Year one, day by named day.
The engagement runs on a defined cadence. Intake to brief in five business days. Consultation in week two. Implementation across the first sixty days. Quarterly statement at Day 90. Annual review at Day 365. Each milestone has a named deliverable and a defined operational owner.
Below is the linear walk: what happens, who does it, what the client receives, and what the client controls. The brief is the engagement’s control document; the timeline below is the operational rhythm under it.
Day 0
The client submits intake. The Office receives the file.
Intake is a structured form covering the client’s situation at a level the Office needs to draft a defensible brief: identification, the assets-range tier, the reserve’s purpose on the balance sheet, the horizon, the existing professional team (counsel, CPA, trustee where applicable), and any open structural questions the client wants the brief to address. No financial profiling, no net-worth or income questions; the Office is not an RIA and does not collect what an RIA would.
On submission, the file routes to a founding partner for review. The client receives an immediate confirmation email and a notification that the brief is in production.
What the client receives at Day 0
- ·Intake confirmation, with the engagement’s tier and the brief delivery commitment.
- ·A direct point of contact at the Office for the duration of the engagement.
Day 5
The reviewed eight-section brief lands.
Within five business days of intake, the Physical Reserve Strategy Brief is delivered. The brief is written and reviewed by a founding partner; it is the engagement’s control document and the document the client’s attorney, CPA, and trustee will read alongside the client.
The brief covers the eight sections in order: situation framing, reserve allocation considerations, custody architecture, form of the reserve, titling and ownership, implementation sequence, exit posture, and open questions. It ends with the standing line: The brief is the deliverable. The conversation follows the brief.
If the brief does not land in five business days, the engagement is terminated at no cost to the client. The discipline is the deliverable.
What the client receives at Day 5
- ·The reviewed brief by email, formatted for circulation to the advisor team.
- ·An invitation to schedule the consultation in week two.
- ·An offer for a 30-minute orientation call with counsel, CPA, or trustee directly, on the client’s request.
Day 10
Walking the brief, section by section.
The consultation runs against the brief, section by section. Where counsel and CPA have weighed in, their positions are integrated. Where the brief proposed options at §02 (mix), §03 (custody facility), §04 (form), or §05 (titling), the client’s decisions are recorded. Where §08 (open questions) named items the client and advisors needed to resolve, those items are closed or carried forward as named action items.
Output of the consultation: a written addendum to the brief recording the decisions made, the items still open, and the implementation sequence the parties have agreed. The client either greenlights implementation, asks for a revised brief on a specific section, or pauses the engagement at no further obligation.
Days 14–60
Titling, agreements, settlement, allocation, file delivered.
The implementation window typically runs four to eight weeks, governed by counsel’s timeline on titling, the depository’s account-opening cadence, and the client’s preferred build pace. The Office coordinates against counsel’s instruction.
- Days 14–21Titling under counsel. Counsel finalizes the ownership structure named in §05 of the brief. Where an LLC is part of the structure, it is formed; the operating agreement is executed; trust instruments are amended where needed.
- Days 21–35Depository agreement executed. The Office presents the depository’s storage agreement to counsel for review. Counsel’s redlines are negotiated against the depository. Account opens in the name of the titled entity.
- Days 28–45Funding and settlement. Funds wired to the Office’s settlement account against the named acquisition spread. Procurement executed against the agreed metals mix and bar/coin format.
- Days 35–55Allocation and depository receipt. Metal arrives at the depository under the client’s account; allocated identifiers (serials where individually numbered, lot numbers where not) are recorded. Holdings statement issued.
- Days 45–60Documentation chain delivered. Trade records, depository holdings statement, titling and depository agreements, and the summary of the depository’s all-risk insurance coverage land in the client’s file. The advisor team receives copies.
The full operational treatment of custody, allocation, and the documentation chain is on the Custody page.
Day 90
The depository statement closes the first cycle.
The first quarterly holdings statement is produced by the depository at the end of the first quarter following allocation. It documents allocated positions, lot detail, the vaulting fee for the quarter, and any inspection, audit, or transfer events during the period.
The Office issues a brief written touchpoint alongside the depository statement: anything material that has shifted on the structural counterparty-chain side (referencing /signal), any depository operational notes, and confirmation that the engagement’s commitments remain intact.
Day 180
A second quarterly statement and an optional check-in.
Day 180 produces the second quarterly statement and a scheduled invitation for an optional mid-year call. The call is on the calendar; clients elect in or out. Family Reserve engagements receive a semi-annual review by default; other tiers receive the review on request.
Day 365
The brief is reviewed against the position the engagement holds.
At the one-year mark, the brief is formally reviewed. The Office produces a written annual review memo addressing: whether the position remains within the band the brief named at §02; whether custody, titling, and exit arrangements remain appropriate to the client’s circumstance; whether the structural counterparty-chain picture has shifted in any way that warrants comment; and the open items for year two.
The annual review is included in the engagement — no separate fee, no AUM percentage. The first year ’s review is part of the standing engagement; year two and beyond run under the same posture.
Is the brief still the brief, given what has changed in the client’s circumstance and what has changed in the structural picture above the reserve layer?
Every milestone has a defined client decision behind it.
The timeline is the cadence; the decisions are the client’s. At each milestone the Office surfaces the decision points the client owns and supports the decision with the documentation a careful reader expects.
- Day 5Whether to greenlight the brief, request revisions, or pause. No further obligation if paused.
- Day 10Final decisions on metals mix (§02), custody facility (§03), bar/coin format (§04), and titling (§05).
- Day 14–60Counsel’s redlines on the depository agreement and counsel’s final titling instruction. The Office implements against counsel’s instruction.
- Day 90Whether to request inspection, audit, or any operational change to the engagement’s posture.
- Day 365Whether to rebalance within the band, drawdown a portion, transfer, or hold; whether to extend the engagement under the same posture for year two.
The exit pathways available at Day 365 and beyond are documented on Exit Architecture. The plan to sell is named at the time the plan to buy is approved — not at the moment of sale.
A defined cadence, a named deliverable at every milestone.
The engagement is built so a client knows what is happening and when, and so a successor advisor reading the file can reconstruct the rhythm without a conversation. The brief is the document; the timeline is the rhythm; the documentation chain is the record.