Allocated storage in precious metals means a vault's records assign specific metal to you. The metal is your property, not the vault's. The word is used in 3 different ways, and one of them hides the question that matters. Would you be an owner or a creditor if the company failed? A creditor is someone a company owes. A vault, also called a depository, is the secured warehouse that stores the metal.
This entry is part of the SafeOunce precious metals IRA glossary. It covers the 3 meanings, segregated storage, unallocated accounts, gold funds, digital gold and 5 questions for your custodian, the company that legally holds your IRA.
Every quote below comes from a vault's, custodian's or fund's own document, or from a court. The 5 key figures are listed below.
- 3 meanings of "allocated" are in use: a specific bar, a recorded quantity and a price tier.
- $100 to $225 a year is the flat IRA storage fee at the 4 custodians checked, as of September 29, 2026.
- More than 1,000 customers were caught in the Goldcorp failure; those with unallocated bullion got none of it in the 1994 ruling.
- 430 ounces is the largest overdraft each custodian may lend SPDR Gold Trust so that all its gold is allocated at each day's end, 0.0013% of its gold.
- 47.9% of accounts had discrepancies at a failed vault that sold "segregated" storage.
What Is Allocated Storage?#
Allocated storage is storage in which specific metal, or a specific quantity of one product, is recorded as yours. The metal stays off the vault's own balance sheet. A balance sheet is the list of what a company owns and owes.
The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) is the trade body of the London wholesale market. Its Guide to the Loco London Precious Metals Market says "an allocated account is backed by a specific bar of the precious metal". The holder sees a weight list of each bar's number, weight and purity, and "the investor does not have a credit exposure to the institution where the account is maintained".
The same guide calls an allocated account "analogous to a safe deposit box", one that "cannot, by definition, be overdrawn". Two tests make storage allocated in any market. A record names what is yours, and the metal is not an asset of the vault. Does that describe the metal in a gold IRA?
What does allocated storage mean in a gold IRA?#
In a gold IRA, allocated storage means the depository records your IRA's exact holding, product by product. It holds that metal for your custodian, not as its own asset. A gold IRA must keep its metal with a trustee or the trustee's vault, so the storage record is your main proof of ownership. The trustee is the bank or trust company that holds your IRA, usually called the custodian.
Delaware Depository described its records in a letter to the SEC dated September 8, 2016. "Each and every Precious Metals coin and bar that Delaware Depository stores is fully allocated to a specific customer's depository account", the vault wrote. It said such metal would not "become property of the Company's bankruptcy estate", which is everything a bankrupt company owns. The metal "is excluded from being listed as an asset on the Company's balance sheet".
A second vault, International Depository Services (IDS), says client assets are "held as bailment and not as a deposit or consignment" (security page, read September 29, 2026). Bailment means handing over property for safekeeping without giving up ownership.
Allocated metal is designed to stay outside a vault failure, but expect delay and cost.
Storing the metal yourself is a taxable distribution under McNulty v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 10 (2021), as the home storage gold IRA page explains.
Allocated does not mean untouchable. Delaware Depository's Non-Commercial Account Agreement gives the vault "a warehouseman's lien and a general lien" (sections 3.3 and 3.4 of the personal-account contract, read September 29, 2026). A lien is a legal right to hold or sell property until a bill is paid. For unpaid fees the vault may sell metal "without obtaining Your prior approval".
Equity Trust, a custodian, may "liquidate your precious metals assets to pay any fees due and owing". It may also "force distribute any remaining assets" (Precious Metals Risk and Fee Disclosure, read September 29, 2026).
Why does "allocated" have 3 different meanings?#
"Allocated" has 3 meanings because the London bar market, US vaults and US custodians each use the word differently. It can mean a specific bar, a recorded quantity or a price tier. The table below quotes 4 sources, read on September 29 and October 2, 2026. Row 4 is the confusion the 3 meanings cause.
| Who uses the word | What it means there | Their words | Do you get your exact pieces back? |
|---|---|---|---|
| London wholesale market (LBMA guide) | Specific bars listed by serial number | "backed by a specific bar"; "does not have a credit exposure" | Yes, the listed bars |
| US depository (Delaware Depository) | Every coin and bar recorded to one owner; small products by quantity | "fully allocated ... on a fungible basis"; large bars "accounted for and reported by their serial numbers" | Large bars yes; coins: same product and count |
| US IRA custodian (Entrust; Provident Trust and Directed IRA forms) | The shared-shelf storage tier, as opposed to "segregated" | "Allocated Storage: You are guaranteed to receive the same type, weight, and year of metals, but they are not stored separately" (Entrust knowledge base, read October 2, 2026); "Commingled Allocated Holdings Sub-Accounted by Customer" | No: like for like |
| Some dealer and review-site glossaries | Either "stored alongside other customers' metals" or "also known as" segregated storage, depending on the site | Two ranking glossaries (read September 29, 2026) put the word on opposite sides: "Commingled (Allocated) Storage" and "Allocated (Segregated) Storage" | Depends on the site |
Company website links in this table: SafeOunce earns nothing from these links.
Rows 2 and 3 describe the same vault. The vault uses "allocated" for all customer metal; the custodian uses it as the name of the cheaper tier.
Size explains the gap. London allocates Good Delivery bars, the large wholesale bars the London market trades. Each has a serial number, and the LBMA guide says a "400 ounce gold bar" "can weigh between 350 and 430 ounces". At the LBMA Gold Price PM of $4,144.55 on September 28, 2026, one bar holds about $1.45 million to $1.78 million of gold (SafeOunce computation).
An IRA holds coins and small bars. The Delaware Depository letter says it allocates "each and every one-tenth ounce Gold American Eagle bullion coin", about $414 of gold at the same price. Coins carry no serial number and are fungible, which means interchangeable. A vault can allocate them only by product and count.
How Does Allocated Storage Differ From Segregated Storage?#
Allocated describes whose metal it is, while segregated describes how it is shelved. Segregated metal is stored apart, under your account, so you get back the exact pieces. All segregated metal is allocated, but not all allocated metal is segregated.
These are two questions, not one. The first is ownership. Is specific metal recorded as yours (allocated), or does a company owe you metal (unallocated)? The second is shelving. Are your pieces kept apart (segregated), or stored with identical products of other owners (commingled, also called non-segregated)?
So "allocated or segregated" is not the choice, and segregated storage is not "also known as" allocated storage.
Commingled storage is still allocated#
Commingled storage is still allocated, because the vault records a stated quantity of a stated product to your account. Your coins only share a shelf with identical coins.
Delaware Depository's personal-account contract says that in non-segregated storage "Your Bullion product(s) will be stored and fully allocated to Your Account" (Non-Commercial Account Agreement, section 1.2, read September 29, 2026). Only 5 products are reported by serial number: "400-oz and 100-oz gold bars, 1,000-oz silver bars, 50-oz platinum plates, and 100-oz palladium plates". Everything else is "held and accounted for as fungible bulk holdings, without regard to the year of mintage, manufacturer, condition".
"Everything else" includes coins and smaller bars, such as 1-ounce and 10-ounce bars. The vault's FAQ agrees: "Non-segregated: physical bullion is allocated on our system and physically separated by product."
In the 1994 Goldcorp ruling (below), customers whose bullion was "stored en masse" but "kept separate from the vendor's own stock" kept ownership.
What each custodian calls it, and what you get back#
Custodians name the shared tier "non-segregated", "commingled" or "allocated", and they set it against "segregated". The shared tier returns the same product and weight, not the same pieces. The table below shows each custodian's wording and dated price, all read on September 29, 2026.
| Custodian (document, date) | Name of the shared tier | What you get back, in its words | Shared / segregated price per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equity Trust (Precious Metals fee schedule FS-0004-05 Rev. 081726; Risk and Fee Disclosure) | "Non-segregated" (the disclosure says "commingled") | "the weight and general type of metals you purchased but may not receive the same brand, year, or condition"; segregated: "the exact metals that your dealer sent to the depository" | $110 / $160 |
| STRATA Trust (fee page modified August 31, 2026) | "Commingled Storage" | Not quoted on the fee page | $115 / $175; segregated "applies to gold, platinum, and palladium" |
| GoldStar Trust (fee schedule GTC Rev. 01/2026) | "Commingled" | Not quoted on the schedule | $125 / $225 minimum |
| Entrust at Delaware Depository (election form Rev. 3/7/2024; knowledge base) | "Allocated Storage" | "the same type, weight, and year of metals, but they are not stored separately"; "Individual Sub-Accounts of Entrust; having its own reporting and physical storage per IRA" | $100 / $150; segregated "Gold/Platinum/Palladium Only" |
| Provident Trust Group (direction form, 3/2025) and Directed IRA (2026 fee schedule) | "Commingled Allocated Holdings" | "Metals will be designated as Commingled Allocated Holdings Sub-Accounted by Customer" | Directed IRA: 0.08% ($95 minimum) / "Segregated Allocated Holdings" 0.16% ($190 minimum) |
Company website links in this table: SafeOunce earns nothing from these links.
Prices are each custodian's published storage charge, on top of its account fee. One vault, one custodian's "allocated" tier and another's "commingled" tier can be the same shelf. Some options charge by value, not a flat fee: Entrust's forms for the A-M Global Logistics vault list a $70 minimum or 0.08% (allocated) and a $170 minimum or 0.16% (segregated). The percentage is the larger charge above $87,500 and $106,250 of metal (SafeOunce computation).
The price gap is $50 to $100 a year at the four custodians with published flat fees, as of September 29, 2026. The full list of gold IRA storage fees is kept current by custodian and vault.
The label leaves out two things. First, silver often cannot be segregated. At Entrust with Delaware Depository and at STRATA, the segregated tier covers gold, platinum and palladium only. Through GoldStar, Delaware Depository segregates silver only as 1,000-ounce bars.
Second, the shared tier does not promise the exact pieces. That matters for proof coins (collector coins with a mirror finish) and at an in-kind distribution, which means taking the metal itself out of the IRA. When the extra cost is worth it is covered in segregated vs commingled gold IRA storage.
How Does Allocated Storage Differ From an Unallocated Account?#
With allocated storage you own metal that a vault holds for you. With an unallocated account you own a promise, because the institution owes you ounces. Unallocated means no specific metal is set aside for you, so you are a creditor.
The LBMA guide says that in an unallocated account "the account holder has a contractual claim against the clearer". A clearer is a bank that settles trades in the London bullion market. The holder "has credit exposure to the institution where the account is held", and the account "is analogous to a current/checking account held with a bank".
Unallocated accounts exist because wholesale banks settle trades over them. The guide says "Probably in excess of 90% of all precious metals traded on the interbank/wholesale/OTC market clear over unallocated Loco London accounts".
The table below sets out the 4 account types.
| Account type | What the records say is yours | What you get back | If the institution fails, you are | Used for IRA metal? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Segregated (allocated) | Your exact coins or bars, stored apart | The same pieces: "The exact material deposited is returned upon withdrawal" (Delaware Depository FAQ) | An owner collecting your own items; delay and cost possible | Yes |
| Commingled or non-segregated (still allocated) | A stated quantity of a stated product | The same product and weight, maybe not the same brand or year (Equity Trust) | An owner of that quantity, as long as the vault's records and stock match | Yes |
| Unallocated | A credit of ounces on the institution's books: "a contractual claim against the clearer" (LBMA) | Metal or cash when the institution delivers | An unsecured creditor (SEC filing; Goldcorp ruling) | No: no IRA custodian we reviewed offers it |
| Pool account | A share of a pool: "Each individual coin or bar is not specifically titled to the individual investor but rather to the Pool Account owner. The Pool Account owner holds unallocated precious metals." (IDS FAQ) | Depends on the pool's contract | A creditor or pool participant, depending on the contract | No |
Custodian and vault wording read September 29, 2026. Commingled is not the same as unallocated.
Price risk is the same in all four rows. The risk that the institution fails is counterparty risk, which has its own entry.
Unallocated Accounts Make the Holder an Unsecured Creditor: The Goldcorp Ruling of May 25, 1994#
An unallocated account makes you an unsecured creditor, not an owner. On May 25, 1994 the Privy Council ruled on Goldcorp Exchange's more than 1,000 customers: buyers of "non-allocated" bullion had no claim to any metal in its vault. The ruling is Goldcorp Exchange Ltd v Liggett [1994] UKPC 3. The court found that "There never was a separate and sufficient stock of bullion in which a proprietary interest could be created". The remaining stock "is just another asset of the company, like its vehicles and office furniture".
The Privy Council was then the final appeal court for New Zealand. An unsecured creditor has no claim on any specific asset and is paid last, usually in part.
SPDR Gold Trust (GLD), a US gold fund, says the same in its annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on November 25, 2025. "The account holder is an unsecured creditor of the bullion dealer", it reads.
The brochure, quoted in the ruling, said buyers "receive a certificate of ownership rather than the metal. The metal is stored in a vault on your behalf". It also said "The metal stocks of Goldcorp are audited monthly by Peat Marwick".
None of that created ownership; separate metal does. The table below shows how the court treated 3 kinds of customer.
| Customer group in Goldcorp | How their metal was held | What the court decided | What they could recover |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Non-allocated claimants" (the largest group; more than 1,000 customers in all) | No metal set aside; a "Non-Allocated invoice" or certificate; the company's promise to store and insure | No ownership: no "separate and sufficient stock" ever existed | Nothing ahead of the bank; unsecured claims for money |
| Mr. Liggett (one buyer of 1,000 gold Maple Leaf coins for $732,000; New Zealand dollars, by context) | Coins ordered, never set aside for him | Same result: the size of the purchase "makes no difference to the outcome" | Same as group 1 |
| Walker & Hall customers (bought before Goldcorp took over that business in 1986) | Bullion "stored en masse" but "kept separate from the vendor's own stock", in a quantity "precisely equal" to what customers were owed; documents said title (legal ownership) "was with the customer" | Ownership: a "shared interest in the pooled bullion" (the trial judge's finding, left standing) | Only metal "equal to the lowest balance of metal held by the company at any time", because Goldcorp later mixed it into its own stock and drew it down |
Source: [1994] UKPC 3, read October 2, 2026. Group 3 is the closest match to commingled IRA storage: pooled with other customers, apart from the company's metal, matched to the records. Ownership lasts only while the metal stays separate and the count stays true.
A receiver, a person appointed to take over a failed company's assets, took charge on July 11, 1988. The ruling came 5 years and 10 months later (2,144 days, SafeOunce computation). The bank was a secured creditor, a lender paid first from the company's assets. If the bank was paid first, the ruling notes, the customers "will receive nothing at all".
The common version adds that unallocated accounts are "only partially backed". No backing ratio is published, so we do not state one. At Goldcorp the stock was, in the court's words, "far short" of the contracts.
A US bankruptcy court reached the same result in a refining case, not a storage case. Eight of 26 customers, whose terms let the refiner return like metal, were "left with unsecured claims" (In re Miami Metals I, Inc., 603 B.R. 727 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2019), Case No. 18-13359).
Is IRA metal ever unallocated?#
No IRA custodian we reviewed offers unallocated metal. IRA holdings are either segregated or commingled, and both are allocated. The exception is the time between payment and delivery, when a paid order is only a claim on the dealer.
The dealer Rosland Capital LLC filed a liquidating Chapter 11 case on July 2, 2026 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. No. 2:26-bk-16650-BB). Chapter 11 is a bankruptcy case, and here the company is being wound up. The case was pending, with no distribution reported, as of September 29, 2026.
The company's officer put paid-but-undelivered orders at "approximately $49 million" in his declaration. IRA metal already delivered had been "deposited in the customer's separate and individualized account" at the depository. Delivered metal was the customers' property; undelivered orders were debts.
For IRA metal, refuse anything described as "unallocated", a "pool account" or a "certificate" in place of a holding at a depository. How to check delivery on your custodian statement is covered step by step.
Is a Gold ETF or Digital Gold Allocated?#
Four gold funds and one gold token, PAX Gold, say they hold allocated bars. The bars are allocated to the fund or the issuer, not to you. You own a share or a token, not a bar on a list in your name. An ETF is a fund whose shares trade like a stock. A token is a digital unit an issuer says is backed by stored gold.
Both are allocated one level above you, while a depository account lists your IRA's own metal. Gold ETFs are allowed in IRAs.
Why Some Investors Prefer Owning Metal Outright Over a Gold ETF#
Some investors prefer owning metal outright because a gold fund's bars are allocated to the fund, not to them. On September 30, 2025 SPDR Gold Trust held 32,528,241 ounces, all allocated, while its shareholders owned shares of the trust. Its annual report on Form 10-K, filed November 25, 2025, counts "32,528,241.132 ounces, 100% of which is allocated gold in the form of London Good Delivery gold bars".
The common version says exchange-traded gold is unallocated. The filing says the opposite: at the end of each business day "only gold bars, and no gold in an unallocated form, is held in the Trust's accounts".
Unallocated gold appears only in transit, when shares are created or redeemed. Each custodian, the bank that vaults the bars, may lend the trust "up to 430 fine ounces". This loan, called an overdraft, lets the custodian allocate all the trust's gold at the end of each business day. It equals 0.0013% of the trust's ounces, or about 1 bar out of about 81,000 at a nominal 400 ounces a bar (SafeOunce computation). While gold sits in the unallocated account, the trust "will be an unsecured creditor of the Custodian".
The filing documents the 3 reasons to prefer owning metal outright that are listed below.
- No bar is in your name.
- You cannot withdraw metal. Only authorized participants (large firms that swap shares for gold) redeem, in blocks of 100,000 shares.
- Insurance is not promised. "The Trust will not be a beneficiary of any such insurance", so "Shareholders cannot be assured that a Custodian maintains adequate insurance or any insurance".
The table below shows what 4 gold funds' annual reports say, read on sec.gov on October 2, 2026.
| Fund (10-K filed) | End-of-day rule, in the filing's words | Amounts under one whole bar, in the filing's words | What a share is |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPDR Gold Trust, GLD (November 25, 2025) | "only gold bars, and no gold in an unallocated form, is held in the Trust's accounts" | An overdraft of "up to 430 fine ounces" per custodian, used to allocate all gold at the end of the day | "units of fractional undivided beneficial interest in and ownership of the Trust" |
| SPDR Gold MiniShares, GLDM (November 25, 2025) | "full allocation of all gold credited to GLDM's unallocated account at the end of each business day" | An overdraft of "up to 430 fine ounces" per custodian, used to allocate all gold at the end of the day | "units of fractional undivided beneficial interest in and ownership of such Fund" |
| iShares Gold Trust, IAU (February 27, 2026) | "at the end of each business day there can be in the Trust account maintained by the Custodian no gold in an unallocated form" | On redemption, "any amount of less than 430 ounces may be transferred to an unallocated account" of the authorized participant | "a fractional undivided beneficial interest in the net assets of the Trust" |
| abrdn Gold ETF Trust, SGOL (March 2, 2026) | The sponsor's description: "Other than the gold temporarily being held in an unallocated gold account with the Custodian, the physical gold of the Trust is not subject to counterparty or credit risks" | "an amount held in unallocated form which is not sufficient to make up a whole bar" | "units of fractional undivided beneficial interest in and ownership of the Trust" |
All four allocate bars to the trust, not to shareholders. A beneficial interest is a right to a share of what the trust owns. Quotes are from each fund's latest annual report on file on October 2, 2026.
Fees and custody of each fund are tabled in gold and silver ETFs for your IRA.
Metal you own outright in an IRA still sits with a custodian and a vault, and it costs a dealer spread and yearly fees. Costs and taxes are compared in gold IRA vs gold ETF.
Reserve and Audit Disclosure by Digital Gold Providers#
What digital gold providers disclose about their reserves has ranged from no outside check to monthly accountant reports. On July 21, 2008, e-gold agreed in a US plea deal to hire an auditor to verify that its accounts were backed by bullion. Digital gold is an online account or token said to be backed by stored gold (the reserve). US Department of Justice release 08-635 says E-Gold Ltd. and Gold & Silver Reserve Inc. pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. They agreed to "hire an auditor to verify the companies' claims that all transactions are fully backed by gold bullion".
A current issuer, Paxos, states that it "publishes attestation reports each month", issued since February 28, 2025 by KPMG LLP (transparency page, read October 2, 2026). Its product page says "audited monthly"; attestation is the more precise word.
In the token's terms, "Allocated Gold" is "a specific gold bar ... identifiable by a unique serial number" (PAX Gold Terms and Conditions, read October 2, 2026). The terms call the token "akin to a warehouse receipt" for a pro rata portion of that gold, meaning in proportion to what you hold.
A holder must redeem "a minimum of 430 PAXG tokens" to take a bar. That is $1,782,157 of gold at the same LBMA price (SafeOunce computation). The table below compares the same word across 3 kinds of holding.
| How the gold is held | What "allocated" is recorded to | Smallest amount you can take as metal | Who checks the reserve, and how often | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold token (PAX Gold) | Bars by serial number, shared pro rata among token holders; the issuer "may reallocate your PAXG tokens to different bars" | One Good Delivery bar: 430 tokens minimum, $1,782,157 at the September 28, 2026 LBMA PM price | An accounting firm (KPMG LLP since February 28, 2025), monthly attestation reports (company statement) | paxos.com terms and transparency page, read October 2, 2026 |
| Gold ETF share (SPDR Gold Trust) | Bars allocated to the trust | None: shareholders cannot redeem; blocks of 100,000 shares through authorized participants only | An outside inspector (Bureau Veritas), two counts a year, one a full count | 10-K filed November 25, 2025 |
| IRA metal at a depository | Your IRA's sub-account at the custodian's vault account: exact pieces (segregated) or product and quantity (commingled) | One coin, as an in-kind distribution through the custodian (taxable like cash) | The vault's own controls; a SOC 1 Type I report where one exists; state bank examiners about every 12 to 15 months at Delaware Depository (as of 2016) | SEC letter file 2016; depository pages read September 29, 2026 |
A SOC 1 Type I report checks how a vault's controls are designed on one date. It does not test whether they worked all year. No vault we reviewed publishes a Type II report.
Gold tokens and crypto IRAs are outside what SafeOunce covers; the point here is only how "allocated" is used and checked.
How to Confirm Your IRA Metal Is Allocated: 5 Questions to Ask#
Five questions show whether your IRA metal is truly allocated. They cover your statement, what you get back, whose books hold the metal, who counts it and who owns the vault. The 5 questions are listed below.
- "What exactly does my statement list?" An allocated holding names the product and the count, such as 20 one-ounce Gold Eagles, and the serial number of large bars. A statement that shows only ounces or dollars is a reason to ask. Statements and forms differ among gold IRA custodians.
- "Will I get back the exact pieces, or the same product and weight?" That is the segregated or commingled answer. You should get it in writing on the storage election form, where you pick the vault and the storage type.
- "Is my metal off the vault's balance sheet, and does the contract say so?" Look for the words "bailment", "custody" or metal "excluded from" the vault's assets. Refuse "unallocated", "pool" or "certificate" for IRA metal.
- "Who counts the metal, and how often?" A label is not proof. At First State Depository, 47.9% of accounts had discrepancies, although customers were allegedly promised "segregated" storage. The Goldcorp brochure also promised monthly audits.
- "Does the dealer own or share an owner with the vault?" At First State the dealer and the vault had one owner.
Question 4 rests on CFTC v. First State Depository Company, LLC, D. Del. No. 1:22-cv-01266-RGA. The complaint alleged that customers were told their coins sat "in a segregated 100 percent insured account". The owner, Robert Leroy Higgins, was convicted on October 24, 2024 and sentenced on June 17, 2025 to 65 years in prison (US Department of Justice release).
The receiver's accounting firm's report of January 9, 2023 found discrepancies in 1,006 of 2,102 accounts, or 47.9% (SafeOunce computation). A discrepancy is a gap between the records and the shelf. The same report says 90% of the accounts were IRAs. The full record is on the First State Depository page.
What depository audits cover has its own page.
SafeOunce takes no money from any company named on this page.
Which Storage Terms Are Confused With Allocated Storage?#
Five terms are often mixed up with allocated storage: segregated storage, insured storage, Good Delivery, home storage and the depository itself. The table below shows what each term answers and where it is covered.
| Term | What it answers | Same as allocated? | Where it is covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Segregated storage | How your pieces are shelved | No: a kind of allocated storage | Segregated vs commingled gold IRA storage (linked above) |
| Insured storage | Who pays if metal is lost | No: insurance has limits and exclusions | "Is allocated metal in a gold IRA insured?" below |
| Good Delivery | The bar standard of the London market | No: a bar standard, not an account type | Good Delivery |
| Home storage | Keeping IRA metal yourself | No: a taxable distribution | Home storage gold IRA (linked above) |
| Depository | The vault itself | No: the place, not the record | gold IRA depositories |
Does allocated storage cost less than segregated storage?#
Yes, where a custodian uses "allocated" for its shared tier. That tier costs $100 to $125 a year against $150 to $225 for segregated storage. Those prices come from 4 custodians' flat-fee schedules, as of September 29, 2026. The gold IRA fee calculator adds storage to the other yearly costs.
Is allocated metal in a gold IRA insured?#
Allocated IRA metal is covered only by the depository's own policy, which has exclusions. FDIC and SIPC never cover the metal. The FDIC insures bank deposits, and SIPC protects brokerage accounts. Delaware Depository states $1 billion of all-risk cover plus $100 million contingent. It excludes war, terrorism, cyber-attack, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear events, and government confiscation (FAQ read September 29, 2026).
A vault policy pays metal value unless a declared value is on file, which matters for proof coins that cost more than their metal. Limits, exclusions and who is named on the policy are covered in how gold IRA storage is insured.
What happens to allocated IRA metal if the depository fails?#
Allocated metal that is present is meant to return to you through your custodian, usually after a delay and a fee. If metal is missing, you claim money. Allocated storage shields you from the vault's lenders, not from a short count, as First State showed. See what happens to your IRA gold if a depository fails.
Can you take delivery of allocated metal from a gold IRA?#
Yes, as an in-kind distribution. The custodian ships metal from your allocated holding to you, and a traditional IRA is taxed on its value as ordinary income. Ordinary income is taxed at your regular rate (IRS Publication 590-B). In the shared tier you receive the same product and weight, not always the same pieces. Steps, costs and taxes are set out in gold IRA distributions.