Most precious metals investors know how to acquire gold and silver, but very few know a low cost solution for storing outside the home.   While storing precious metals at home offers the investor total control and safekeeping of one’s gold and silver, another option is to store it in private vault for added security.  This is especially true for investors who have a large amount of gold and silver to store, or those who would like to store their precious metals in several locations to minimize risk.

Cloud Precious Metals Storage

To Contact Tom Cloud:
Call (800) 247-2812 or (912) 638-3511

If you are in need of a reliable, secure precious metals storage service, Cloud Hard Asset Storage (“CHAS”) offers one of the lowest costs available in the industry.  Cloud Hard Asset’s has built a reputation over the last 40 years as one of the best storage businesses for investors in the precious metals industry.

Investors who purchase metals through Cloud Hard Assets may choose to store their investments at two separate International Depository Services Group (IDS Group) depositories, both of which are privately owned, full service storage facilities.  One is a COMEX and LBMA approved IDS vault located in Delaware, and the second is a LBMA and IIROC-approved IDS vault facility located in Mississauga in Ontario, Canada (near Toronto International Airport).

Through its relationship with the IDS Group, Cloud Hard Assets offers its clients the most cost-effective storage rates in the industry, ranging from 20 to 30 basis points annually.  Please note that CHAS involves the purchase and storage of actual precious metals with size and type of product determined by each individual purchaser. To gain exposure in the precious metals market, investors can participate in alternative investment vehicles such as the SPDR Gold Shares ETF (GLD) and iShares Silver Trust (SLV).  These exchange-traded funds charge an annual fee to service the funds operations. Interestingly, they are significantly higher than the physical storage fees CHAS charges.

Due diligence would require the purchaser to read the prospectus of each of these funds to make his own determination if he has the ability and or right to acquire gold or silver through the ownership of SLV and GLD.

The highly regarded Sprott family of funds offers a method to gain exposure to precious metals through PHYS and PSLV.  Each of these funds store physical metal and even make public the specific bar holdings in each of the funds. In certain instances a holder of PHYS (as an example) can take delivery of their gold— but ownership must represent at least a Good Delivery Bar (approximately 400 oz.; or approximately $500,000) using a $1270 gold price.

The following chart clearly illustrates that ownership of allocated specific metals investments is the least costly alternative to investment and storage (excluding personal home storage):

Silver traded investment vehicles such as the SLV ETF typically cost the investor 50 basis points, while Sprott’s PSLV Trust costs 45 basis points.  Investing in the gold GLD ETF costs investors 40 basis points a year, while the Sprott PHYS Gold Trust comes in at 35 basis points a year.

CHAS offers investors a much lower pricing structure for metal storage.  Furthermore, these ultra-low storage costs include direct ownership of the physical metal.  This is not the same for either the GLD or SLV ETF’s and investors who own the Sprott’s PSLV or PHYS Trusts have stringent requirements to acquire physical metal. These requirements include delivery that involves minimums and significant redemption fees.

Investors who store with CHAS at one of the IDS Group vault facilities will pay either 30 or 20 basis points a year.  If an individual or entity selects the 20 basis points per year option, they get six months free storage and have their stored metal fully segregated in a CHAS Master account for CHAS investors.  If an individual or entity chooses to pay 30 basis points a year to store their metal, they obtain a fully segregated individual account and location within the IDS Group facility.  CHAS investors will have full access to IDS Group’s proprietary VaultDirect precious metals management system that enables the clients to access their precious metals holdings in real time via a secured portal. Clients may view their inventory, obtain detailed holdings and transactional reporting, and actively manage their holdings, including requesting delivery.

Even though these two plans offer different methods of storage, anytime the owner wants to sell the metal into the market, they may do so at no cost, so long as the transaction occurs within the depository.  CHAS is one of the few dealers that does not charge clients to sell their metal back.  Anytime the owner wants to take physical delivery of the metal (shipping and insurance fees apply), they will receive the exact product that they purchased.  CHAS has never and will never receive a trailer or a percentage of the storage fee a client is charged annually.

CHAS does not believe it should EVER be compensated for storage fees.  This in turn has allowed CHAS to develop and offer the lowest cost storage program in the industry.  Cloud Hard Assets’s only form of compensation is the fully disclosed commission that is charged to the investor at the time of purchase.  The sale of metal through CHAS is always done at no commission or charge, as long as the metal was originally purchased at CHAS.

This next graph shows the cost per $100,000 per year for the various precious metals investments.  Note: these costs typically vary due to the fluctuation of precious metals prices.

CHAS offers the most competitive cost to store metals when compared to well-known gold and silver traded investments on the market.  Choosing to store metals with CHAS through one of the two IDS Group vault facilities can save individuals or entities a great deal of money, especially when investors purchase and store significant amounts of precious metals.

A final note concerning safety of certain holdings: the GLD, its cousin SLV, and the Sprott products are “securities” as defined by the SEC.  These instruments may only be purchased and sold while markets are open and functioning.  Metals stored within CHAS can be sold at times when the “markets” are not open.  Metals within CHAS can also be shipped directly to you (shipping and insurance fees apply) if a determination is made to terminate your storage at an IDS facility.

There are also certain situations where the Canadian Value Added Tax on precious metals may be avoided on the initial purchase, if held within CHAS at the Canadian IDS facility.
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* LBMA – The LBMA is an international trade association, representing the London market for gold and silver bullion, which has a global client base. This includes the majority of the gold-holding central banks, private sector investors, mining companies, producers, depositories, refiners and fabricators. The IDS Group Depositories are LBMA Associate members.

*COMEX – CME Group is the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, handling 3 billion contracts worth approximately $1 quadrillion annually, on average. The company provides a marketplace for buyers and sellers, bringing together individuals, companies and institutions that need to manage risk or profit by accepting risk.  Additionally, CME Group operates CME Clearing, one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers. By serving as the counterparty to every trade that happens in our markets, we protect the integrity of our markets, virtually eliminating third-party credit risk. IDS of Delaware is a COMEX approved depository for all four precious metals types (Au, Ag, Pt, Pd). Approved in December of 2015, IDS of Delaware became only the 9^th depository worldwide to be approved for the storage of all four metals.

*IDS – http://www.ids-delaware.com/

IDS of Delaware offers facilities, technology solutions, staff, security and insurance that far exceeds the demanding regulatory, storage and shipping requirements of institutional clients and individual investors. In response to the highly dynamic and evolving precious metals market, IDS of Delaware partners with its clients to offer cost effective and time sensitive solutions to any storage or logistics challenge.

*IDS of Canada – http://www.idsofcanada.com/

IDS of Canada Inc. is Canada’s first full-service LBMA and IIROC-approved precious metals depository specializing in secure custodial storage and shipping for corporate entities and individual investors who are actively participating in today’s highly dynamic precious metals markets.

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To Contact Tom Cloud:
Call (800) 247-2812 or (912) 638-3511

Lastly, if you haven’t checked out our new PRECIOUS METALS INVESTING page, I highly recommend you do.

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