The Touchstone Report — Scoring Methodology
Published: May 25, 2026 Version: 1.0 Next review: Quarterly (Aug 25, Nov 25, Feb 25) Author: The Touchstone Report editorial team Subject to peer review: Yes — every methodology change is announced 30 days in advance with public comment period.
This is the rubric. Every entity scored on touchstonereport.com is scored against this. No exceptions, no special treatment, no behind-the-scenes weighting. If we change the methodology, every entity is re-scored against the new version and the old scores are archived (not deleted) with a "Methodology v1.0 score" label.
Why methodology matters more than scores
Most "best of" sites publish rankings with no methodology. That makes them useless — there's no way to evaluate whether the ranking was fair, paid-for, or arbitrary. Worse, it makes the entire industry less honest, because there's no shared definition of "good."
The Touchstone Report publishes the methodology first. The scores are derived. Anyone can audit the math. Anyone can disagree with the weights. We'll publish the disagreement.
Universe of entities we score
We score companies in four categories. An entity may appear in multiple categories with separate scores.
| Category | What it means | Example entities |
|---|---|---|
| A. Cash-for-Gold Buyers | Companies that buy your gold for cash via mail-in or in-person | Express Gold Cash, SellYourGold, Gold Guys, local pawnshops, Cash for Gold USA |
| B. Investment-Grade Jewelry Sellers | Companies that sell jewelry where the gold content is the primary value (vs designer brand premium) | Mene, APMEX-jewelry, JM Bullion-jewelry |
| C. Estate / Inheritance Planning Platforms | Software that helps you plan what happens to your assets when you're gone | Vigil Protocol, Trust & Will, LegalZoom, Heirfolio (Heir Protocol module), Notarize, FreeWill |
| D. Jewelry Valuation Tools | Software that values jewelry (free or paid, online or in-app) | Worthy valuation, GemFind, IDEX, Heirfolio AI valuation, generic "free online appraisal" sites |
A platform like Heirfolio is scored in C (Heir Protocol module) and D (AI valuation pipeline) separately. Multi-category scores are NOT combined into a single "overall" — each category is judged on its own dimensions.
The 8 dimensions (apply to all 4 categories with category-specific weights)
Dimension 1: Pricing Transparency (0–15 points)
How clearly does the entity disclose what you'll pay (if buying) or receive (if selling)?
| Sub-criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Published live spot price + spread on the homepage | +5 |
| Published fee schedule on a public URL (not behind a login) | +5 |
| Quote provided before items shipped (vs "send your gold, then we tell you") | +3 |
| Disclosed in plain English (no fine print decoder ring) | +2 |
0 points: "Call for a quote" with no published pricing anywhere.
Dimension 2: Payout / Cost Competitiveness (0–15 points)
For buyers (categories A): payout vs. fair market value, tested on real items. For sellers (B): price vs. spot + reasonable margin (15-30% is fair for finished jewelry; 50%+ is gouging). For platforms (C, D): cost relative to feature set vs. competitors.
We send real items (when applicable, category A) and document the payout. Sealed envelope test: identical 14k chain sent to 5 buyers; each buyer's payout indexed against the median.
| Score | Performance |
|---|---|
| 13–15 | Top quartile payout — within 5% of best in test |
| 10–12 | Above median |
| 7–9 | Below median but within 25% of fair value |
| 4–6 | More than 25% below fair value |
| 0–3 | Predatory — more than 50% below fair value |
Dimension 3: Trust Signals (0–10 points)
Externally verifiable trust markers, not self-claimed.
| Signal | Points |
|---|---|
| BBB rating A or A+ AND > 5 years accredited | +3 |
| Verified Trustpilot rating ≥ 4.0 with > 100 reviews | +2 |
| State licensing visible + verified (where required) | +2 |
| Public ownership / executive team with LinkedIn presence | +1 |
| Insurance / bonding amount published | +1 |
| Independent press coverage in the last 24 months | +1 |
Self-published "5 stars on our site" doesn't count.
Dimension 4: Process Speed (0–10 points)
For buyers: how fast from "we received your gold" to "you have the money"? For platforms: how fast from "sign up" to "first useful output"? For valuation tools: how fast from "upload" to "valuation"?
| Score | Speed |
|---|---|
| 9–10 | Same-day or under 1 hour |
| 7–8 | Within 24 hours |
| 5–6 | Within 3 business days |
| 3–4 | Within 1 week |
| 0–2 | More than 1 week |
Dimension 5: Customer Support Quality (0–10 points)
We submit 3 test inquiries to each entity over a 30-day window. Score the response.
| Sub-criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Response within 2 business hours | +3 |
| Response from a named human (not a generic mailbox) | +2 |
| Answer addresses the specific question (not a templated reply) | +3 |
| Live phone option AND it answers in under 3 rings during stated hours | +2 |
Dimension 6: Asset / Data Security (0–10 points)
What happens to your gold (if shipped), your data (if uploaded), your private keys (if BTC custody)?
| Sub-criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Shipping insured + tracked (mail-in) | +3 |
| Data encryption at rest documented in a published security page | +2 |
| SOC 2 Type II OR equivalent third-party audit | +2 |
| Two-factor auth available + enforced for high-value actions | +2 |
| Public breach history (or absence of one with > 3 years operating) | +1 |
Dimension 7: Reversibility & Flexibility (0–10 points)
If you change your mind, what happens?
| Sub-criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Return of items policy: stated, free, time-windowed | +4 (4 if free + 14+ days; 2 if free but < 14 days; 0 if not free) |
| Cancel-without-penalty window after quote acceptance | +3 |
| Refund policy published in plain language | +3 |
For platforms: can you export your data? Cancel without losing access to past records? Migrate to a competitor?
Dimension 8: Inheritance / Long-Term Fit (0–10 points)
Does this entity help you, or your heirs, for the long term?
| Sub-criterion | Points |
|---|---|
| Beneficiary designation feature (account-level death notification) | +3 |
| Multi-party account access (executor + owner + advisor) | +2 |
| Records persist beyond a single user (account inheritable) | +2 |
| Integration with estate planning tools (will/trust) | +2 |
| Published guidance for heirs on what to do when owner dies | +1 |
For pure cash-for-gold buyers (category A), this dimension is dropped from the overall scoring and replaced with a 10-point "Disposal Documentation" criterion (do they provide proof of what was sent, melted, paid for tax purposes).
Category weighting (the 8 dimensions don't apply equally to all 4 categories)
| Dimension | A. Cash-for-Gold | B. Investment Jewelry | C. Estate Planning | D. Valuation Tools |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Pricing Transparency | 15% | 15% | 10% | 15% |
| 2. Payout / Cost | 25% | 15% | 10% | 10% |
| 3. Trust Signals | 15% | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| 4. Process Speed | 10% | 5% | 5% | 15% |
| 5. Support Quality | 10% | 10% | 10% | 10% |
| 6. Asset / Data Security | 10% | 10% | 15% | 15% |
| 7. Reversibility | 10% | 15% | 15% | 10% |
| 8. Inheritance Fit | 5% | 15% | 20% | 10% |
| Total | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
Each entity's final score is Σ (raw_dimension_score / max_dimension_points × category_weight × 100), rounded to nearest integer, 0–100 scale.
How we test (the actual research methodology)
For each entity, we do four things:
1. Desk research
- Read every page of their site (homepage, pricing, FAQ, terms, security, about, careers, blog if any)
- Verify all trust claims (BBB, Trustpilot, state licensing, SOC 2, press)
- Read 100 most-recent Trustpilot reviews + 50 most-recent Reddit mentions
- Pull WHOIS, archive.org history, LinkedIn employee count
- Time-stamp every claim with the date verified (so we know when it'll go stale)
2. Live tests
- Submit 3 customer inquiries from different domains over 30 days
- For category A (gold buyers): send a real, weighed, photographed 14k chain (replica or proxy item) — document payout
- For category D (valuation tools): submit 5 GIA-certified items, compare to certified appraised value
- For category C (estate platforms): create an account, populate with a synthetic family, run the full workflow, document what works and what doesn't
3. Founder / executive outreach
- 30 days before publication, send the scorecard draft to the entity's leadership for response
- Publish their unedited response alongside the score in a "Company response" sidebar
- If they correct factual errors, we update the score and note the correction
- If they disagree but provide no new facts, we publish the disagreement
4. Update cadence
- Each entity is re-scored every 90 days minimum
- Material events (acquisition, breach, leadership change, policy change) trigger immediate re-score
- Last-updated date is prominently displayed on every entity profile
What we will NOT do
- Take payment from rated entities. Affiliate links allowed ONLY if disclosed in plain text on every page that contains them, AND the affiliate relationship has zero influence on the score.
- Allow entities to pre-approve their score. They get a draft for fact-check 30 days out — they cannot veto publication.
- Combine multi-category scores into a single "overall." A great gold buyer is not a great estate planning platform; meaningless comparisons mislead.
- Hide the math. Every dimension score is visible. The reader can recompute the total themselves.
- Use anonymous sources for material claims. If we say a company has a problem, the source is on the page (Trustpilot review URL, BBB complaint, court filing, etc.).
How readers should use scores
A Touchstone Report score is one data point, not a verdict. The score tells you how an entity ranks on our specific 8 dimensions, weighted for the category. It does not tell you:
- Whether the entity is right for your specific situation
- Whether you'll have a personal experience similar to the median
- Whether the entity will perform the same way in 6 months
The methodology is published so you can re-weight the dimensions for your own use case. (Don't care about inheritance fit because you have no heirs? Re-weight that dimension to 0 and recompute.)
Affiliate disclosure
The Touchstone Report is an independent publication operated by The Touchstone Report, Inc. We earn referral fees from some of the entities we cover, including Heirfolio, when a reader uses our link to sign up. Affiliate relationships are disclosed at the bottom of every entity profile that contains an affiliate link. Affiliate relationships do not influence scores. Scores are determined by the published methodology only.
The full list of current affiliate relationships is published at /about/affiliates and updated within 7 days of any change.
Editorial independence
The Touchstone Report editorial team operates independently of any rated entity's sales, marketing, or leadership teams. 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.
If an entity attempts to influence editorial decisions outside of the formal fact-check process described in section "How we test," we will note the attempt in the entity's profile.
Change log
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 2026-05-25 | Initial methodology published |
The Touchstone Report is published by The Touchstone Report, Inc. © 2026. All scores are opinion based on published methodology and verifiable evidence. For corrections, email corrections@touchstonereport.com.