Counsel decides. The Office coordinates the operational pathway.
A short orientation for the legal team coordinating with the Office on a client engagement. The Office is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. The Office does not propose, recommend, or evaluate ownership structures; titling, governing law, and estate-plan integration sit entirely outside the Office’s scope. Counsel decides under counsel’s retainer; the Office coordinates the operational implementation around counsel’s instruction.
A reviewed eight-section brief and the supporting documentation.
Within five business days of the client’s intake, the Physical Reserve Strategy Brief is delivered. It is structured as eight numbered sections and is written to be read by the client’s attorney, CPA, and trustee independently. The two sections counsel will most often focus on are §05 (Titling and ownership) and §07 (Exit posture). The surrounding sections frame the engagement and ought to be read in sequence.
Alongside the brief, counsel receives the depository storage agreement (in advance of execution), the Office’s standing engagement memo, and the Standards of Practice document — the public rules under which the Office operates.
Counsel’s scope, named.
Two documents flow through the engagement that are counsel’s scope to review and direct. The Office does not opine on either, does not propose between alternatives, and does not draft.
- 01Titling. Counsel selects the ownership structure, the governing-law jurisdiction, and the supporting instruments under the client’s estate plan. §05 of the brief documents whatever counsel directs — it does not propose. Where the engagement begins before counsel has finalized the structure, §05 simply notes that titling is to be resolved with counsel before the depository account is opened.
- 02The depository storage agreement. The agreement is signed between the client (or the client’s named entity) and the depository directly. The Office is not a counterparty. Counsel reviews the agreement before execution and coordinates any redlines with the depository.
The operational shape of titling coordination lives on the Titling page. The custody architecture, documentation chain, and insurance posture live on the Custody page.
Procurement, custody, documentation, exit.
The Office’s scope is the operational delivery of a directly-titled physical precious-metals reserve — procurement against named refiner sources, allocated and segregated custody at one of three US- domestic facilities, the documentation chain a successor advisor can read decades later, and the exit pathway named in writing in §07 of the brief before any metal is purchased.
Counsel’s instructions on titling and the depository agreement are implemented by the Office on the timeline counsel sets. Where counsel’s redlines on the depository agreement cannot be accommodated by a given facility, the Office surfaces that constraint and proposes a different facility from the panel.
Counsel decides; the Office runs the operational pathway.
When a client refers an engagement to counsel, the Office is available for a 30-minute orientation call directly with counsel before the brief is reviewed. There is no charge for that call and no expectation that it produces business.