Is Your Gold Really in Your IRA? How to Check Delivery and What to Do If It Never Arrived (6 Checks, 2026)

Your gold is really in your IRA only when your custodian's statement lists each coin or bar in a depository account under your IRA's name. That should happen within about 28 days of the money leaving your account. Your custodian holds your IRA and pays the dealer; the depository is the vault. "Delivered" means the vault has received your metal and booked it to your IRA.

If your gold IRA metals were not delivered, what you do in the first week matters. In every documented case below, the metal was missing from the depository's own records for the customer's IRA account.

Non-delivery is the most damaging of the gold IRA scams because you can lose the whole purchase, not only a markup. This guide covers what "delivered" means, 6 checks on your own paperwork and 7 dealers' written delivery times. It then covers 6 real cases, 7 steps if your metal never arrived, and what customers got back.

SafeOunce sells no metal and does not work with recovery firms. Every case below names its court or regulator record.

What Does It Mean for Gold to Be "Delivered" to Your IRA?#

Gold is delivered to your IRA when the depository has received it and booked it to an account that belongs to your IRA. Until your custodian matches that receipt to the dealer's invoice, you own a promise, not metal in your IRA.

A dealer's receipt, a shipping label or an "order complete" letter is not delivery, and the IRS approves no depository. This rule is part of what makes a gold IRA different from coins you keep yourself.

Who handles your money and your metal: custodian, dealer and depository#

Three companies handle an IRA metal purchase: the custodian holds the account and pays, the dealer sells and ships, and the depository stores and records the metal. Only the depository sees the metal.

An IRA metal purchase moves through 5 stages, listed below in order.

1. Paperwork: your signed purchase direction (written order to buy) and the dealer's invoice (bill) reach the custodian.
2. Payment: the custodian wires IRA money to the dealer.
3. Shipping: the dealer buys the metal, if it holds no stock, and ships it to the depository.
4. Receipt: the depository counts the metal and books it to your IRA's account.
5. Settlement: the custodian matches the vault's receipt to the invoice and marks the trade settled (money paid, metal received).

While stage 5 is pending, Equity Trust shows the purchase as "Unsettled." Entrust lists it as an "escrow asset" under the dealer's name until the depository confirms (custodian documents read September 29, 2026).

Your money leaves at stage 2, but your metal is in your IRA's name only at stage 4. Payment steps differ slightly among gold IRA custodians, but the order is the same.

Why your custodian does not check the dealer for you#

Your custodian does not check the dealer because a self-directed IRA custodian only follows your written directions. It pays the invoice you approve and records what the depository reports. A self-directed IRA can hold assets you pick outside stocks and funds, such as gold bars.

An SEC and NASAA alert says these custodians "generally do not evaluate the quality or legitimacy of any investment in the self-directed IRA or its promoters." NASAA is the association of state securities regulators, and a promoter is the seller. Entrust's metals page (read September 29, 2026) says owners negotiate "all the details," including "the metals' price."

In the Crown Bullion case, the CFTC alleged the dealers "issued fraudulent invoices to the custodian" at custodians "hand-picked by the defendants" (CFTC v. Moran; release 8784-23, September 26, 2023).

Directed Trust Company's purchase form says it "may send funds to the dealer ... before metals physically arrive at the depository" (its Direction of Investment, 08/2025 (SafeOunce earns nothing from this link.)). The same form says it "may also receive affiliate income ... from precious metals dealers," meaning dealer payments. We did not read every custodian's form.

6 Checks That Prove Your Gold Is Really in Your IRA#

Six checks prove your gold is really in your IRA, and all 6 use your custodian's and the depository's records, not the dealer's. Each check below exists because a real case failed it.

1. Your statement comes from the custodian, not the dealer#

Only a statement from your IRA custodian counts as proof, because the custodian legally holds the account. The law makes the custodian report your IRA to you and the IRS each year (26 U.S.C. 408(i)), including on Form 5498, the yearly form showing contributions and year-end value.

In the Regal Assets case, the CFTC says depository and wholesaler records were "intentionally doctored" and wire confirmations were copied to fake refunds (complaint ¶72-76). In the US Coin Bullion case, the CFTC described "account statements falsely representing ownership of specific amounts of precious metals" (CFTC release 8103-20, January 2020).

Use the custodian's own website, called a custodian portal, or its mailed statement, never a PDF from the salesperson.

2. The depository account is in your IRA's name, not a dealer's master account#

Your metal must sit in a depository account titled to your custodian for your IRA, not in a sub-account under a dealer's master account. A master account is one vault account in the dealer's name; a sub-account is only a line in the dealer's own books.

Rosland Capital's IRA products, by contrast, went into "the customer's separate and individualized account at DDSC," the Delaware Depository (Hogan declaration ¶16). Allocated metal is assigned to your account by type and quantity. Commingled storage pools your coins with identical coins; segregated storage keeps your exact items apart. Both are allocated, and the main gold IRA depositories open accounts per custodian and per IRA.

3. The metal posts within about 28 days of payment#

Your metal should appear on your custodian statement within about 28 days of the money leaving your IRA. Later than that, treat it as a warning sign and start Step 2 below.

Twenty-eight days is the CFTC's actual-delivery test for financed or leveraged retail metal (CEA 2(c)(2)(D); CFTC v. Monex, 931 F.3d 966, 9th Cir. 2019). Actual delivery means the metal really leaves the seller's control; in a financed, or leveraged, sale you borrow part of the price.

For a cash IRA purchase, 28 days is a benchmark, not a legal deadline. Two of the 7 dealer documents we read allow 4 to 10 weeks outright, and one more allows a further 28-day delay (table below).

Metal lost in transit is not the vault's loss: at Texas Bullion Depository, cover starts only once the vault has accepted the metal (as of September 2026). Your invoice should say who insures the shipment.

4. The item list matches your invoice, coin by coin and bar by bar#

The statement or the depository's holdings report must list the same product, year, weight and quantity as your invoice, plus each bar's serial number. A serial number is the unique number stamped on a bar. The 4 items to match are listed below.

• Product name and mint, for example "American Gold Eagle, 1 oz."
• Quantity of each product.
• Storage type: segregated or commingled.
• Bar serial numbers, one per bar.

Year and serials only match for segregated holdings. Commingled metal comes back as the same weight and general type, not the same year (Equity Trust), so match product, weight and quantity.

Serial numbers show whether your metal came back changed. At First State, the CFTC complaint says "at least some of the assets that were returned were not the same assets that the Clients initially stored" (¶74). A product swap you did not approve is a red flag even if the value looks right.

5. The statement value is lower than your price only by the markup you were told#

Your first statement shows the metal at market value, not at your price. It should be lower than what you paid by roughly the markup on your invoice, and no more.

Spot price is today's market price for raw metal. A premium is the amount over melt value (the metal alone). A spread is the gap between the dealer's selling and buying price, or bid.

The table below shows a $100,000 purchase on its first statement at 3 markups, with the gold price unchanged (SafeOunce illustration).

Custodians value metal at spot or bid. Equity Trust's statement disclosure (read September 29, 2026) says the value "does not include any markups, commissions or premiums from the precious metals dealer you chose." A statement showing $0 of metal after 28 days is not a markup: it is Check 3 failing.

A first statement more than 10% below your price is a warning sign if you were quoted a bullion markup; ask the dealer for the price per coin in writing. How dealers set gold IRA markups explains most of the normal gap.

6. The custodian confirms in writing that the trade settled#

Ask your custodian, in writing, to confirm that the trade settled, the date the depository received the metal and the depository account number, and keep the reply. Settlement is the moment money and metal have both changed hands.

If the "Unsettled" or "escrow asset" label has not changed after about 28 days, go to Step 2. A holdings report, the vault's own list for your account, is stronger proof than any notice. Custodians only relay what the vault reports: at First State, the IRA custodians "did not physically possess or hold the assets" (CFTC complaint ¶38, 2022).

A vault's credentials do not check your coins. COMEX approval covers only registered exchange bars, and Delaware Depository's audit is an SSAE18 SOC 1 Type I report (as of September 2026). Depository audits are covered on a later page.

A confirmation notice, a letter saying a trade happened, is only as good as what the vault holds. In a 2014 CFTC settlement, Delaware Depository Service Company agreed to pay $500,000 to the Hunter Wise receivership (release 7014-14, September 26, 2014). In 2011 it had sent Hunter Wise customers notices confirming metal trades on the dealer's word, yet "The Notices did not pertain to any metals stored by DDSC." That case involved financed metal, not IRAs.

How Long Should Delivery to Your Gold IRA Depository Take?#

Delivery to your gold IRA depository should take about 28 days or less from the day the custodian pays the dealer. Two dealers allow 4 to 10 weeks; one failed dealer took up to 168 days. The timeline below counts days from the custodian's wire on day 0; business days are weekdays only.

While you wait, the dealer holds your money and your IRA holds neither cash nor metal. Rosland's bankruptcy filing says "there was often a months-long gap" between an order and its purchase. As gold rose, the "Debtor ended up paying more for the gold product than the customer paid Debtor" (Hogan declaration ¶23).

What gold IRA dealers promise in writing about delivery#

Five of the 7 dealer documents we read promise delivery within about 28 days, but only one of those five, American Bullion's, clearly covers IRA purchases. A shipping and transaction agreement is the dealer's contract for prices, shipping and cancellation. "Good funds" means money that has fully cleared. The table below lists each dealer's written delivery promise.

Company documents, quoted as published; not a ranking. Paraphrased where a document uses the phrase "IRS-approved depository."

Your cancellation window, the time you have to cancel, can close before your metal arrives. American Hartford Gold's 7-day window for non-bullion orders runs "from the execution date of this Agreement regardless of whether the account is fully funded for IRA transactions" (September 2026). Priority Gold's refund policy (read September 29, 2026) dates depository "delivery" to "the date that Priority issues a notice of transfer."

Is 28 days a legal deadline for IRA metal purchases?#

No: the federal 28-day actual-delivery rule covers financed or leveraged metal sales, not cash purchases inside an IRA. It is still the best benchmark you have. Under CFTC v. Monex (9th Cir. 2019), metal in a depository the seller controls is not actual delivery.

Washington's 2022 Rosland order applies the same line: "A commodity transaction does not include any transaction where the commodity is delivered within 28 days after payment." Your contract's own date also binds the dealer. The CFTC 28-day rule for financed metal is explained in the glossary.

Gold IRA Non-Delivery Cases: What 6 Enforcement and Bankruptcy Files Show#

Six documented cases show 3 ways gold IRA metal goes undelivered: the dealer never buys it, takes orders it cannot fill, or the vault itself is the fraud. The table below lists each case, how it stayed hidden and which of the 6 checks would have caught it.

The CFTC polices fraud but does not license metals dealers, and complaints are allegations until a court or regulator decides. Older files show the same pattern, such as Rust Rare Coin (at least $200 million from more than 430 people) and Tulving Company (at least 381 victims). The full list of precious metals IRA enforcement actions since 2008 is tracked separately.

The 5 court terms in the case table are explained below.

When the dealer never bought the metal: Regal Assets and Crown Bullion#

Regal Assets misappropriated more than $21 million from more than 120 IRA, 401(k) and TSP customers, according to the CFTC and California regulators (complaint filed September 27, 2023). That is about $175,000 per customer on average. To misappropriate is to take someone else's money for your own use; the TSP is the federal workers' Thrift Savings Plan. Regal paid old customers with new customers' money, a Ponzi-like pattern. In November 2021 it "owed at least $7 million in precious metals to customers, but only had approximately $347,724" in the bank (¶49-50), about 5 cents per dollar owed.

Default judgments on October 15, 2024 ordered over $21.9 million in restitution, meaning repayment to victims, and over $27.3 million in civil penalties, or fines (CFTC release 9001-24). Customers who asked about their metal were told "the metals were sitting in a truck at the depository" and "the SDIRA custodian did not have good record-keeping" (¶62). The full Regal Assets record has its own page.

Crown Bullion and Oakhurst Metals are alleged to have taken more than $7 million from over 100 mainly elderly people since March 2018, about $70,000 each on average. The CFTC alleges they bought metal "for only a fraction of their total transactions and often at vastly inflated prices." The defendants consented to liability on September 5, 2024 (Doc 80). Restitution and penalties were not yet decided as of September 29, 2026.

When the dealer took orders it could not fill: Rosland, Oxford and Midas#

Rosland Capital filed a liquidating Chapter 11 on July 2, 2026, owing about $49 million for paid but unfilled orders and about $11.8 million for unpaid buybacks. Together that is about $60.8 million owed to about 617 customers (status as of September 29, 2026). Deferred revenue, money taken for orders not yet filled, covered 484 customers, about $101,000 each on average. What customers are owed in the Rosland Capital bankruptcy is tracked from the docket.

The company "no longer possesses any inventory of precious metals, coins, or bullion" (Hogan declaration ¶35). Its cash was $212,661.60 on August 6, 2026, or 0.35% of what it owed. Reps were paid 15% to 35% of gross profit "even if ... the Debtor was unable to fulfill the orders" (¶24).

The warning came 4 years earlier. Washington's DFI found Rosland shipped coins to at least 14 IRA customers "anywhere from 33 days to 168 days" after purchase (consent order S-20-3045-22-CO01, August 4, 2022; $20,000; no admission).

Oxford Gold Group's customers filed an involuntary Chapter 7 petition on August 28, 2024; a class action alleges IRA money went through the custodian while metal was not delivered. Oxford's old web address now shows an unrelated betting page (checked September 29, 2026), so never trust contact details on an old dealer site.

Midas Gold Group filed under Subchapter V, a faster Chapter 11 for small businesses, on June 7, 2024. Its precious metals on hand were worth $634,210 at filing; by August 8, 2024, cash and metal together were $59,867, a 90.6% drop in 62 days (Doc 90). The company said it filled orders for creditors "not listed on the schedules." The case became a Chapter 7 on September 25, 2024, yet its website was still live on September 29, 2026, with no word of the bankruptcy. The Midas Gold Group case shows what a dealer's bankruptcy means for an unfilled IRA order.

When the vault itself was the fraud: First State Depository#

First State Depository in Wilmington, Delaware, stored metal for clients of at least 15 IRA custodians, and the receiver's accountants estimated $56.8 million to $110.4 million of it was missing. It held 2,102 accounts, 90% of them IRAs, and 1,006 had discrepancies (47.9%). Customers were told their silver was "securely stored" and their investments "guaranteed and fully insured" (CFTC release 8606-22, October 5, 2022). The dealer, Argent Asset Group, and the vault had the same owner.

The vault advertised "$400 million" of insurance. Real cover was $100 million while inventory was over $176 million in March 2021, and $75 million from May 2021. Customers were only a "Memorandum Holder and Loss Payee" (complaint ¶76): someone the insurer may pay, but who does not control the claim.

The court ordered $112.7 million in restitution and a $33 million penalty (CFTC release 8741-23, July 3, 2023). Intact accounts had their metal back by November 30, 2023, when the receiver completed distribution, about 14 months after the September 29, 2022 freeze. They paid a 5.6% surcharge for the receiver's costs (7.5% if filed late); holders who never filed faced forfeiture, the loss of their holdings.

Owner Robert Leroy Higgins was convicted on October 24, 2024 and sentenced on June 17, 2025 to 65 years, with about $76 million restitution (DOJ). What IRA owners lost and got back at First State Depository is set out document by document.

What to Do If Your Gold IRA Metals Were Never Delivered: 7 Steps#

If your gold IRA metals were never delivered, write to your custodian today and ask whether the trade settled. Then stop every new payment to the dealer and report the missing metal within the same week. The 7 steps are listed below in the order that protects the most money.

1. Stop new purchases and any further payments.
2. Ask your custodian in writing whether the trade settled.
3. Get the depository's own holdings report.
4. Report the missing metal the same week.
5. Protect your claim in a bankruptcy or receivership.
6. Refuse anyone who offers to recover your money for a fee.
7. Ask a tax professional before you file your return.

First name the problem, because each of the 3 kinds in the table below needs a different speed.

Step 1: Stop new purchases and any further payments#

Stop signing new purchase directions and stop moving money to the dealer until the missing metal is found. Do this even if the dealer offers a discount or a bonus to "fix" the delay. A fee to release your own money matches no fee in the Equity Trust (Rev. 081726), STRATA (August 31, 2026) or GoldStar (Rev. 01/2026) schedules we read.

Step 2: Ask your custodian in writing whether the trade settled#

Email and mail your custodian a short letter that asks whether the purchase settled, when the depository received the metal, and under which account number it is held. The letter below asks the 6 questions that expose non-delivery.

A family member can gather the papers and draft this letter for an older owner to sign.

Custodian deadlines run against you. Directed Trust Company's custody agreement (read September 29, 2026) treats statement values as "deemed accepted" unless disputed in writing within 60 days and bars claims after 2 years. Directed keeps charging fees on empty accounts, and Provident Trust Group does so until you give written notice.

Step 3: Get the depository's own holdings report#

Ask the depository, through your custodian if it will not deal with you directly, for its own report of the metal it holds for your IRA account. Save everything in one folder: the invoice, the purchase direction, the wire confirmation, every statement, emails, and call notes with dates.

Step 4: Report the missing metal the same week#

Report missing IRA metal to 4 places in the same week: your custodian, your state securities regulator, the CFTC and the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center. Add local police for theft. The table below shows what each can and cannot do (contacts checked September 29, 2026).

Your state attorney general's consumer protection office also handles dealer complaints. If the custodian itself sent a wrong statement, write to its state banking regulator (for Equity Trust, the South Dakota Division of Banking). Which agency handles each problem when you report a gold IRA company is set out in one table.

Step 5: Protect your claim in a bankruptcy or receivership#

File your claim before the court's deadline if the dealer or vault is in bankruptcy or receivership, because money is shared only among people who file. A proof of claim is the form you file to be paid, and the bar date is its deadline. A trustee runs a bankruptcy; a receivership is a court-run takeover by a receiver.

Oxford's claims bar date was March 12, 2026. At First State, 266 owners of intact metal worth about $4.1 million had not filed and faced forfeiture, and late filers paid 7.5% instead of 5.6%. What is left is paid pro rata, in proportion to each claim.

Keep your address current and read notices on CourtListener (free), PACER or the trustee's website. Status pages for gold IRA company bankruptcies list each case number and trustee.

Step 6: Refuse anyone who offers to recover your money for a fee#

Refuse any person or firm that offers to recover your lost gold IRA money for an upfront fee, because the CFTC calls fraud-recovery offers a form of advance-fee fraud. Advance-fee fraud means you pay first for a payout that never comes (CFTC release 8936-24).

"The CFTC Office of Inspector General will never contact individuals with offers to recover money lost to investment scams" (CFTC release 9075-25, May 14, 2025). The CFTC's own claims process, reparations, covers only registered firms within 2 years (7 U.S.C. 18(a)(1)), so most gold dealers are outside it. Real ways to get your money back from a gold IRA company never start with an upfront fee.

Step 7: Ask a tax professional before you file your return#

Talk to a tax professional before you file, because we found no IRS guidance that lets you deduct a loss inside an IRA. We found no IRS text on taxing restitution for IRA metal either. Ask whether restitution should go back to your IRA custodian rather than to you personally.

What Happens to Your Money If the Dealer Fails Before Delivery?#

If a dealer fails before delivery, metal already booked in your IRA's depository account stays yours. Money for an unfilled order becomes an unsecured claim, backed by no specific property and paid only from what is left. The table shows what $100,000 of undelivered orders was worth in 4 failures: about 5 cents or less per dollar, unless the money was held in trust.

SafeOunce computation from the filings; not a forecast of any case. Restitution ordered is not restitution paid.

Money "held in trust" is kept apart for a customer, not treated as the company's own. The dividing line is delivery: at Rosland, the losses fell on the $49 million of unfilled orders and the $11.8 million buyback list.

Can you hold the custodian responsible? The Oxford and Equity Trust lawsuit#

No court decision we found has made an IRA custodian repay a dealer's non-delivery, but customers have sued custodians alongside dealers. The Equity Trust lawsuit, Short v. Equity Trust Company (C.D. Cal. 2:24-cv-06788, filed August 9, 2024), is a class action, a suit for a whole group. Oxford customers allege Equity Trust knew "substantial and material amounts of precious metal transactions with OGG were not being settled." The "over 400" class size is also alleged.

Equity Trust told ABC7: "As a custodian, our function is to take direction from clients." The Oxford trustee asked the court to approve a compromise (a settlement) with Equity Trust; its terms are not public. The Oxford bankruptcy and the Equity Trust lawsuit are followed on the company's status page.

Earlier precedent points the other way: the SEC's case against Equity Trust over promoters' frauds was dismissed on June 27, 2016 (Initial Decision No. 1030). Custodian agreements also disclaim the vault and cap liability, the most the custodian can owe you. Entrust's fee disclosure (Rev. 12-4-2025) says "Entrust is not and cannot be held responsible for the actions or inactions of these depositories." Directed's custody agreement (read September 29, 2026) caps its liability at "the total fees paid by you to us."

How to Prevent Non-Delivery Before You Pay a Gold IRA Dealer#

You prevent non-delivery by choosing the custodian and the depository yourself, getting a delivery date in writing, and paying only through your custodian on a signed purchase direction. Every case above broke one of those links.

Dealer-owned vaults put the seller and the record keeper under one roof, as at First State. Some dealer-owned vaults hold IRA metal too, so ask who owns yours.

The 6 steps that stop non-delivery are listed below.

1. Choose your own custodian, never one the dealer "hand-picked," as in the Crown Bullion case.
2. Pick a depository the dealer does not own.
3. Get the delivery date, the depository and the account title in the agreement.
4. Pay only by custodian wire on your signed purchase direction. An escrow account is one a third party holds until a deal closes. Paying into one, or paying the dealer directly, is not a step in any custodian process document we read.
5. Refuse any "lease" or "yield" program on your stored metal. Leased metal has left your account. Argent, the dealer tied to First State, sold silver lease yields, and National Coin Broker's silver lease promised a 3.9% to 5% monthly "dividend" (CFTC release 9124-25, September 15, 2025).
6. Write day 28 on your calendar and keep your first statement with the invoice to run the 6 checks.

SafeOunce's company ratings give custody and delivery 5 of 100 points. A regulator sanction for non-delivery excludes a company from our ratings permanently.

Check a gold IRA company's record before you pay; the 12 questions to ask when you choose a gold IRA company include the delivery date.

Questions Readers Ask About Gold IRA Delivery, Storage and Statements#

Delivery sits next to 5 storage questions with their own pages (statements, visits, insurance, a vault's failure and home delivery) and one on other scams.

Why does my gold IRA statement show less than I paid?#

Your gold IRA statement shows less than you paid because the custodian values metal at the market price without the dealer's markup. At a 20% spread, $100,000 of metal shows about $80,000. Each line of a gold IRA statement is explained on its own page.

Can you visit your gold IRA metals at the depository?#

Some depositories let you visit your gold IRA metals by appointment through your custodian, for a fee. Delaware Depository charges personal-account visitors $35 per staff-hour for two staff, about $70 an hour; Texas Bullion Depository charges $35 per half hour (as of September 2026). How to visit your gold IRA metals is covered separately.

Is gold in an IRA depository insured?#

Depository insurance covers metal in the vault at its metal value, not the premium you paid, and FDIC and SIPC never cover IRA metal. Delaware Depository carries a $1 billion all-risk policy (every cause of loss not excluded) plus $100 million of contingent cover, as of September 2026. Exclusions include war, terrorism, cyber events and confiscation. How gold IRA storage is insured differs by vault.

What happens to your IRA gold if a depository fails?#

If a depository fails, metal that is present and allocated to your account should come back to you. At First State that took about 14 months and a 5.6% surcharge; missing metal became a shared dollar claim. Your rights to IRA gold if a depository fails depend on how it was stored.

Can a dealer deliver your IRA gold to your home instead?#

No: IRA metal delivered to your home is treated as a taxable distribution of its cost, as the Tax Court held in McNulty v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 10 (2021). To keep coins at home, take an in-kind distribution (the metal itself leaves the IRA and is taxed) or buy outside the IRA. A home storage gold IRA is the setup the Tax Court taxed in McNulty.

What other gold IRA scams should you watch for?#

Non-delivery is 1 of the 11 warning signs of gold IRA scams that SafeOunce tracks, next to fear of frozen accounts, "premium" coin upsells and free-silver offers. The 11 warning signs of gold IRA scams each come from a real case.