Delaware Depository, priced: what the vault charges, and how to prove your metal is in it.
Ask a dealer where your bullion goes and the odds are good that the answer is a warehouse in Wilmington. Delaware Depository is named in the paperwork of half the companies we cover, yet almost nobody publishes its actual rate card, which is per thousand dollars of metal rather than per percent of portfolio and carries an annual floor that changes the arithmetic completely below $118,750. Here is the schedule we pulled from custodian election forms, worked at real balances, plus the two documents that tell you whether the bars are really there.
Advertising disclosure: Gold IRA Consulting is reader-supported. We may earn a commission when you open an account through some links on this page (marked sponsored). This never influences our editorial scores, which are based on independent research.
A vault, not a bank, billing by the thousand with a floor underneath
It is a commercial precious-metals facility in Wilmington, Delaware, with a second vault in Las Vegas. It does not open your retirement account, sell you coins, or answer to you directly. It warehouses metal for the custodian that holds your IRA and bills that custodian on a published schedule. Five of the ten dealers we track name it in their storage disclosures.
- →Commingled storage: $0.80 per $1,000 of metal value per year, with a $95 annual minimum.
- →Segregated storage: $1.60 per $1,000 per year, with a $190 annual minimum.
- →Both floors stop biting at exactly $118,750 of metal value. Under that figure the rate is decorative and the minimum is your bill.
- →Choosing segregated below the crossover costs a flat $95 more a year, not double.
- →The vault never sends you a statement. Your custodian does, and that statement is your proof.
Rates read off custodian depository election forms, verified Jun 2026. Your custodian may bundle storage into a single annual charge rather than pass this schedule through line by line, so compare against our gold IRA fee breakdown before assuming what you will be billed.
What the Wilmington vault is, and what it definitely is not
A gold IRA has three parties and most investors only ever meet one. The dealer sells the metal and is the voice on the phone. The custodian is trustee of record: it opens the account, moves the money and reports to the IRS. The depository is the last link, a secured commercial warehouse that takes delivery and keeps it. Its client is your custodian, not you.
That structure is statutory rather than promotional. An individual retirement account has to be held by a bank or an approved nonbank trustee under Internal Revenue Code section 408, and the bullion carve-out in section 408(m)(3) survives only while the metal stays in the physical possession of that trustee. A vault is how a trustee holds physical metal for thousands of accounts at once, and it is why the home storage arrangements some promoters pitch collapse under examination.
Two consequences follow. Requests about your holdings travel through the custodian and come back in the custodian's format. And the rate card below is a business-to-business schedule, so what reaches your statement may be that number, that number with administration stacked on it, or one bundled fee a dealer negotiated. Our sibling breakdown of the approved depositories compares the alternatives; the storage rules page covers the legal side.
Delaware Depository fees, worked at $50,000 and $100,000
The schedule is expressed per thousand dollars of metal value, which converts to 8 basis points a year commingled and 16 segregated. Both tiers carry an annual minimum, and the minimum is what almost every real account pays. At $50,000 the commingled calculation produces $40, well under the $95 floor, so $95 is the bill. The floor is not a footnote here, it is the whole story until your holding passes $118,750.
| METAL VALUE HELD | COMMINGLED, RATE CALCULATION | COMMINGLED, WHAT IS BILLED | SEGREGATED, RATE CALCULATION | SEGREGATED, WHAT IS BILLED | COST OF CHOOSING SEGREGATED |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $20.00 | $95 (floor applies) | $40.00 | $190 (floor applies) | +$95 |
| $50,000 | $40.00 | $95 (floor applies) | $80.00 | $190 (floor applies) | +$95 |
| $100,000 | $80.00 | $95 (floor applies) | $160.00 | $190 (floor applies) | +$95 |
| $118,750 | $95.00 | $95 (rate meets floor) | $190.00 | $190 (rate meets floor) | +$95 |
| $250,000 | $200.00 | $200 (rate applies) | $400.00 | $400 (rate applies) | +$200 |
| $500,000 | $400.00 | $400 (rate applies) | $800.00 | $800 (rate applies) | +$400 |
Source: rates and annual minimums as printed on custodian depository election forms, verified Jun 2026. Arithmetic is ours. Storage is only one line of your total cost, and a custodian administration fee usually sits alongside it. Confirm current pricing with your custodian before funding.
What the floor does to your effective rate
Quoting this vault at eight basis points is technically true and practically misleading, because a minimum charge converts a flat rate into a steeply regressive one. The smaller the account, the higher the real percentage. Here is the same schedule expressed the way an investor experiences it.
| METAL VALUE HELD | EFFECTIVE ANNUAL RATE, COMMINGLED | EFFECTIVE ANNUAL RATE, SEGREGATED |
|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | 0.38% | 0.76% |
| $50,000 | 0.19% | 0.38% |
| $100,000 | 0.095% | 0.19% |
| $118,750 and above | 0.08% | 0.16% |
Effective rate is the billed amount divided by metal value, using the schedule above. It is a description of the same fee, not a second fee. Run your own numbers with our gold IRA fee calculator.
Allocated against pooled, priced at this specific vault
Commingled means your coins sit alongside identical coins belonging to other account holders, and you own a claim on a quantity of a defined product rather than on particular pieces. Segregated means your holding is stored apart under your account's identity, and the exact bars and coins that went in are the ones that come out. At this vault the upgrade is unusually cheap for a mid-size account.
Look again at the floors. Below $118,750, upgrading costs a flat $95 a year, because $190 minus $95 is $95 whether you hold $30,000 or $110,000 of metal. On a $60,000 account that is roughly sixteen basis points to know a specific set of one-ounce bars is yours. Above the crossover the premium behaves the way people expect, doubling in step with the balance, so a $500,000 holding pays $800 instead of $400.
Who should pay it? Anyone planning an in-kind distribution in retirement, since taking delivery of the pieces you selected is simpler than taking delivery of equivalents, and anyone holding bars from a refiner they chose deliberately. Who should not? A $20,000 account handing over 0.76 percent a year for reassurance alone. Either way, get the election written on the depository election form rather than agreed on a call, because that form is the document the vault acts on.
Five of the ten companies we cover route to Wilmington
Depository disclosure is consistently better than custodian disclosure in this industry: firms name the vault long before they name the trustee. Below is what each company publishes, as recorded in our reviews. Pairings shift by account and over time, so treat this as the menu rather than the assignment.
| COMPANY | VAULT PARTNERS NAMED IN PUBLISHED MATERIAL | WILMINGTON THE DEFAULT? | OUR REVIEW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Augusta Precious Metals | Delaware Depository, with segregated storage offered | Named as the storage arrangement in its published material | Augusta review |
| Goldco | Delaware Depository, Brink’s Global Services | One of two named options | Goldco review |
| American Hartford Gold | Delaware Depository, Brink’s Global Services | One of two named options | American Hartford Gold review |
| Birch Gold Group | Delaware Depository, Brink’s, International Depository Services, Texas Precious Metals Depository | One of four named options | Birch review |
| Noble Gold Investments | Delaware Depository, International Depository Services in Texas, plus a Canadian facility referenced | Offered alongside a genuine alternative you choose | Noble Gold review |
Partner names as published by each company and recorded in our individual reviews, verified Jun 2026. Naming a vault is not the same as guaranteeing your account will use it. The remaining five companies in our rankings describe IRS-approved depositories without naming one, which we record as an absence of disclosure rather than a criticism. Full context on the rankings page.
Insurance and audits: the two documents nobody asks for
Our dataset records this vault as carrying all-risk coverage underwritten through Lloyd's of London, the standard structure across the major precious-metals depositories, covering loss, theft and damage both in the vault and in transit. That is a private commercial policy. It is not federal deposit insurance, and nothing about a metal holding is protected by the FDIC, which insures bank deposits rather than bullion. Anyone implying otherwise is selling.
Because the policy is issued to the depository rather than to you, what matters is not the headline sum but its structure. Ask your custodian for the certificate of insurance and read two lines: the aggregate limit, and whether cover is stated per account or across the whole facility. A limit that looks enormous against an average balance looks different against a vault holding thousands of them, which is why we treat it as a threshold question on six-figure and seven-figure accounts.
Audits deserve the same precision, because two separate obligations get blurred. The trustee side is regulated: a nonbank custodian must meet the fiduciary standards in Treasury Regulation 1.408-2(e), including separate accounting for every account it administers. The vault side is contractual: a depository commissions independent inventory audits because its custodian clients demand them, not because a federal rule names it. Ask for the most recent audit letter, who signed it and how often it repeats.
How to confirm the bars are actually in the vault
The most useful habit a metals IRA holder can build is refusing to treat a dealer's order confirmation as evidence of storage. It confirms a purchase, not an arrival. Four checks, in order.
- 1The custodian statement, three to six weeks after funding. It should name the depository, state your storage election, and itemise each product by description and quantity. If any of those three is missing, ask before the next statement cycle.
- 2The holdings detail behind the line item. On a segregated election, request the bar or serial listing. On a commingled one you cannot get serials by definition, so what you are checking is product, count and weight against your purchase confirmation.
- 3The year-end value your custodian reports to the IRS. Custodians file the account's fair market value on Form 5498. If that figure cannot be reconciled to the metal you believe you hold at prevailing spot, you have found a discrepancy worth chasing.
- 4A scheduled viewing, arranged through the custodian. Viewings are escorted and by appointment where they are permitted at all, and they are strictly look, not touch: personal possession of IRA metal is a distribution, which is exactly what the Tax Court held in McNulty v. Commissioner.
Run check one on every new account and check three every year. That is the difference between owning metal and owning an assertion that metal exists, and our page on how metals schemes go wrong covers what happens to people who skip it.
Where published storage numbers go badly wrong
There is a persistent error in this corner of the internet worth naming plainly. A large share of the Delaware Depository reviews and vault comparisons you will find online quote storage as a percentage of account value, typically half a percent or a full percent a year. On a $100,000 holding that describes a bill of $500 or $1,000. The schedule printed on the election form produces $95 commingled or $190 segregated at the same balance. The gap is not a rounding difference, it is a factor of five to ten.
The bad number almost certainly comes from bundled quotes. Some dealers and custodians wrap storage, administration and maintenance into one annual figure, and a writer working backwards from it attributes the whole charge to the vault. That single mistake makes every comparison built on it useless.
The correction is simple. When you are quoted an annual cost, ask for it split three ways: what the depository charges, what the custodian charges to administer, and what the dealer adds. A firm that cannot separate those lines is either bundling deliberately or does not know, and both are worth learning before you sign. Our fee anatomy page shows the full stack, and the company rankings record who publishes a schedule rather than quoting one on a call.
What investors ask before they sign the election form
Is Delaware Depository a sound place to hold gold IRA metal?
On the two things a vault is judged on, storage terms and disclosure, it holds up well: the rate card is written into custodian election forms rather than quoted verbally, the storage election is yours to make on paper, and five of the ten dealers we cover route metal there. What no article can tell you is whether the coverage limit and the audit letter are adequate for your balance, because those documents are issued to the custodian and are not published. Ask your custodian for the certificate of insurance and the latest inventory audit before you fund, then judge for yourself.
What does commingled storage at the Wilmington vault cost per year?
Eighty cents per $1,000 of metal value per year, subject to a $95 annual minimum, per the depository election forms our researchers reviewed. In practice that means a $95 bill on any account holding less than $118,750 of metal, because below that figure the rate produces a number smaller than the floor. A $40,000 account and a $90,000 account therefore pay exactly the same $95. Above $118,750 the per-thousand rate takes over and the bill scales with your holding. Fees verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing.
Is segregated storage worth twice the rate?
Below the crossover point it is not a doubling at all, it is a flat $95 more per year, because the segregated floor of $190 sits exactly $95 above the commingled floor of $95. At $50,000 that premium buys the return of your specific bars and coins for less than the cost of a tank of fuel each month. Above $118,750 the arithmetic changes and the premium genuinely doubles, so a $400,000 account pays $320 rather than $160. Segregated matters most if you expect an in-kind distribution or care which refiner's bars come back to you.
Can I go and look at my bars?
Possibly, but the request runs through your custodian rather than through the vault, because the custodian is the depository's client and you are not. Any viewing is arranged and escorted by appointment, and it is a viewing rather than a collection: taking personal possession of IRA metal converts it into a distribution, which is the point the Tax Court made in McNulty v. Commissioner. Ask your custodian in writing what its viewing procedure is and what it charges for one before you assume the answer is yes.
How do I confirm my metal actually arrived in the vault?
Your custodian statement is the record that matters, not the dealer's order confirmation and not an email from a salesperson. Within a few weeks of funding you should see a holdings line naming the depository, the storage election, and each product by description and quantity. On a segregated account, ask for the bar or serial detail behind that line. Your custodian also reports the account's year-end fair market value to the IRS on Form 5498, so the value on that form should reconcile with the holdings you think you own.
Why do storage cost figures differ so much between websites?
Because most of them quote a percentage of account value they never sourced. Delaware Depository reviews that print 0.5 percent or 1 percent a year are describing a $500 or $1,000 bill on a $100,000 account, when the schedule in the election form produces $95 commingled or $190 segregated at that balance. The error is not small, it is five to ten times the real number. Anchor on the per-thousand rate and the annual floor, then check what your custodian adds on top for administration.
Related reading: the approved depositories compared, gold IRA storage rules, what a gold IRA really costs, and the fee calculator.
Storage rates and annual minimums come from depository election forms supplied by custodians, read directly rather than repeated from other websites, and verified Jun 2026. Custody and possession rules come from federal primary sources. Company vault partners come from published company material as recorded in our individual reviews.
- Internal Revenue Code section 408: subsection (a) requires an IRA to be held by a bank or an approved nonbank trustee, and subsection (m)(3) preserves the bullion exception only while the metal remains in the physical possession of that trustee.
- Treasury Regulation 1.408-2(e): the fiduciary, recordkeeping and separate-accounting standards an approved nonbank custodian must satisfy. These bind the custodian, not the depository it subcontracts to.
- IRS Form 5498: the annual information return on which your custodian reports the account's fair market value, and the figure you should be able to reconcile against your holdings.
- McNulty v. Commissioner, 157 T.C. No. 10 (U.S. Tax Court, 2021): taking personal possession of IRA-owned bullion is a taxable distribution. See also IRS Publication 590-B on distributions.
- Insurance structure, vault locations and storage elections reflect our own research dataset, verified Jun 2026. Coverage certificates and inventory audit letters are issued to custodians and are not published, so we describe how to obtain them rather than quoting limits we cannot source.
- To confirm the legal entity behind any vault before you sign, search the state register directly, for Delaware at the Division of Corporations entity search.
Fee schedules change. Every figure on this page should be reconfirmed with your custodian in writing before you authorise a purchase, and nothing here is a quote from the depository or from any company we cover.
Know the storage line before you sign the form
Our free kit sets out the storage and custodian charges behind every provider we track, with the questions to put to a custodian about coverage and audits. Or start from the company rankings and see who names a vault before you ask.