GoldStar Trust, the Amarillo custodian sitting quietly behind a lot of gold IRA quotes.
GoldStar Trust does not sell metal, does not recommend a dealer, and will never tell you the price you negotiated was a bad one. It is a directed custodian in Texas, trading since 1989, now a division of Centennial Bank, and it publishes a complete precious-metals fee schedule that almost none of the companies quoting you reproduce. This page reads that schedule line by line, sets it against the two custodians it competes with most often, and shows the one balance where the arithmetic turns hard against you.
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.
Cheapest flat schedule we have verified, provided you never ask for segregated storage
Commingled, this is a $215 a year account at any balance: $90 maintenance plus $125 storage, a one-off $50 to open, and no charge to buy, sell or exchange. That undercuts every rival schedule we hold. Segregated, it is the most expensive of the three, because the storage line starts at $225 and adds 18 basis points above $125,000 with no ceiling. The same $1 million position costs $215 one way and $1,890 the other.
- →Take it if you want a flat, published, balance-proof administration cost and you are content with commingled storage.
- →Avoid it if segregated storage is non-negotiable and your position runs into six figures, where a percentage line with no cap does real damage.
- →Know before you sign: a $50 wire, a $75 partial transfer or in-kind distribution, and a $150 full termination charge. The exit is priced higher here than the entrance.
What the Amarillo trust company actually is, and what it is not
Start with what trips people up. A metals IRA has three separate parties and buyers collapse them into one. A dealer sells the metal and sets the premium over spot. A depository vaults it. A custodian holds the account for IRS purposes, prices your statement and bills you annually. This company is the third one, and its disclosure says so bluntly.
The history is longer than the industry average and easy to verify. The business was formed in 1989 in Phoenix as Colonial Trust Company, spun out of Church Loans and Investment Trust to custody church bonds, an unglamorous niche nobody else wanted. Happy State Bank bought it in 2004 and folded it in as a trust-only branch. In 2006 that bank added American Church Trust and consolidated in Amarillo, which is where precious metals arrived alongside structured settlements, Perth Mint certificates, LLCs and real estate.
The ownership line has moved again since, and this is where most write-ups are stale. Home BancShares completed its purchase of Happy Bancshares on April 1, 2022, at which point Happy State Bank merged into Centennial Bank and Texas branches were rebranded as a division of it. The custodian now calls itself a division of Centennial Bank, at 701 S Taylor in Amarillo. Any page still saying Canyon, Texas has not been checked since before that merger closed.
Scale, on its own numbers: over $6 billion in assets and more than 60,000 customers on the statistics block of its About page, though the history section of that same page says $4.5 billion. We quote both rather than pick one. Our guide to gold IRA custodians covers what a directed custodian may not do for you.
The published GoldStar Trust fee schedule, read line by line
A two-page revision-stamped PDF covering every asset class the company custodies. Only the precious metals block matters here, and it is short. Note the structure rather than the numbers: three lines are flat, one is not, and that one is where large accounts get hurt.
| PRECIOUS METALS LINE | PUBLISHED AMOUNT | HOW IT BEHAVES AS THE ACCOUNT GROWS | WHAT IT MEANS IN PRACTICE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Establishment fee | $50, once | Fixed | Charged at opening. Matches the setup charge most dealers quote you as their own. |
| Annual maintenance | $90 a year | Flat at every balance | Billed on the account opening anniversary, due when the account is established, and explicitly not prorated. |
| Commingled depository storage | $125 a year | Flat at every balance | Your metal sits in a pooled allocation. A full annual charge applies for each full or fractional calendar year stored. |
| Segregated depository storage | $225 minimum, no maximum, then $1.80 per $1,000 of value above $125,000 | Percentage above the threshold, 18 basis points, uncapped | The only line that scales. It is the difference between a $215 account and a $1,890 one at $1 million. |
| Buy, sell or exchange | No fee | Flat | Genuinely free trading instructions. Shipping of $10 plus carrier cost can apply on liquidations and in-kind distributions. |
Source: GoldStar Trust Company, Fee Schedule for Self-Directed Traditional, Roth, SEP or SIMPLE IRAs and ESAs, revision GTC 12/2025, precious metals block. Verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing before funding. The schedule states the company reserves the right to adjust fees, effective 30 days after notice is mailed.
The service fees that decide what leaving costs
Everybody compares the annual number. The exit number bites, and here the exit is priced above the entrance. None of it is unusual for the industry, but it is unusually visible, because all of it is printed in one place rather than described as applicable charges.
| SERVICE | PUBLISHED CHARGE | WHEN IT ACTUALLY HITS YOU |
|---|---|---|
| Full termination | $150 | Closing the account, including moving the whole thing to another custodian. |
| Partial transfer of assets or in-kind distribution | $75 | Taking some of the metal out, or splitting the account. Shipping is extra. |
| Wire | $50 | Every outbound wire, including the one that funds a purchase from a second source. |
| One-time ACH or check distribution in-kind | $15 | Ad hoc withdrawals. Set the same withdrawal up as recurring ACH and it is free. |
| Recurring ACH distribution | No fee | Scheduled income. Recurring by cheque is $5. |
| Annual paper statement | $40 | Every year you decline electronic statements. Roughly a fifth of the maintenance fee, for paper. |
| Late payment | $50 per occurrence | Any fee unpaid 30 days after its due date. |
Source: same schedule, Part 2 service fees. Two of these are avoidable for free: take distributions as recurring ACH rather than one at a time, and enrol in electronic statements. That is $55 a year saved on a $215 account, which is a quarter of the running cost. Our fee calculator models the same lines against a holding period.
The dealer relationship here runs the opposite way to what buyers assume
Most people arrive here without having chosen it. A dealer proposed it, the application arrived pre-populated, and the name on the statement was a detail. Birch Gold Group is the dealer we can verify naming it publicly, alongside Equity Trust and STRATA Trust, so a rollover routed through Birch may land here. Our Birch Gold Group review covers that side.
What makes it worth understanding is how firmly it refuses the salesman's role. Its investment disclosure states that you determine the dealer, that it neither buys nor sells metal, and that the Internal Revenue Code disqualifies it from trading with an IRA it custodies. Its precious metals page adds that it is not affiliated with any dealer and receives no compensation from investments made for your account. Those sentences define what you are buying: administration, nothing else.
One consequence should be priced in. Nobody in this chain checks whether the premium you paid was reasonable. The disclosure is explicit that statement valuations are spot value only, spot price multiplied by fine metal content, with no dealer mark-up, premium or commission taken into account. Sold proof American Eagles at a heavy premium, your first statement shows them at spot and appears to record a loss you have not taken in market terms. You have taken a spread, and the statement is not built to show it.
One operational commitment is published and worth holding them to: policy is to notify your chosen dealer within 48 business hours of receiving your investment direction. Funding from more than one source, the disclosure warns you to submit a separate direction per transfer or tell the custodian to wait until every transfer lands. Getting that wrong buys a partial position at the wrong moment.
Three things it does better than the industry it sits in
A track record measured in decades, not funding rounds. Continuous operation since 1989, under three owners, custodying an asset class with no marketing budget behind it. Church bonds are not a growth story, and a firm that has administered them for thirty-odd years did not appear when gold got expensive. Custodian failure is a real risk here, which is why our page on gold IRA companies that closed exists.
Breadth that survives a change of mind. The same structure covers church bonds, real estate, privately offered stock, promissory notes, REITs, crowdfunding, structured settlements, LLCs and limited partnerships. Decide later that metals should be a third of a wider self-directed portfolio rather than all of it and you are not opening a second relationship, because the schedule bills one maintenance fee across asset types, at the higher applicable rate.
It publishes. A dated, revision-stamped, two-page schedule covering every line including the awkward ones, plus a plain disclosure that it earns nothing from your purchase. Half the dealers in this industry will not state an annual fee before you hand over a phone number. Compare the gaps in our gold IRA fees guide.
On reputation the verifiable record is thin rather than bad: an A+ Better Business Bureau rating, accredited since December 13, 2024, on a profile listing the Amarillo address. Most GoldStar Trust reviews circulating online are published by dealers who route business here, so we cite the BBB file and the company's own documents instead.
Four things to price before you let a dealer file the application
- 1The segregated line has no ceiling. Every rival schedule we hold caps the segregated upgrade at a flat figure. This one does not, and at 18 basis points above $125,000 it compounds against exactly the accounts that can least afford a percentage fee.
- 2Your idle cash earns the bank, not you. Uninvested cash is swept into an omnibus deposit account at the affiliated bank, and the disclosure states plainly that the difference between what that bank pays and what is credited to your IRA is the custodian's compensation. Legal, normal, and a reason not to let cash sit between a transfer landing and a purchase settling.
- 3Annual fees are not prorated, and storage is billed by calendar year. Open in December and the storage year can turn over almost immediately: a full annual charge is due for each full or fractional calendar year metal is stored.
- 4No depository is named in advance. The published material says metals sit at a specialized depository and dealers deliver directly to it, without naming which vault yours lands in. Ask in writing before funding. Our storage and depository guide explains why the answer matters.
A fifth item we deliberately omit: the service complaints on review aggregators. We cannot verify individual accounts against a primary record, so we neither repeat nor score them.
Same metal, same vault arrangement, three very different bills
STRATA Trust and Equity Trust are the names that appear next to this one in dealer disclosures, so they are the right comparison. All three are directed custodians doing the same job. Below, each custodian's own maintenance line plus its own storage line, at three metal values, on published schedules.
| CUSTODIAN AND STORAGE STYLE | STRUCTURE | AT $50,000 | AT $250,000 | AT $1,000,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| This custodian, commingled | $90 maintenance + $125 storage | $215 | $215 | $215 |
| STRATA Trust, commingled | $125 account + $100 storage | $225 | $225 | $225 |
| Equity Trust, metals-only, non-segregated | $125 maintenance + $110 storage | $235 | $235 | $235 |
| Equity Trust, metals-only, segregated | $125 maintenance + $160 storage | $285 | $285 | $285 |
| STRATA Trust, segregated | $125 account + $175 storage | $300 | $300 | $300 |
| This custodian, segregated | $90 + $225 minimum + 18 bps above $125,000 | $315 | $540 | $1,890 |
Custodian schedules verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing. Figures are administration and storage only and exclude the metal, the dealer premium and any transaction or exit charge. A dealer's bundled annual quote is a different number from the custodian's own schedule; ask which entity will actually invoice you. Full workings on our large-balance fee page.
Read the last row against the first. Same company, same metal, same depository arrangement, and the annual cost moves from $215 to $1,890 on one checkbox. The segregated upgrade costs $50 a year on Equity Trust's metals-only schedule and $75 at STRATA, at any balance. Here it costs $225 at a quarter of a million and $1,675 at a million. None of that is hidden, but none of it is flagged either, and a dealer with no reason to open the custodian's PDF will not raise it.
The inverse gets less attention. If commingled storage suits you, and for most buyers of standard bullion it does, this is the cheapest of the three at every balance we model. Twenty years of a flat $215 is $4,300; the same two decades on Equity Trust's metals-only rate is $4,700, with STRATA between them. The real choice is not between three custodians. It is between two storage styles, and the custodian only sets the price of that choice.
Who should be happy to end up here, and who should push back
Push back if you are moving a large balance and want your specific bars identified as yours. That is a legitimate preference and this is the schedule that punishes it hardest. Ask the dealer whether another named custodian is available before the application is filed, because afterwards you are negotiating past a $150 termination fee and a $75 partial transfer charge.
Be happy if you are a long-horizon holder of ordinary bullion who wants a fee that does not grow when the gold price does. A flat $215 at any balance is the closest thing to a fixed cost in this industry, and free buy, sell and exchange instructions mean rebalancing inside the account costs nothing.
Either way, ask three things in writing before funding: which depository holds the metal, whether the application as submitted requests commingled or segregated storage, and whether the dealer's annual quote is the custodian's own schedule or a bundled number billed separately. The rollover process guide covers the sequence, and minimums by provider covers the gate you clear first.
Birch Gold Group is the dealer we can verify naming this custodian in published material, alongside Equity Trust and STRATA Trust. It opens at roughly $10,000 and publishes its annual schedule in full, which makes the custodian question answerable before you sign. Verified Jun 2026.
Questions people ask before the application is filed
Is GoldStar Trust a legitimate custodian for a gold IRA?
It is a real trust company with a documented history rather than a marketing brand. Its About page dates the business to 1989, when it was formed in Phoenix as Colonial Trust Company after being spun out of Church Loans and Investment Trust. Happy State Bank bought it in 2004; that bank merged into Centennial Bank on April 1, 2022, a transaction Home BancShares reported to the SEC. It publishes a dated fee schedule, an investment disclosure and an Amarillo address, and holds an A+ Better Business Bureau rating, accredited since December 13, 2024. None of that endorses a dealer who routes you here: read the schedule.
What does a precious metals IRA cost per year at this custodian?
On the published schedule: $50 to establish, $90 annual maintenance, and $125 a year for commingled depository storage. That is $215 a year, and it does not move with your balance, one of the cheapest flat administration positions we have verified anywhere. Segregated storage runs on different logic: $225 minimum with no maximum, then $1.80 per $1,000 of metal value above $125,000, which is 18 basis points. Segregated therefore costs $315 all in on a $50,000 position and $1,890 on a $1 million one. Buy, sell and exchange instructions are free. Fees verified Jun 2026, confirm current pricing.
Does the custodian choose my metals dealer for me?
No, and it says so in writing. The investment disclosure states that you determine the dealer, that the company does not buy or sell metal, and that the Internal Revenue Code disqualifies it from trading with an IRA it custodies. Its precious metals page adds that it is not affiliated with any dealer and receives no compensation from investments made for your account. The consequence runs opposite to what buyers assume: the dealer picked the custodian, not the reverse, and nobody there will tell you the price you negotiated was poor.
Segregated or commingled storage: which one should I take?
The answer is more lopsided here than at rival custodians, because the two lines are priced on different logic. Commingled is a flat $125 a year forever. Segregated starts at $225 and climbs at 18 basis points on everything above $125,000, with no cap: $225 extra a year at $250,000 of metal, $1,675 extra at $1 million. The same upgrade costs $50 a year at any balance on Equity Trust's precious-metals-only schedule and $75 at STRATA Trust. If segregated storage matters to you and your position is large, this is the wrong schedule to be billed on.
Who owns the company now, and does the change affect my IRA?
Ownership has moved twice. Happy State Bank acquired the business in 2004. Home BancShares completed its acquisition of Happy Bancshares on April 1, 2022, at which point Happy State Bank merged into Centennial Bank and Texas branches were rebranded as a division of it. For an existing account the visible consequences are small, but one matters: uninvested cash is swept into an omnibus deposit account at the affiliated bank, and the disclosure states that the spread between what that bank pays and what is credited to you is the custodian's compensation. Older write-ups still list a Canyon, Texas address and Happy State Bank as parent. Both are out of date.
Which coins does this custodian refuse to hold?
Its published list of unacceptable metals is longer than most buyers expect: rare or collectible pieces, anything certified or graded, the South African Krugerrand, pre-2013 British Britannias, the Austrian Corona, the Belgian 20 Franc, the Chilean 100 Peso, the Dutch 10 Guilder, the French 20 Franc, the Hungarian 100 Korona, the Italian 20 Lira, the Mexican 50 Peso, the Swiss 20 Franc, the US Liberty and the US Buffalo proof. Accepted metal must be gold at .9950 fine, silver at .9990, platinum and palladium at .9995, from an accredited refiner or mint. Proof American Eagles qualify only ungraded, in original packaging, with a matching certificate.
Related reading: how gold IRA custodians work, which metals qualify, the full fee landscape, and our provider rankings.
Every fee, date and corporate fact on this page comes from a document published by the entity itself, by its parent's SEC filings, or by a federal agency. We cite no affiliate page as authority. Fees verified Jun 2026; confirm current pricing directly before funding an account.
- GoldStar Trust Company, Fee Schedule for Self-Directed Traditional, Roth, SEP or SIMPLE IRAs and ESAs, revision GTC 12/2025: establishment, maintenance, commingled and segregated storage, transaction and service fees, and the cash management acknowledgment naming the affiliated deposit bank.
- GoldStar Trust Company, Precious Metals IRAs Investment Disclosure: dealer selection, the prohibition on trading with an IRA it custodies, the 48 business hour dealer notification policy, spot-value statement pricing, and calendar-year storage billing.
- GoldStar Trust Company, Precious Metals IRA: fineness requirements, the accepted and unacceptable metals lists, and the statement that the company is not affiliated with any dealer and receives no compensation from investments.
- GoldStar Trust Company, About Us: 1989 founding as Colonial Trust Company, the 2004 and 2006 acquisitions, the Amarillo consolidation, current division status, and the self-reported asset and customer counts (which differ between two sections of the same page).
- SEC EDGAR, Home BancShares Inc. Form 8-K: completion of the Happy Bancshares acquisition effective April 1, 2022, the merger of Happy State Bank into Centennial Bank, and the Texas branch branding.
- Better Business Bureau business profile: A+ rating, accreditation dated December 13, 2024, and the Amarillo business address.
- IRS, Retirement Plans FAQs regarding IRA investments: the statutory treatment of collectibles and the bullion exceptions that the fineness rules above implement.
- Competing custodian schedules for STRATA Trust and Equity Trust are the same published documents cited in our gold IRA fees guide and fee changelog, verified on the same date.
Where a figure is self-reported and internally inconsistent, we print both versions rather than choosing one. Where we could not verify a claim against a primary document, it is not on this page.
Know which custodian you are getting, and what it charges
Our free kit includes the custodian and depository comparison behind this page, plus the questions to ask a dealer before the paperwork is submitted. Then check the dealer against our provider rankings.