Score-based, methodology-first audits of every company that touches your gold or your inheritance. Ten entities scored against the same eight dimensions. Updated quarterly. The next review lands August 25, 2026.

What this is

The Touchstone Report is an independent publication. We publish a scoring methodology before we publish any scores. Every entity in our index is graded against the same eight dimensions — pricing transparency, payout, trust signals, process speed, support, security, reversibility, and inheritance fit — weighted for the category the entity competes in.

The methodology came first; the scores are derived. Any reader can audit the math. Every dimension's raw score is published so the total can be recomputed from scratch.

By the rubric, we currently rank ten entities across four categories. The full index is below.

Latest Scores — Q2 2026

Estate / Inheritance Planning Platforms

Rank	Entity	Score	Band
1	Heirfolio	89	Strong
2	Vigil Protocol	72	Fair

Investment-Grade Jewelry Sellers

Rank	Entity	Score	Band
1	Mene	78	Strong
2	Blue Diamonds ATX	42	Weak

Cash-for-Gold Buyers

Rank	Entity	Score	Band
1	The Alloy Market	71	Fair
2	Gold Guys	65	Fair
3	Express Gold Cash	62	Fair
4	Liry's Jewelry	58	Weak
5	SellYourGold.com	54	Weak

Jewelry Valuation Tools

Rank	Entity	Score	Band
1	Unvault	76	Strong

See the full entity index →

Featured Report

Q2 2026 — State of the Cash-for-Gold Industry

The five companies that pay fairest, the three to avoid, and what we found when we sent identical 14k chains to every entity in our panel. Includes the median payout spread, the trust-stack reconciliation table, and the FedEx-vs-USPS shipping insurance comparison every mail-in seller should read before shipping a single gram.

The report draws on 30 days of live testing, three customer-support inquiries per entity, and a synthesized 14k-chain proxy sent to every category-A entity. Methodology-traceable to v1.0 of the published rubric.

Read the Q2 2026 cash-for-gold report →

How we work

Independent

The Touchstone Report editorial team operates independently of any rated entity's sales, marketing, or leadership. Story selection, scoring, and publication decisions are made by the editorial team alone. We do not accept editorial input from entities about their own scores or their competitors' scores.

We have one current affiliate relationship — Heirfolio — disclosed on every page that contains an affiliate link and listed in full at /about/affiliates. Affiliate relationships do not influence scores. Heirfolio's 89 was calculated using the same dimensions, the same weights, and the same evidence standard we applied to every other entity in the index.

Methodology-first

The v1.0 scoring methodology is published in full. Each of the eight dimensions has a published sub-rubric; each sub-criterion has a point value; each category has a published weight. The reader can re-weight the dimensions for their own use case and recompute the score. We invite that.

Methodology changes go through a 30-day public comment period before adoption. When a new version takes effect, every entity is re-scored against it; previous-version scores are archived (not deleted) and labeled with the version they reflect.

Quarterly updates

Every entity is re-scored every 90 days minimum. Material events — acquisitions, breaches, leadership changes, policy changes — trigger an immediate re-score and a noted update on the entity's profile. The last-updated date is prominently displayed on every page.

The next quarterly review is August 25, 2026.

Recent comparisons

When two entities are routinely confused for one another, we publish a head-to-head that runs both scorecards side by side. Each comparison is methodology-traceable: the dimension scores are taken directly from the entity profiles.

Heirfolio vs. Vigil Protocol — the two estate-planning platforms in our index, scored 89 and 72 respectively
Mene vs. Cartier — scored entity vs. legacy luxury; how a 78 compares to a heritage brand we do not score
Express Gold Cash vs. Gold Guys — two mail-in buyers separated by three points and very different operating models
SellYourGold vs. mail-in gold service category — how the category's keyword owner stacks against the category average
Heirfolio vs. Trust & Will — two products that get confused but solve different problems
Pawn shops vs. mail-in gold buyers — category-vs-category comparison drawing on aggregated Touchstone Report scores

The Touchstone Report Weekly

A free Monday newsletter. One entity score update, one industry insight, one chart. 800 words maximum. Plain text and light HTML, no tracking pixels.

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What we will not do

Take payment from rated entities. Affiliate links are allowed only when disclosed and only when they have zero influence on the score.
Allow entities to pre-approve their score. They receive a draft 30 days before publication for fact-check. They cannot veto.
Combine multi-category scores into a single "overall." A great gold buyer is not a great estate-planning platform.
Hide the math. Every dimension score is visible. The reader can recompute the total.

The full list of editorial commitments is at /about/editorial-policy.

The Touchstone Report is published by The Touchstone Report, Inc. Editorially independent. Corrections to corrections@touchstonereport.com.