Once you’ve decided to invest in gold, you’ll need to consider how you’ll keep it safe. You might wish to keep your precious metals at home or consider employing a third-party storage facility. Whether you’re thinking about buying gold bars or gold coins, you’ll need a safe place to keep them.
Three considerations must be considered by gold investors when determining their storage requirements:
- What amount of money do you wish to spend?
- The level of protection you need
- You’ll have the convenience you require.
Here are some things to consider before deciding where to store your gold.
At Home Is Safe
The convenience of having your expensive items stored at home allows you to have them close at hand. You’ll be able to get to your gold whenever you want. Banks and storage facilities, on the other hand, have hours of operation and are unlikely to be available in the event of a disaster.
Keeping gold in an offsite storage facility may not be the greatest solution if you are investing in gold as a last resort asset. However, keeping it at home, no matter how neatly hidden it appears, may be too dangerous.
The best way to keep your belongings safe at home is to utilise a safe. Safes aren’t completely risk-free, but the better the safe, the less probable it is that a thief will succeed in breaking into it. Several safe manufacturers produce high-quality gold storage safes. The following is a list of firms in the United States that sell gold safes:
- Safeguarding Liberty
- Brown Protective Gear
- Champion Protective Gear
The Safest Method for Storing Gold at Home
Remember that your safe will require a sturdy floor when deciding where it will be placed. To avoid putting additional strain on the hinges and lock, the floor must be level. After that, the safe must be secured to the ground. Securing the safe to the ground makes a burglar’s life much more difficult.
Check the safe’s fire rating before purchasing it. If the safe hasn’t been tested, it could cause damage to your valuables. The majority of safe companies determine their own fire rating, however they should be open about the process and the outcomes.
Your storage fees are zero after the initial cost of the safe. The safe may take up more room than you want depending on the quantity of your gold holdings. However, while deciding on the size of your safe, consider all of the stuff you’ll be storing in it, and then go one size larger.
You may begin with a tiny amount of gold, but as time passes, you can progressively increase your holdings. Purchasing a modest enough safe to house only your current gold assets may appear to be a cost-cutting measure. However, when you need to upgrade to a larger safe, it may be more expensive in the long run.
Pros
- Every day of the year, gold is easily available.
- After the initial cost of the safe, there are no recurring storage charges.
- Without regard to any institution or facility
Cons
- Insurance does not always cover items kept in a safe.
- Gold kept at home is not eligible for inclusion in an IRA.
- Your possessions may be damaged or lost as a result of fire or flooding.
- Keeping significant amounts of gold in your home may attract criminals’ attention.
Storage in a Bank
Some gold investors may be hesitant to keep big amounts of precious metals in their homes. They may increase their chances of becoming targeted for theft or burglary, according to popular belief.
Using a bank relieves the investor of the obligation of monitoring their gold investment 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Internal and external security are often highly high at banks. Investors can have confidence in the security of their funds by using bank-level security.
Private customers only have access to safety deposit boxes, which come in a number of sizes. They also have a price tag that can range from $200 to $500 per year. You obtain a level of security in exchange for this money, which is almost a guarantee that your gold will be safe at all times.
You can also keep your gold in a vault if you don’t mind it being housed alongside other people’s gold. The security of this type of facility is much higher than that of a deposit box. However, they are typically only available in major cities and have hefty minimum storage account opening requirements.
The fact that you can only access your gold when the bank is open is perhaps the largest disadvantage of bank storage. You will be bound by bank opening hours, which are most likely when you are working. You won’t be able to access your funds during government holidays, either.
In a severe financial crisis, you may not be able to access your gold, which is just when you might want to do so.
Pros
- Responsibility for the security of your gold has been deferred.
- High level of protection
- The deposit box is only accessible to you.
Cons
- Access is restricted to business hours only.
- on-going costs
- The contents of the box are not insured by the bank.
Depository for Bullion
Bullion Depositories are private companies that manage gold and other precious metals storage facilities. Delaware Depository and Brinks Global Services are two of the largest of these companies in the United States.
Brinks maintains storage facilities in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, among other cities across the country. Delaware Depository, the country’s largest IRA storage provider, will open a new site in Nevada in February 2022.
Your gold storage account comes in two flavours: segregated and non-segregated. The balance sheet does not include either of these types of accounts. In the event that the depository fails, the off balance sheet information is crucial. Creditors will not be able to get their hands on your gold.
Your gold is individually packed and stored separate from the gold of other investors in a segregated storage account. When you go to receive your gold back, you’ll get the identical bullion bar you sent to storage. It’s also the most costly choice.
Your bullion will be housed with that of other investors in a non-segregated account. This approach is less expensive since it allows the depository to take advantage of economies of scale. Bulking the same bullion together saves the company money when it comes to vault storage.
If you plan to invest in gold through an IRA, your account’s custodian will need to arrange storage with a depository. You won’t be able to keep gold in your IRA at home.
Pros
- It’s all they do to maintain the highest level of security.
- All assets are insured and audited separately.
- Any amount of bullion can be stored.
Cons
- Storage costs can be more expensive than alternative options.
- Locations may be far away, necessitating travel for inspection.
- Fees and delays in receiving your funds
Storage Offshore
When you don’t have any investment or retirement accounts, you can choose this option. If you invest in gold through an IRA, for example, you must keep your gold in a depository in the United States.
Why would you want to keep your gold outside of the United States? The solution is straightforward: country risk. The risk is that your home country will seize all of your gold bullion. In reality, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia are among the few developed countries to have done so.
Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 in 1933. All gold bullion assets were to be handed up to the government with the stroke of a pen. Some objects were exempt from confiscation, such as jewellery and dentist inventories.
Gold seizure, on the other hand, is completely out of the question for other governments. Several countries have a proven track record of facilitating gold storage abroad. A list of the top five of these countries can be found here.
Things to Keep an Eye On
Stability – This is, without a doubt, the most crucial component. Choosing a country with weak political and economic stability is not a good idea when it comes to storing your physical gold. Concealment is more likely in a country that is experiencing fiscal or economic difficulties.
Safety and security in terms of crime are the second most important concerns. I’m referring to a country with a high rate of crime or the potential for crime sprees. The fact that gold storage facilities could be plundered does not make for a secure storage location.
Storage and transit facilities are examples of infrastructure. International airports and secure roadways for easy access are examples. Companies like Brinks will use this infrastructure to deliver your gold safely.
Legal Issues – This is a less visible but equally significant component. It is essential to have a strong local government that is also well-respected in international politics. A country of this nature is unlikely to capitulate to foreign government pressure to seize your assets.
You don’t want your own government to know about the gold you’ve stashed away in another country. Privacy regulations should be in place to protect your ownership and privacy rights. If residents or citizens of the country break these laws, they should face jail time.
Final Points to Consider
These are the four most secure gold storage solutions. We began with the least expensive choice to maintain and ended with the safest. Finally, it is highly dependent on your requirements, which may be influenced by the aforementioned considerations.
