Gold IRA Custodian: Who Qualifies and How to Check One
A gold IRA custodian is the financial institution that legally holds your IRA, and with it the gold, silver or other metal inside it. Federal law says the trustee of an IRA must be a bank or a person the IRS has approved, and that coins and bullion count as IRA assets only if they are in the physical possession of that trustee. So the custodian is not you, and it is not the company that sells you the metal. This page explains who can legally be a custodian, how to check one, and what one custodian actually charges.
What a gold IRA custodian does
An IRA holds your money under a trustee or custodian. In a gold IRA the custodian opens the account, keeps the records, processes the purchase, and arranges for the metal to be held. Federal law has two rules about it: the trustee must be a bank or an approved person (26 U.S.C. 408(a)(2)), and the gold, silver, platinum or palladium bullion allowed in an IRA must be “in the physical possession of a trustee” (408(m)(3)). That is why gold at home causes trouble: see can you keep gold IRA coins at home? and the McNulty tax case.
What a custodian does not do is just as important. FINRA, the SEC and NASAA say that “self-directed IRA custodians are only responsible for holding and administering the assets in the account.” They do not evaluate the quality or legitimacy of the investments or the people promoting them, and custodial agreements typically say the custodian has no responsibility for investment performance. For a gold IRA that means the custodian will not tell you whether a dealer’s price is fair. Dealer prices are covered in gold IRA fees and scams.
Who can legally be a gold IRA custodian
Federal law gives two main routes. Whoever holds your account is on one of them.
- A bank. Section 408(n) defines “bank” for this purpose as any bank as defined in section 581 of the tax code, an insured credit union, or “a corporation which, under the laws of the State of its incorporation, is subject to supervision and examination by the Commissioner of Banking or other officer of such State in charge of the administration of the banking laws of such State.” That third group is how a state-chartered trust company can serve as a custodian.
- An IRS-approved nonbank trustee. A company that is not a bank can apply to the IRS under Treasury Regulation 1.408-2(e). Among the requirements: the applicant “cannot be an individual”; it must have an established place of business in the United States; it must show fiduciary experience and “a high degree of solvency”; and an initial applicant must show it “has a net worth of not less than $250,000.” Fiduciary accounts must be audited. (The regulation also lets a state or local government qualify as a nonbank trustee for certain “deemed IRAs.”)
The IRS publishes the approved nonbank list. The version “Nonbank Trustees Approved as of April 1, 2026” has 73 entities (our count of the PDF), and the IRS says it updates the list as entities are added or removed. It is mostly brokerage firms, benefit administrators, life insurers and church or fraternal organizations. The page does not say which of them hold precious metals.
An important consequence: a custodian can be allowed to operate and still not appear on that list, because it qualifies as a state-supervised bank or trust company instead. So “not on the IRS list” does not mean “not allowed,” and “on the list” does not mean “holds gold.” The question to ask any custodian is which route it uses.
How to check a gold IRA custodian
- Ask which route it uses: bank or state trust company, or IRS-approved nonbank trustee. A real custodian answers this in one sentence.
- If it says nonbank, look for the name in the IRS list (the PDF linked from that page).
- If it says state trust company or bank, ask for the charter and check the company with the state banking regulator in the state where it is incorporated, or the federal one for a federally chartered bank. We did not check any specific company for this guide.
- Separate the three roles before you sign (table below). If the company that sells you the metal also picks the custodian and the depository, be aware that you are relying on one company’s choices.
- Get the fee schedule in writing, with the annual fee, storage fee, transaction fees and closing fee. Regulators’ advice on any self-directed IRA is to verify the information in your account statements and to avoid unsolicited offers.
| Role | What it does | Who checks it |
|---|---|---|
| Custodian (trustee) | Holds the IRA, keeps records, processes the buy and the sale | State banking regulator, or the IRS nonbank list |
| Dealer | Sells you the metal, at its own price above the spot price | Not vetted by the custodian, per the regulators’ alert; see NFA BASIC and gold IRA scams |
| Depository | Stores the metal; storage may be commingled or segregated | Chosen through the custodian; ask for its name and its insurance |
What a gold IRA custodian charges: one real fee schedule
Custodian fees are public at some companies and hidden behind a phone call at others. STRATA Trust Company publishes its schedule. On October 26, 2026 its page showed, for a precious metals IRA:
| Fee | STRATA Trust Company |
|---|---|
| Annual IRA fee, Precious Metals Tier | $150 |
| Annual metals storage, commingled | $115 |
| Annual metals storage, segregated | $175 |
| Account setup | $50 (waived when opened electronically) |
| Buy, sell or exchange metal | $40 per transaction |
| Depository handling | $35 |
| Shipping metals | $10 plus the depository’s cost |
| Outgoing wire | $35 |
| Roth conversion or recharacterization | $50 per asset |
| Account closure or reinstatement | $250 |
The page says fees “are subject to change without notice.” Adding the annual IRA fee and storage gives $265 a year with commingled storage and $325 with segregated storage (our addition), before any purchase fees. These are the custodian’s fees only. They do not include what the dealer charges above the spot price, which can be much larger; compare the dealer’s price with the metal’s weight times the spot price (today’s gold price per gram and ounce).
One company’s schedule says nothing about another’s. Different custodians use different tiers, and some charge a percentage of the account’s value instead of a flat fee. Ask for each schedule in writing.
Questions people ask
What is an IRA custodian? The bank or approved company that holds your IRA for you. It is a legal requirement, not an option.
Can I be my own custodian? No. The trustee must be a bank or a person approved by the IRS, and an individual cannot be an approved nonbank trustee. Holding the coins yourself is what the McNulty case treated as a taxable distribution.
Does the custodian sell me the gold? The role regulators describe is holding and administering the account. The metal comes from a dealer. Ask who sells it and what the markup is.
Can I change custodians? Yes. A direct trustee-to-trustee transfer between IRAs is not subject to the IRS rule of one IRA-to-IRA rollover per 12 months, and nothing is withheld when the money goes straight from one trustee to the other. The rules for moving a 401(k) or another IRA into a gold IRA are in the gold IRA rollover guide.
Who is the best gold IRA custodian? We don’t rank custodians, and choosing the dealer is a separate decision: how to choose a gold IRA company. A ranking would need fee schedules, service records and complaint data that we haven’t compared. The checks above tell you whether a custodian is allowed and what it charges.
What this page can’t tell you
- Whether a given company is legitimate. We checked the law, the IRS list and one published fee schedule, not individual companies.
- What your custodian charges. Fees differ and change. STRATA’s schedule is one example.
- Which custodians hold metals. The IRS list does not say.
- Whether a particular depository is insured and how. Ask the custodian for the depository’s name and its insurance in writing.
For the whole picture of what the IRS allows, the coins and the scams, see gold IRA: IRS rules, approved coins, fees and scams. To compare gold IRAs with other ways to own gold: how to invest in gold.
This page is information, not investment, tax or legal advice.