypothetical 12% baseline fee. The court signed an Order Confirming Lear Capital's First Amended Plan of Reorganization on June 8, 2023 (Doc. 706; some state regulators' releases cite June 12, 2023) -- a plan-confirmation order is itself a court order, not merely a filing -- and the court entered a Final Decree on February 2, 2024. | Source | |
| Cheung v. Lear Capital Holdings, Inc. Docket 2:24-cv-08490 | U.S. District Court, Central District of California | Dismissed | Dismissed Vincent Cheung sued Lear Capital Holdings, Inc. under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The plaintiff voluntarily dismissed the case on December 2, 2024, before any ruling on the merits; the case was closed December 3, 2024. The defendant here, "Lear Capital Holdings, Inc.," is a differently named entity from "Lear Capital, Inc." (the debtor in the bankruptcy case above); the sources reviewed for this page did not establish the exact relationship between the two names. | Source |
Company Relationships
- Owned by: Kevin DeMeritt (founder; 100% owner per the 2023 plan)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lear Capital legitimate or a scam?
Lear Capital is a real, operating precious-metals dealer founded in 1997, and it has been a Better Business Bureau accredited business with an A+ rating since September 19, 1997. That doesn't mean its practices have gone unchallenged: the New York Attorney General and the Los Angeles City Attorney each sued the company over its fee disclosures, both settling in December 2021 for $6 million and $2.75 million respectively, without Lear Capital admitting wrongdoing. Lear Capital also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2022 to fund those settlements, emerging under a court-confirmed plan in 2023. No CFPB, FTC, or SEC action against the company was found.
What fees or spread does Lear Capital charge?
Lear Capital's Terms and Conditions (December 2025) say its spreads "generally range between 2% and 35% of the quoted purchase price" and vary by metal, customer, transaction type and over time; the spread is the margin built into the retail price rather than a separately itemized fee. In its own 2023 bankruptcy filing, Lear Capital stated that spread "can be as much as 33%" of the retail price, and averaged 23.4% across its 2022 transactions -- historical figures; the company publishes no current spread schedule and says spreads "vary significantly - by Precious Metal, by customer, and over time." A 2012 complaint filed with USAComplaints illustrates the range in dollars: a $108,719 numismatic-coin purchase that included a $21,775 spread, about 25%. When you sell metals back, Lear Capital says it charges no separate buyback fee and instead pays the wholesale price it can get from its own supplier.
What happened with the Lear Capital lawsuit and bankruptcy?
Lear Capital faced two government actions in the same period: the New York Attorney General sued in June 2021 over undisclosed commissions of up to 33% and unregistered broker-dealer/telemarketer activity, settling in December 2021 for $6 million; the Los Angeles City Attorney sued in 2019 over hidden fees, settling the same month for $2.75 million. Neither settlement included an admission of wrongdoing. To fund both, Lear Capital filed Chapter 11 (Subchapter V) bankruptcy in Delaware in March 2022; the court confirmed its reorganization plan -- funded partly by a $5.5 million "Customer Fund" -- on June 8, 2023, and the court entered a final decree on February 2, 2024.
Can I cancel or return a Lear Capital purchase?
Yes. Lear Capital's stated policy gives every customer a universal 24-hour cancellation window, and some states get longer under its own published table -- for example 7 days in Alabama, Alaska, Florida and Louisiana, 3 business days in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Oklahoma, and up to 30 days in Nevada or Guam under certain conditions. Returned metals must be undamaged and unused, and Lear Capital says refunds are typically processed within 10 to 30 days. This is separate from the now-closed New York and Los Angeles settlement refund programs, which are no longer accepting claims.
How does Lear Capital's buyback work?
Lear Capital's Terms say it does not charge a spread on buybacks of metals the customer bought from it, but that "the law prohibits LC from guaranteeing to buyback" metals and it does not guarantee any buyback. Per its bankruptcy-court filing, its policy is not to charge a fee or make a profit when a customer sells metals back -- instead it pays "the prevailing wholesale price" it can get from its own supplier at the time of the sale, not the price the customer originally paid. Because that wholesale (bid) price sits below the retail (ask) price charged at purchase, Lear Capital's own risk disclosure warns it cannot guarantee any appreciation and that "Metals must appreciate enough to account for this difference in order for customer to make a profit when liquidating the metals."